Principles and Prudential Judgments

By Fr. Jerry Pokorsky ( bio - articles - email ) | Aug 04, 2025

G.K. Chesterton said the reason we get angry is that we’ve never learned to argue well. Argument helps us to identify and solve conundrums, and directs efforts to maintain justice and overcome human suffering. Our ability to argue well includes the capacity to identify unwavering first principles for reasonable application, informed by prudential judgments.

The law of gravity is non-negotiable as a first principle of physics. We may try to defy the law, but gravity will always win. Rocket science only works by taking into account the law of gravity. So it is with morality. The Ten Commandments are the first principles of morality and are non-negotiable for human happiness. The Ten Commandments are not ideological. They express and direct our humanity, the marriage of God and man. God is the author of human nature. The Ten Commandments help us understand who we are and who we can become.

The first principles are few. Love God and neighbor: Worship God, honor parents and authorities, and do not murder, commit adultery, steal, or lie. Using human reason guided by Divine Revelation, the Church clusters detailed precepts around the Decalogue: the distinction between self-defense and murder, the principles of just war, the sanctity of marriage, just commerce, and respect for the truth. The Commandments are not sectarian or “Catholic.” The Commandments are”small-c” catholic. They apply universally to everyone because the Church, despite the many sins and failures of her members, reveals how Jesus reconciles God and man.

Prudential judgments apply the inviolable first principles of human morality to the concrete circumstances of life. God commands us to honor our parents. Even children apply this principle in their everyday expressions of obedience.

Jesus illustrates the distinction in the Gospel (cf. Lk. 12:13-21).

Prudential Judgement:

Someone in the crowd said to Jesus,
“Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me.”
He replied to him,
“Friend, who appointed me as your judge and arbitrator?”

Jesus refuses to meddle, to act as a probate attorney. The brothers must make their judgments according to their lights. But Jesus establishes a first principle based on the Seventh Commandment.

Catholic Principle:

Then [Jesus] said to the crowd,
“Take care to guard against all greed,
for though one may be rich,
man’s life does not consist of possessions.”

If the brothers agree to negotiate the inheritance without greed, they will avoid sin. The absence of greed promises a happy outcome. But the brother who avoids greed, even if he loses the inheritance, comes out ahead in his humanity and on the day of his judgment before God. He is without sin. The greedy brother will discover that a U-Haul trailer is never attached to a funeral coach.

A pastor in his preaching could borrow the template Jesus provides. Here are a few examples taken from modern life that help us argue well and understand the distinction between Catholic principles taught by the clergy, and prudential judgments—those applications that properly belong to the laity:

Welfare

Prudential Judgment:

Someone in the congregation said to the pastor, “Father, tell our politicians to spend more on welfare programs.” The priest replied to him, “Friend, who appointed me as your congressman?”

Catholic Principle:

Then he said to the Mass congregation,
“Take care to guard against all selfishness and envy,
for though one often forces other citizens to pay for his expenses,
man’s life does not consist of free stuff.”

Immigration

Prudential Judgment:

Someone in the congregation said to the pastor,
“Father, tell the authorities to open the borders to everyone.”
He replied to him,
“Friend, who appointed me border czar?”

Catholic Principle:

Then he said to the Mass congregation,
“Take care to guard against unjust border crossings and inhuman law enforcement,
for though one may relocate to flee economic conditions in one’s country,
man’s life does not consist of violating the just laws of host nations.”

War

Prudential Judgment:

Someone in the congregation said to the pastor,
“Father, tell our politicians to increase arms shipments overseas.”
He replied to him,
“Friend, who appointed me as your foreign policy expert?”

Catholic Principle:

Then he said to the Mass congregation,
“Take care to guard against all warmongers who ignore just-war principles of the Fifth Commandment. For though one may have the military resources to blow up a lot of things, man’s life does not consist of exploiting other nations using military force.”

Life

Prudential Judgment:

Someone in the congregation said to the pastor,
“Father, excommunicate those so-called pro-abortion Catholic politicians because they are manifest grave sinners.”
He replied to him,
“Friend, who appointed me as their bishop?”

Catholic Principle:

Then he said to the Mass crowd,
“Life is precious, from the moment of conception until natural death—the Fifth Commandment.
If I were their bishop, I would say to them, ‘You snakes! You brood of vipers!
How will you escape being condemned to hell?’” (Mt. 23:33)

Alas, in many cases, there is no wiggle room between a Catholic principle and a sound prudential judgment. Deal with it.

Priests (and bishops, for that matter) are entitled to their political opinions. Jesus may have had many observations about the details of Herod’s kingship, the geopolitics of Roman rule, and the prudence of resistance by the zealots. But in His sacred ministry, He proclaimed the Gospel, providing the first principles of life in Him, and He gives us the dignity to apply those principles to our everyday lives, assisted by the graces of Pentecost.

Just as the laity must accept binding Christian principles, the clergy must respect the limits of their teaching authority. The Fathers of Vatican II include this frequently neglected teaching:

This sacred synod earnestly exhorts laymen—each according to his own gifts of intelligence and learning—to be more diligent in doing what they can to explain, defend, and properly apply Christian principles to the problems of our era in accordance with the mind of the Church.
(Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity, 6)