Do the ends ever justify the means?

[Shin]

Hold on a second, here… surely, this is too much of a general statement. I may be mistaken, but the Catholic view is not JUST about the action and the consequence, but about the actor’s state of being, conscience, intentions, knowledge, pressures, etc.

I remember reading a WWII story in which a family of Jews were lined up outside their home by the Nazis. The patriarch of the family was asked by one of the soldiers if he believed in God. He told the patriarch that if he answered yes, he would shoot him. If he answered no, he would let him live. This isn’t quite the “end of the world,” but I would say that this person does no wrong in lying (which he did).

Above all, charity. This is what my Catechism says in its first few pages, and I really do take it to heart.

Charity is the love of God, not failing God. Above all charity means that you love God above even neighbor, and you would not lie under any circumstances.

That ‘no’ right there is the same test the martyrs went through, and when you lie in it instead of witness to God in it, it’s a failure and a sin. He had a chance to show more love of God than anything else. People who said ‘no’ in the early Church were banned from the Church for years without readmission, it was questioned whether to ever do it and what could possibly be sufficient penance.

"Anselm. You have not as yet estimated the great burden of sin.

Boso. Show it me then.

Anselm. If you should find yourself in the sight of God, and one said to you: “Look thither;” and God, on the other hand, should say: “It is not my will that you should look;” ask your own heart what there is in all existing things which would make it right for you to give that look contrary to the will of God.

Boso. I can find no motive which would make it right; unless, indeed I am so situated as to make it necessary for me either to do this, or some greater sin.

Anselm. Put away all such necessity, and ask with regard to this sin only whether you can do it even for your own salvation.

Boso. I see plainly that I cannot.

Anselm. Not to detain you too long; what if it were necessary either that the whole universe, except God himself, should perish and fall back into nothing, or else that you should do so small a thing against the will of God?

Boso. When I consider the action itself, it appears very slight; but when I view it as contrary to the will of God, I know of nothing so grievous, and of no loss that will compare with it; but sometimes we oppose another’s will without blame in order to preserve his property, so that afterwards he is glad that we opposed him.

Anselm. This is in the case of man, who often does not know what is useful for him, or cannot make up his loss; but God is in want of nothing, and, should all things perish, can restore them as easily as he created them.

Boso. I must confess that I ought not to oppose the will of God even to preserve the whole creation.

Anselm. What if there were more worlds as full of beings as this?

Boso. Were they increased to an infinite extent, and held before me in like manner, my reply would be the same.

Anselm. You cannot answer more correctly, but consider, also, should it happen that you gave the look contrary to God’s will, what payment you can make for this sin?

Boso. I can only repeat what I said before.

Anselm. So heinous is our sin whenever we knowingly oppose the will of God even in the slightest thing; since we are always in his sight, and he always enjoins it upon us not to sin.

Boso. I cannot deny it.

Anselm. Therefore you make no satisfaction unless you restore something greater than the amount of that obligation, which should restrain you from committing the sin."

• Why God Became Man, by St. Anselm of Canterbury