Dear Catholic Exchange:
I am writing an essay on Free Will in the Catholic Church, and on your website, I found a perfect quote in your Catholic Library section. It reads, “Freedom is the power, rooted in reason and will, to act or not to act, to do this or that, and so to perform deliberate actions on one's own responsibility. By free will one shapes one's own life. Human freedom is a force for growth and maturity in truth and goodness; it attains its perfection when directed toward God, our beatitude.”
I would love to use this is my essay, but I don't know the exact work it is from or how to cite it. How can I find out this information? Please help!
Thank You,
Anne St. Claire
Dear Anne,
Thanks for writing in. This is a quote from the Catechism of the Catholic Church (Pt. Three, Sec. One, Ch. One, Article 3, #1731).
www.nccbuscc.org/catechism
www.scborromeo.org/ccc
After using the quote in your paper, simply add the following parenthetical: (CCC, 1730). That citation should suffice.
Are you familiar with Google.com? It's a great Internet search engine. In the future you can cut and paste the first words (“Freedom is the power, rooted in reason and will”) into the Google search field — including the quotation marks — and then hit “Search.” It'll provide a range of links that will contain your answer.
Best of Luck!
Tom A.
Conflicting Articles?
Thank you for including an article which addresses welcoming children into marriage and some of the faults of artificial birth control. I found it ironic, however, that the next story I clicked on, about preparing your home for a new baby, featured an endorsement for Sears.
Roebuck (Sears) donates money to pro-abortion organizations every year. As does JCPenney and several others retail stores which offer baby registries. The stories were a bit conflicting to those of us who try hard not to patronize such companies. Next time, do a little more reasearch about the endorsements found in articles you post.
Love your site!
Amy
Newnan, Ga
Dear Amy,
Thank you for your feedback. While it is often difficult to measure the degree to which corporations knowingly support the Culture of Death, I have decided in this instance to remove the article in question from our site.
We as Catholics — especially those of us operating Catholic businesses — need to be “in the world but not of the world,” so staying completely “clean” is extremely difficult. But we at Catholic Exchange do listen for the “still, small voice,” and believe in remaining responsive to our loyal base. We appreciate your support.
In Christ,
Tom Allen
Editor, President
Catholic Exchange
