SHORT CATHOLIC ANSWERS: ON GOD’S GOODNESS AND THE EXISTENCE OF EVIL

1. On evil

SHORT CATHOLIC ANSWERS:
ON GOD’S GOODNESS AND THE EXISTENCE OF EVIL

Dear brethren in Christ, many people have posed these questions on the problem of evil.
For this reason, I decided to post short Catholic answers taken from the “Compendium of the Catholic Church,” with references to the pertinent numbers in the more extensive Catechism which deals with the same questions in order to provide clear, concise and correct Catholic answers.

Have a great day ahead! Fr. Rolly A., priest of Opus Dei.

COMPENDIUM, N. 57. IF GOD IS OMNIPOTENT AND PROVIDENT,
WHY THEN DOES EVIL EXIST?

To this question, as painful and mysterious as it is, only the whole of Christian faith can constitute a response. God is not in any way – directly or indirectly – the cause of evil. He illuminates the mystery of evil in his Son Jesus Christ who died and rose in order to vanquish that great moral evil, human sin, which is at the root of all other evils.

See as well, Catechism of the Catholic Church, nn. 309-310, 324, 400

COMPENDIUM, N. 58. WHY DOES GOD PERMIT EVIL?

Faith gives us the certainty that God would not permit evil if he did not cause a good to come from that very evil. This was realized in a wondrous way by God in the death and resurrection of Christ. In fact, from the greatest of all moral evils (the murder of his Son) he has brought forth the greatest of all goods (the glorification of Christ and our redemption).

See as well, Catechism of the Catholic Church, nn. 311-314, 324

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