Back to
Feb. 2002
Newsletter

Adsum
February 2002

The Machine and Servile Work

From the book “Father Connell Answers Moral Questions”
by Very Rev. Francis J. Connell, C.SS.R., S.T.D., L.L.D., L.J.D.

Question: According to the common teaching of theologians, a Catholic who devotes two-and-a-half hours or more to servile work on Sunday, without any dispensation or excusing cause, is guilty of mortal sin. When a person works with the aid of a machine which relieves him of much of the physical labor, is the time thus spent to be reckoned as a period of servile work?

Answer: We must distinguish between various types of machines. When a machine needs only to be set in operation, the time during which it operates would not seem to constitute servile work for the operator. This is particularly applicable to the modern washing machine. The housewife puts the clothing into a receptacle, presses a button, and then nothing more is required on her part than to return some time later and remove the clothes, washed and ready to be hung for drying. I believe that in such a case she is to be accounted as performing servile work only during the period needed to put the clothing into the machine, to remove it, and to hang it up. Perhaps a week’s washing for a large family could be done with the aid of such a machine, the process being repeated several times in the course of three or four hours, while actually less than an hour’s manual work is required on the part of the housewife. In the event that no dispensation has been obtained and that there is no excusing cause, a venial sin is committed, but not a mortal sin. For, although the machine is operated much longer than the period of two-and-a-half hours, which, as the questioner states, constitutes grave matter in respect to servile work, the labor expended by the operator of the machine lasts only a short period.

However, there is another type of machine, such as that used for farm work, which required the constant supervision and activity of the operator. Machines used for harvesting, winnowing, threshing, etc., are of this type. Such machines, though they expedite the work considerably and render it less onerous than when it is performed merely by hand, do not seem to render the work of the operator non-servile. Sometimes, indeed, his labor is quite strenuous in the task of operating the machine; but even supposing his expenditure of energy be slight, it must be accounted as servile work. In this latter case, however, we could accept the opinion that for light servile work a period of three hours is necessary before a person is to be considered guilty of mortal sin. (Cf. Merkelbach, Summa Theologiae Moralis [Paris, 1938], II, n. 688).

Back to February 2002 Newsletter.
Back to top.

Printed copies of Adsum, a publication by the seminarians of Mater Dei Seminary for the reading enjoyment of friends and benefactors, are sent free of charge to all who request it. Most issues also contain photos of recent events involving the seminarians. If you would like to put on this mailing list, please use this form.