a) Nevertheless there is an imposing school of theologians who maintain the identity of grace with charity. They are Scotus(1003) and his followers,(1004) Cardinal Bellarmine,(1005) Molina, Lessius, Salmeron, Vasquez, Sardagna, Tournely, and others. Their principal argument is that Holy Scripture ascribes active justification indiscriminately to theological love and sanctifying grace, and that some of the Fathers follow this example. Here are a few of the Scriptural texts quoted in favor of this opinion. Luke VII, 47: “Many sins are forgiven her, because she hath loved much.”(1006) 1 Pet. IV, 8: “Charity covereth a multitude of sins.”(1007) 1 John IV, 7: “Every one that loveth is born of God.”(1008) St. Augustine seems to identify the two habits in such passages as the following: “Inchoate love, therefore, is inchoate righteousness; ... great love is great righteousness; perfect love is perfect righteousness.”(1009) According to the Tridentine Council, “the justification of the impious” takes place when “the charity of God is poured forth ... in the hearts of those that are justified, and is inherent therein.”(1010) It is argued that, if charity and grace produce the same effects, they must be identical as causes, and there can be at most a virtual distinction between them. This argument is strengthened by the observation that sanctifying grace and theological love constitute the supernatural life of the soul and the loss of either entails spiritual death.
These arguments prove that grace and charity are inseparable, but nothing more. All the Scriptural and Patristic passages cited can be explained without recourse to the hypothesis that they are identical. Charity is not superfluous alongside of sanctifying grace, because the primary object of grace is to impart supernatural being, whereas charity confers a special faculty which enables the intellect and the will to elicit supernatural salutary acts.
b) The majority of Catholic theologians(1011) hold with St. Thomas(1012) and his school that grace and charity, while inseparable, are really distinct, sanctifying grace as a _habitus entitativus_ imparting to the soul a supernatural being, whereas charity, being purely a _habitus operativus_, confers a supernatural power.