M
Mike_O
Guest
Let me preface this by saying that the book I read this in, Introduction to the Devout Life, is a fantastic devotional book.
However, from Chapter 32 (catholicity.com/devoutlife/3-32.html) the following struck me as strange:
“Dice, cards, and the like games of hazard, are not merely dangerous amusements, like dancing, but they are plainly bad and harmful, and therefore they are forbidden by the civil as by the ecclesiastical law. What harm is there in them? you ask. Such games are unreasonable:–the winner often has neither skill nor industry to boast of, which is contrary to reason. You reply that this is understood by those who play. But though that may prove that you are not wronging anybody, it does not prove that the game is in accordance with reason, as victory ought to be the reward of skill or labour, which it cannot be in mere games of chance. Moreover, though such games may be called a recreation, and are intended as such, they are practically an intense occupation. Is it not an occupation, when a man’s mind is kept on the stretch of close attention, and disturbed by endless anxieties, fears and agitations? Who exercises a more dismal, painful attention than the gambler? No one must speak or laugh,–if you do but cough you will annoy him and his companions. The only pleasure in gambling is to win, and this cannot be a satisfactory pleasure, since it can only be enjoyed at the expense of your antagonist.”
St. Francis de Sales seems to not only reference gambling but also any game of chance as intrinsically evil. Is this really true? Is it evil to play a game of cards?
However, from Chapter 32 (catholicity.com/devoutlife/3-32.html) the following struck me as strange:
“Dice, cards, and the like games of hazard, are not merely dangerous amusements, like dancing, but they are plainly bad and harmful, and therefore they are forbidden by the civil as by the ecclesiastical law. What harm is there in them? you ask. Such games are unreasonable:–the winner often has neither skill nor industry to boast of, which is contrary to reason. You reply that this is understood by those who play. But though that may prove that you are not wronging anybody, it does not prove that the game is in accordance with reason, as victory ought to be the reward of skill or labour, which it cannot be in mere games of chance. Moreover, though such games may be called a recreation, and are intended as such, they are practically an intense occupation. Is it not an occupation, when a man’s mind is kept on the stretch of close attention, and disturbed by endless anxieties, fears and agitations? Who exercises a more dismal, painful attention than the gambler? No one must speak or laugh,–if you do but cough you will annoy him and his companions. The only pleasure in gambling is to win, and this cannot be a satisfactory pleasure, since it can only be enjoyed at the expense of your antagonist.”
St. Francis de Sales seems to not only reference gambling but also any game of chance as intrinsically evil. Is this really true? Is it evil to play a game of cards?
…I am sure many Catholic Parishes would loose some funding and an opportunity for parishioners and others to get together for a thoroughly enjoyable evening and much fun and laughter, if there was some moral demand to abandon Bingo…which to my knowledge anyway there is not…if indeed a person joins in a Bingo evening with: