What is the Sin of Usury? The Church’s Doctor of Moral Theology explains

Exclusive English translation of St. Alphonsus Liguori

What is the Sin of Usury?
The Church’s Doctor of Moral Theology explains

The sin of usury may very well be the most complex topic in all of Catholic moral theology. It involves a great many distinctions and nuances, and what adds to the difficulty is that usury is determined in part by the nature, function, and value of money, which has not always been the same throughout human history.

A pre-Vatican II Catholic dictionary defines “usury” succinctly as follows:

Usury is strictly speaking profit exacted on a loan of money just because it is a loan.

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St. Alphonsus Liguori: What Is Usury? (from ‘Moral Theology’, Vol. II, Book III, Chapter III, Question VII)

Saint Alphonsus Maria Liguori
Doctor of the Church

What is Usury?

MORAL THEOLOGY, vol. II

BOOK III—TREATISE V ON THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT OF THE DECALOGUE
CHAPTER III—ON CONTRACTS—DUBIUM VII

Exclusive English Translation

PRELIMINARY NOTES

St. Alphonsus Liguori’s treatise on usury is extremely complex. We commissioned an expert in ecclesiastical Latin to translate it for the benefit of the English-speaking public. In order to make the text more comprehensible, the translator has added explanatory comments, so-called “interpolations”, either directly into the text in brackets […] or by means of explanatory footnotes. These translator’s notes can be found at the very end of the text at the bottom of this page.… READ MORE

Were Popes Benedict XIV and Pius IX Freemasons?

Arthur Preuss refutes old lies…

Were Popes Benedict XIV and Pius IX Freemasons?

In 1884, Pope Leo XIII addressed the threat of Freemasonry against Holy Mother Church:

At every period of time each [the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan] has been in conflict with the other, with a variety and multiplicity of weapons and of warfare, although not always with equal ardor and assault. At this period, however, the partisans of evil seem to be combining together, and to be struggling with united vehemence, led on or assisted by that strongly organized and widespread association called the Freemasons.

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Did the Council of Florence Teach Error? A Response to Athanasius Schneider’s Attempt to Save Vatican II

Talk about being in error!

Did the Council of Florence Teach Error? A Response to Athanasius Schneider’s Attempt to Save Vatican II

No matter how one looks at it, the only way one can ever justify or excuse the abominable Second Vatican Council (1962-65) is by trashing the Catholic Church prior to the council. Mr. Athanasius Schneider, auxiliary “bishop” (why the quotes?) of the diocese of Maria Santissima in Astana, Kazakhstan, has just shown that that goes not only for open Modernists but also for some “traditionalists.”

In a newly-released text, the Kazakh prelate once again repeats his claim that there is historical precedent for the idea that a Pope can correct the errors of a prior ecumenical council.… READ MORE