The attempts to redefine marriage: a critical overview
Andrew Wagstaff C.O.
Talk given during the Cephas Symposium on the Nature of Faith
Article 2 of Question 97 of the Prima Secundae Partis of the Summa is about whether
human law should always be changed whenever something better occurs. Saint Thomas
writes:
… human law is rightly changed, in so far as such change is conducive to the common
weal. But, to a certain extent, the mere change of law is of itself prejudicial to the
common good: because custom avails much for the observance of laws, seeing that
what is done contrary to general custom, even in slight matters, is looked upon as
grave. Consequently, when a law is changed, the binding power of the law is
diminished, in so far as custom is abolished. Wherefore human law should never be
changed, unless, in some way or other, the common weal be compensated according
to the extent of the harm done in this respect. Such compensation may arise either
from some very great and every evident benefit conferred by the new enactment; or
from the extreme urgency of the case, due to the fact that either the existing law is
clearly unjust, or its observance extremely harmful.1
