CATHOLIC WORD BOOK - Knights of Columbus, Supreme Council

eginning or end; an attribute of God,
who has no past or future but always is.
Man’s existence has a beginning but no
end and is, accordingly, called immortal.
Ethics: Moral philosophy, the science of
the morality of human acts deriving from
natural law, the natural end of man, and
the powers of human reason. It includes all
the spheres of human activity — personal,
social, economic, political, etc. Ethics is
distinct from but can be related to moral
theology, whose primary principles are
drawn from divine revelation.
Euthanasia: Mercy killing, the direct
causing of death for the purpose of ending
human suffering. Euthanasia is murder and
is totally illicit, for the natural law forbids
the direct taking of one’s own life or that of
an innocent person. The use of drugs to
relieve suffering in serious cases, even when
this results in a shortening of life as an
indirect and secondary effect, is permissible
under conditions of the double-effect
principle. It is also permissible for a
seriously ill person to refuse to follow — or
for other responsible persons to refuse to
permit — extraordinary medical
procedures even though the refusal might
entail shortening of life.
Evangelization: Proclamation of the
Gospel, the Good News of salvation in and
through Christ, among those who have not
yet known or received it; and efforts for the
progressive development of the life of faith
among those who have already received the
Gospel and all that it entails.
Evangelization is the primary mission of
the Church, in which all members of the
Church are called to participate.
Evolution: Scientific theory concerning the
development of the physical universe from
unorganized matter (inorganic evolution)
and, especially, the development of
existing forms of vegetable, animal and
human life from earlier and more
primitive organisms (organic evolution).
Various ideas about evolution were
advanced for some centuries before
scientific evidence in support of the main
line theory of organic evolution, which has
several formulations, was discovered and
verified in the second half of the 19th
century and afterwards. This evidence —
from the findings of comparative anatomy
and other sciences — confirmed evolution
of species and cleared the way to further
investigation of questions regarding the
processes of its accomplishment. While a
number of such questions remain open
with respect to human evolution, a point
of doctrine not open to question is the
immediate creation of the human soul by
God. For some time, theologians regarded
the theory with hostility, considering it to
be in opposition to the account of creation
in the early chapters of Genesis and
subversive of belief in such doctrines as
creation, the early state of man in grace,
and the fall of man from grace. This state
of affairs and the tension it generated led
to considerable controversy regarding an
alleged conflict between religion and
science. Gradually, however, the tension
was diminished with the development of
biblical studies from the latter part of the
19th century onwards, with clarification of
the distinctive features of religious truth
and scientific truth, and with the
refinement of evolutionary concepts. So far
as the Genesis account of creation is
concerned, the Catholic view is that the
writer(s) did not write as a scientist but as
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