Whether It Is Lawful to Communicate with Unbelievers?
Objection 1: It would seem that it is lawful to communicate with
unbelievers. For the Apostle says (1 Cor. 10:27): "If any of them that
believe not, invite you, and you be willing to go, eat of anything
that is set before you." And Chrysostom says (Hom. xxv super Epist. ad
Heb.): "If you wish to go to dine with pagans, we permit it without
any reservation." Now to sit at table with anyone is to communicate
with him. Therefore it is lawful to communicate with unbelievers.
Obj. 2: Further, the Apostle says (1 Cor. 5:12): "What have I to do
to judge them that are without?" Now unbelievers are without. When,
therefore, the Church forbids the faithful to communicate with
certain people, it seems that they ought not to be forbidden to
communicate with unbelievers.
Obj. 3: Further, a master cannot employ his servant, unless he
communicate with him, at least by word, since the master moves his
servant by command. Now Christians can have unbelievers, either Jews,
or pagans, or Saracens, for servants. Therefore they can lawfully
communicate with them.
_On the contrary,_ It is written (Deut. 7:2, 3): "Thou shalt make no
league with them, nor show mercy to them; neither shalt thou make
marriages with them": and a gloss on Lev. 15:19, "The woman who at
the return of the month," etc. says: "It is so necessary to shun
idolatry, that we should not come in touch with idolaters or their
disciples, nor have any dealings with them."
_I answer that,_ Communication with a particular person is forbidden to
the faithful, in two ways: first, as a punishment of the person with
whom they are forbidden to communicate; secondly, for the safety of
those who are forbidden to communicate with others. Both motives can
be gathered from the Apostle's words (1 Cor. 5:6). For after he had
pronounced sentence of excommunication, he adds as his reason: "Know
you not that a little leaven corrupts the whole lump?" and afterwards
he adds the reason on the part of the punishment inflicted by the
sentence of the Church when he says (1 Cor. 5:12): "Do not you judge
them that are within?"
Accordingly, in the first way the Church does not forbid the faithful
to communicate with unbelievers, who have not in any way received the
Christian faith, viz. with pagans and Jews, because she has not the
right to exercise spiritual judgment over them, but only temporal
judgment, in the case when, while dwelling among Christians they are
guilty of some misdemeanor, and are condemned by the faithful to some
temporal punishment. On the other hand, in this way, i.e. as a
punishment, the Church forbids the faithful to communicate with those
unbelievers who have forsaken the faith they once received, either by
corrupting the faith, as heretics, or by entirely renouncing the
faith, as apostates, because the Church pronounces sentence of
excommunication on both.
With regard to the second way, it seems that one ought to distinguish
according to the various conditions of persons, circumstances and
time. For some are firm in the faith; and so it is to be hoped that
their communicating with unbelievers will lead to the conversion of
the latter rather than to the aversion of the faithful from the faith.
These are not to be forbidden to communicate with unbelievers who have
not received the faith, such as pagans or Jews, especially if there be
some urgent necessity for so doing. But in the case of simple people
and those who are weak in the faith, whose perversion is to be feared
as a probable result, they should be forbidden to communicate with
unbelievers, and especially to be on very familiar terms with them, or
to communicate with them without necessity.
This suffices for the Reply to the First Objection.
Reply Obj. 2: The Church does not exercise judgment against
unbelievers in the point of inflicting spiritual punishment on them:
but she does exercise judgment over some of them in the matter of
temporal punishment. It is under this head that sometimes the Church,
for certain special sins, withdraws the faithful from communication
with certain unbelievers.
Reply Obj. 3: There is more probability that a servant who is ruled
by his master's commands, will be converted to the faith of his
master who is a believer, than if the case were the reverse: and so
the faithful are not forbidden to have unbelieving servants. If,
however, the master were in danger, through communicating with such
a servant, he should send him away, according to Our Lord's command
(Matt. 18:8): "If . . . thy foot scandalize thee, cut it off, and
cast it from thee."
With regard to the argument in the contrary [*The Leonine Edition
gives this solution before the Reply Obj. 2] sense the reply is that
the Lord gave this command in reference to those nations into whose
territory the Jews were about to enter. For the latter were inclined
to idolatry, so that it was to be feared lest, through frequent
dealings with those nations, they should be estranged from the faith:
hence the text goes on (Deut. 7:4): "For she will turn away thy son
from following Me."
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