29. On the Trampling of the Cross

Pagans, driven into rage against Christians, engraved the sign of the Cross in public roads, on bridges, and on the threshold of city gates, to be trampled by the feet of those going to and fro; and this with such frequency and continuity that it is impossible for travelers to abstain from that injury. Furthermore some of the pagans placed themselves on watch, so that they might silently observe the manner of acting of Christians. The Christians, the matter having been known, threw themselves into anguish: for on one side they cannot abstain from access to the city unless they wish to renounce their commerce and the procuring of things necessary for life; on the other, it seems to them that by trampling those crosses they give an indication of religion forsworn.

Q. What is to be done in these straits of affairs?

R. The preceding case was proposed by the Apostolic Vicar of Hu-nan. The S. C. de P. F., 26 June 1863, responded: "... 1. If Christians are admonished by no one concerning some sign of the cross which perhaps they have before their feet, the Sacred Congregation judged that they should walk freely, examining nothing. For when those things are established which have been set forth by Your Apostolic Lordship, and those two especially are evident and publicly known, namely the necessity of making the journey for conducting one's own business and sustaining life itself, and the firm will of Christians to be retained in their religion and to exclude all those things which are contrary to it, anyone easily sees that such a manner of acting cannot be refuted either from the end, or from the object, or from the circumstances, which are the three elements by which the morality of an action is constituted. For the end, which is not directed to contempt of Religion, but to consulting one's own necessities, is manifestly honorable.

"But with an end of this sort proposed, the material act also of walking over crosses, in which act the object of the action here is, if it is considered in itself and receives nothing of depravity from the circumstances, must without doubt be free from all fault. For since to walk and to place footsteps is an act indifferent by its nature, it necessarily follows that, if a dishonorable end is excluded, but an honorable end and one conformable to reason is proposed, the act itself also must be held as honorable and conformable to reason. Therefore you know that not only is it counted among scruples if someone turns it into religion for himself that while walking he trampled straws joined in the form of a cross, but also that everywhere and freely in churches the faithful walk over the stones of sepulchers, where the most holy name of Jesus, and its monogram and crosses, are very often engraved.

"It remains, therefore, that from the circumstances nothing of depravity accede; of these, one proposition occurs which seems to stretch forth some appearance of difficulty, that in describing the aforesaid crosses the pagans proposed to set a snare for Christians, namely so that, if compelled by necessity they should trample them, they might seem to have forsworn religion; to which Your Apostolic Lordship adds another by which he seems not a little moved, namely that in the first days pagans were also seen on watch, so that they might observe the Christians' manner of acting; yet you will easily perceive that this circumstance brings no moment. For since you say that the same persons stood by altogether silent and daring nothing at all, you plainly understand that they are to be held just as those who by chance saw Christians passing by. Wherefore this one thing is to be asked here, both as regards them, and as regards others who by chance are present, and also as regards the rest who, absent, know the deed, whether, because the pagans engraved crosses with that evil mind, scandal would rightly arise among them if Christians walked over them, as if namely they seemed to have given a judgment of religion forsworn. Since those two things which we have mentioned leap into the eyes of all, and are publicly known, namely the will of Christians, which openly and firmly adheres to its religion, and by equal reason abhors those things which are contrary, and the true reason which drives the same to frequent the roads of the city, which is the necessity of conducting their affairs and sustaining their life, this indeed follows: that if someone, blinded by his voluntary malice, is unwilling to see these things which all see, so that by calumny he attributes apostasy to Christians, he certainly suffers not the scandal of the little ones, nor one born from infirmity, but that of the Pharisees and one produced from malice. But you know that the scandal of the Pharisees is to be spurned.

"2. If Christians are admonished by someone concerning some cross which they have near their feet, the same Sacred Congregation responded that they ought diligently to take care lest they press the cross; since, if, admonished, they should freely trample the same, when nevertheless they could avoid it, they would rightly seem to the little and weak to have violated the sanctity of religion....

"3. But if the way is so blocked that it is licit to pass only over the described crosses, in that case, since it is manifest that one walks over them not from some irreverence but from mere necessity, the Sacred Congregation indeed responded that this can be done, but that for removing every account of scandal a twofold condition must be observed. The first is that before the one admonishing, and those hearing, Christians expressly profess that the will of inflicting injury on the cross is altogether absent from them. The other is that, in the very fact of passing, they hold a manner, as far as can be done, becoming, so that some sign of reverence may appear from it.... But if someone should wish to take scandal from this, he would plainly follow the ways of the Pharisees, and therefore his calumny would have to be despised, especially since, if Christians allow themselves to be terrified more than is fitting by these injuries of pagans, an occasion would be furnished to them for making the condition of the Christian Religion more difficult day by day, and easily extinguishing it by these acts...." Collect. S. C. de P. F., n. 1662.