Using a stolen prayerbook

[mymamamary]

dear Brothers and Sisters in the Sacred and Mericful HEART of Our LORD.

I have a question. Let just say, for the sake of generalties, I wont name names. However, a way while back, there was a prayer book taken from a friends place. I saw it in the basement (As no one is using it) and I would love to use it, except for the fact that I think this was “taken”, “stolen” etc. What is the Moral path for me to take??

Thank You

 

[mymamamary]

I do not want to accept stolen goods either!!

 

[YellowPancakes]

dear Brothers and Sisters in the Sacred and Mericful HEART of Our LORD.

I have a question. Let just say, for the sake of generalties, I wont name names. However, a way while back, there was a prayer book taken from a friends place. I saw it in the basement (As no one is using it) and I would love to use it, except for the fact that I think this was “taken”, “stolen” etc. What is the Moral path for me to take??

Thank You

I’m not going to be of any help here, but I’ve been in a couple of similiar situations.

A couple of years back when I had no conscience,I stole a wallet from the shop. I have stopped using the wallet, but still feel pretty bad.

A few years before that I stole my friend’s video game. I ended up selling it online.

Of course I didn’t know how wrong that was back then. My friend now lives overseas, but thinking about it now makes me obliged to tell him.

I think in your position, I would tell the person what you’ve done. If it’s possible that is. He may even allow you to keep it.

Of course stealing is still wrong, but by the sound of it you didn’t know you were doing anything wrong. I’m still going to use the forum cliche :you should probably ‘ask your priest about this’.

 

[1_with_God]

The book should be returned to the person it was stolen from. Use it yourself, never. Even if you don’t know who stole it you know that it is sin.

 

[atheistgirl]

dear Brothers and Sisters in the Sacred and Mericful HEART of Our LORD.

I have a question. Let just say, for the sake of generalties, I wont name names. However, a way while back, there was a prayer book taken from a friends place. I saw it in the basement (As no one is using it) and I would love to use it, except for the fact that I think this was “taken”, “stolen” etc. What is the Moral path for me to take??

Thank You

You have made numerous posts about prayer books now. Why in the world would you want to use a stolen one?

If it was you that stole it, return it, apologize and go to confession.

If you know your friend stole it, tell him/her to return it.

Then drop it. There are zillions of prayer books out there. You don’t need a stolen one.

Sarah x

 

[Nan_S]

On a similar vein, we have the issue of stolen music.

Christmas time is here again, and once again I anticipate someone trying to gift me with a CD of favorite Christian music selections. The problem is that she will have burned it from songs she downloaded or copied from other CDs, and made another 24 copies for all her other friends and family. (There are 25 blank CDs on a spindle.)

If she was just making one CD copy of her favorites to play in her car, using original discs she bought, or tracks she downloaded, no problem. Limited user licenses make provisions for that sort of thing.

Creating you own “Free CD” company, no matter how small, to give copies to other people who would/should have bought their own copies is theft, pure and simple. The artist who recorded the music owns the rights to it and deserves to be paid a royalty for his artistry.

My friend, if you offer me a homemade CD I’m going to presume you intended to duplicate copyrighted music out of ignorance, rather than out of an intention to avoid paying the artist for his labor and expenses But making me a gift of stolen merchandise is not keeping with the True Meaning of Christmas. Good Christian music artists need to be encouraged to continue making good Christian music, by people willing to buy albums which will compensate the artists for their costs. Spreading around home-made copies of their work defeats the purpose.

 

[Joe_5859]

I’m not sure I entirely grasp the details of your situation, but I agree with the other posters. If you know who it belongs to, give it back to them.

If it’s that great of a prayer book, you can go online and try to buy one. Or you might even offer to buy it from the owner when you go to return it. Who knows? If they really never use it, they may look at you with surprise when you return it and say “I forgot I even had that; you can keep it if you want.”