Object

The object of an act is that which the agent chooses to do, that is, the specific behavior that one chooses to engage, not simply as a means but also as a directly intended end. It is important to notice that the object is comprised of two elements: the performance of some behavior and the choice or proximate intention of some end that a particular behavior serves. Together these elements constitute the "matter" of the action (see the Catechism, Part Three, Section One, Chapter One, Article 4, n. 1751). Thus, the object of a moral action is not reducible to the purely physical manifestation of a certain behavior, but includes the agent's choice or proximate intention. For example, the object of the act of handing money from one person to another depends on the end that this behavior is intended to serve and thus, could be one of many different moral actions, such as paying a debt, making a purchase or even bribery. If one is choosing to pay a debt, it is both the choice to serve that end and the physical act of handing over money to another person that together constitute the object of the action. Some actions may be morally evil or morally good simply due to the nature of that action's object, independently of the action's circumstances. [Gallagher, DM. "Object and Intention in Moral Actions," Ethics & Medics 24 (1999): 1-3.]

The object of an act is the primary determinant of the essential moral character (i.e., the moral species) of an action. While the circumstances, including circumstantial intentions, may render an objectively good action more or less good, the object of the action must itself be good if the action is to be morally good. In other words, if the object of an action is inherently disordered, i.e., contrary to reason, to human flourishing or to the will of God in some essential way, then the circumstances of the act cannot make that action morally good. This understanding of the relationship between the object of an action and that action's moral character or species is the theoretical basis for the concept of intrinsic evil.

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