“If acts are intrinsically evil, a good intention or particular circumstances can diminish their evil, but they cannot remove it. They remain irremediably evil acts; per se and in themselves they are not capable of being ordered to God and to the good of the person... Consequently, circumstances or intentions can never transform an act intrinsically evil by virtue of its object into an act subjectively good or defensible as a choice.”

Veritatis Splendor, or “The Splendor of Truth”, was a papal encyclical promulgated by Pope St. John Paul II on August 6, 1993. The encyclical addresses fundamental questions of the Church's moral teaching, especially in relation to the various ways in which that teaching had been (and continues to be) challenged by modern strains of dissident theology.

In this second chapter, titled "Do Not Be Conformed to this World", John Paul II addresses the relationships between freedom and law, conscience and truth, and fundamental choice and specific kinds of behavior. He concludes the chapter with a careful consideration of the moral act.

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Full text: https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?id=3459&repos=1&subrepos=0&searchid=2320723

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