I. Freedom and
Responsibility
1731
Freedom is the power, rooted in reason and will, to act or not to act, to do
this or that, and so to perform deliberate actions on one's own responsibility.
By free will one shapes one's own life. Human freedom is a force for growth and
maturity in truth and goodness; it attains its perfection when directed toward
God, our beatitude.
1732
As long as freedom has not bound itself definitively to its ultimate good which
is God, there is the possibility of choosing between good and evil, and thus of
growing in perfection or of failing and sinning. This freedom characterizes
properly human acts. It is the basis of praise or blame, merit or reproach.
1733
The more one does what is good, the freer one becomes. There is no true freedom
except in the service of what is good and just. the choice to disobey and do
evil is an abuse of freedom and leads to "the slavery of
sin."28
1734
Freedom makes man responsible for his acts to the extent that they are voluntary.
Progress in virtue, knowledge of the good, and ascesis enhance the mastery of
the will over its acts.
1735
Imputability and responsibility for an action can be diminished or even
nullified by ignorance, inadvertence, duress, fear, habit, inordinate
attachments, and other psychological or social factors.
1736
Every act directly willed is imputable to its author:
Thus the Lord asked Eve after
the sin in the garden: "What is this that you have done?"29
He asked Cain the same question.30 The prophet Nathan questioned David
in the same way after he committed adultery with the wife of Uriah and had him
murdered.31
An action can be indirectly voluntary when it results from negligence regarding
something one should have known or done: for example, an accident arising from
ignorance of traffic laws.
1737
An
effect can be tolerated without being willed by its agent; for instance, a
mother's exhaustion from tending her sick child. A bad effect is not imputable
if it was not willed either as an end or as a means of an action, e.g., a death
a person incurs in aiding someone in danger. For a bad effect to be imputable
it must be foreseeable and the agent must have the possibility of avoiding it,
as in the case of manslaughter caused by a drunken driver.
1738
Freedom is exercised in relationships between human beings. Every human person,
created in the image of God, has the natural right to be recognized as a free
and responsible being. All owe to each other this duty of respect. the right to
the exercise of freedom, especially in moral and religious matters, is an
inalienable requirement of the dignity of the human person. This right must be
recognized and protected by civil authority within the limits of the common
good and public order.32
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