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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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
