Accomplicements

For my own future reference as much as anything else.

Based on the discussion found here, here's a list of the different sorts of cooperation with evil Catholic moral theology recognizes (he terms in red represent immoral forms of cooperation; the terms in blue represent forms of cooperation that may be moral):

Types of Cooperation

• Formal: "a willing participation on the part of the cooperative agent in the sinful act of the principal agent"
• Explicit Formal: the cooperative agent expresses his willingness
• Implicit Formal: "even though the cooperator denies intending the wrongdoer's object, no other explanation can distinguish the cooperator's object from the wrongdoer's object"
• Material: participation in a sinful act without sharing in the intent of the principal agent
• Immediate Material: "the object of the moral act of the cooperator is indistinguishable from that of the principal agent;" considered morally equivalent to implicit formal cooperation
• Mediate Material: "the moral object of the cooperator's act is not that of the wrongdoer's"
• Proximate [Mediate] Material: the action of the cooperator is closely related to the action of the wrongdoer
• Remote [Mediate] Material: the action of the cooperator is not closely related to the action of the wrongdoer

Mediate material cooperation is morally licit when there is a proportionate reason for cooperating. As I wrote below, the more proximate the cooperation, the stronger the reason must be to be proportionate.

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