“What is required for an action to be morally good?"

It has been said that the path to hell is paved with good intentions.  That being said, I find it hard to believe that the path to heaven is paved with malice and spite.  The intended meaning behind the former saying is that many horrible things can and have been performed with the intention of causing a good effect.  Following upon this principle, we now ask: “What is required for an action to be morally good?” 

The Church in her wisdom has set forth the criteria that for an action to be morally good both the act itself and the intended consequence must be good.  If either of these criteria are missing, then the action is morally bad.  For example: if a store clerk intends to dishonestly cheat a customer by giving back the wrong amount of change and in the process makes a mistake in addition which results in the customer receiving the correct change, then the act is morally unacceptable.  Here the act is a good act in itself, i.e. the correct change has been given, nevertheless, the malicious intent of the store clerk has rendered the act sinful by the intention motivating the action.  Similarly, if the store clerk intended to give the correct change but due to a mathematical error did not, then while the intention was good the act itself remains objectively bad.  However, it should be noted that while the act may have been a bad one, due to the store clerk’s good intention, the act would not be considered to be sinful since the will did not choose the bad action.  In this situation, the act remains objectively bad; while the store clerk remains personally innocent assuming that no willful negligence is involved in the error.   

Likewise, if a doctor decided to use a patient as a test subject in an uninformed, reckless and dangerous manner which resulted in the death of the patient, then the objective act would be morally bad even if the intention were to find a cure for some aliment that would benefit a greater number of persons.  In this case, the doctor has willfully chosen to perform a bad action which he justifies to himself because the result will serve some greater good.  This action, despite the outcome, remains both objectively wrong and personally sinful. 

One of the principles in moral theology is that evil may not be done in order that a good effect is achieved.  While life often presents us with difficult choices, this principle must be kept in mind.  Humans can not be made to suffer for the benefit of others, children can not be grown in order to provide tissue or organs to alleviate suffering, and the basic moral demands of the gospel can not be sacrificed to spare the feelings of others or to achieve political goals.