are freely and deliberately placed by us, because they are willed (cf. CCC 1749). The former are involuntary. We do not say: My digestion is evil, but rather: It is functioning badly. In what, then, does the moral quality of a human act consist? How does it become “human”? Christian “moral teaching” distinguishes three elements: the “object” of my action; the end in view or the intention in what I am doing; and the circumstances of this deed (CCC 1750). Today many people feel that the intention is