Article I. On Scrupulous Conscience

Scrupulous conscience is said to be that which from a slight, indeed even empty, cause doubts concerning the honesty of some action, and therefore fears sin where there is no sin. For a scruple is an empty apprehension, or a slight suspicion, by which someone falsely judges something to be sin. But the word scruple is said to be taken from little stones, or scruples, which, entering the shoes of travelers, create trouble for the feet.

We shall speak briefly of the causes, signs, harms, and remedies of scruples, and also of the rules for scrupulous penitents and their Confessors.

44. • The principal causes of scruples are the following:

1. Divine permission. Not indeed as though God sends false apprehensions, but because, permitting these things, He withdraws His light, namely so that man, having fallen into anxieties, may return to the heart, betake himself to better fruit, learn to have recourse to God, and by patiently sustaining anguish make satisfaction for sins, increase merit, etc.

2. Operation of the devil. For the devil skillfully knows how to fabricate scruples, by stirring the blood, altering the humors, placing various images before the imagination, composing diverse species, so that he may form a severe and false image of sin, trouble the mind, draw it back from spiritual progress, and finally cast it into dejection of spirit, or even into despair.

3. A melancholic and phlegmatic temperament. For melancholics are for the most part suspicious and tenacious of the things which they apprehend, and therefore prone to every suspicion of evil; and since they are of a cold temperament, they are more easily liable to fear and pusillanimity, and are frightened at the first appearance of evil.

4. Weakness of the head, or a defect of natural judgment in persons inclined to fear; likewise pusillanimity and dejection of spirit, on account of which someone does not know how to contemn fears.

5. Excessive solicitude for avoiding everything which has the appearance of evil; for while the scrupulous person continually cries out to himself: beware of sin... pay attention to yourself..., he frightens and disturbs himself without cause.

6. Association with the scrupulous; to which also pertains direction received from a scrupulous Confessor, the reading of cases of conscience and of stricter ascetical authors done by someone incautious and less understanding; likewise a fastidious flight from any human conversation.

45. • It is of very great importance that directors of souls discern the truly scrupulous from the false. For often those are thought scrupulous who are not, and vice versa; and from this immense errors in direction flow, with no small danger of spiritual harm: therefore much circumspection is needed here. The principal signs of scruples are:

1. Pertinacity of judgment, by which someone refuses to obey the counsels of the Confessor or of wise men; and while he consults various persons, he acquiesces in the judgment of none; indeed the more he hears, the more he is entangled.

2. Frequent change of judgment from slight motives, whence frequent inconstancy in acting, and continual disturbance of mind.

3. Fear of sinning in all things, joined with pertinacity of mind against the judgment of the Confessor, of prudent persons, or even against one's own judgment: whence follows frequent questioning concerning the responses of the Confessor, and repeated inquiry whether, in acting according to the counsel given, conscience can be immune from fault.

4. Impertinent reflections about circumstances which were present in the action or could have been present, and certitude anxiously sought in all things.

5. Obstinacy in always repeating the same sin in confession, or in holding that as sin which has already several times been declared by the Confessor not to be such.

6. Continual anxiety concerning past confessions, notwithstanding the judgment of the Confessor, or the repetition of confessions.

• But he cannot be judged scrupulous, at least immediately, 1. who is moderately solicitous or anxious lest he offend God; 2. who after a life spent in sins is still troubled, and after confession does not seem to himself to have made satisfaction, but wishes rather to confess and expiate sins; 3. who still deliberately consents to grave sins, although after the sin has been committed he is greatly troubled and confesses anxiously, for there is a just cause of anxiety, at least moderate: nevertheless even in this one there can be a truly scrupulous person; 4. who in only one or another case has a passing scruple, and does not doubt whether he has sinned in this or that.

Moreover it sometimes happens that the Confessor, after hearing a penitent the first or second time, cannot immediately decide whether he is scrupulous, even if this penitent appears anxious about many things; since some just and reasonable cause of anxieties can be present. But much less can a scrupulous Confessor easily judge whether a penitent is scrupulous, or only fearful. - Lacroix, book 4, no. 517, etc.

46. • Scruples generally draw with them grave inconveniences and spiritual harms, and often also bodily harms, provided they have not been sent by God, but persevere from the fault of man. The principal harms of scruples are the following:

1. They harm the body; for through continual anguishes they constrict the heart, corrupt the blood, consume the vital spirits, and weaken the head.

2. They make the scrupulous person unfit for acting fruitfully with the neighbor; for most scrupulous persons are severe and morose toward household members no less than toward outsiders.

3. They harm obedience, or even totally impede it; since the scrupulous person rather follows trifles and mockeries of the imagination: thus he is driven to acting against the will of God, which is manifested to him through the spiritual father or director.

4. They weaken, or even utterly take away, the study and love of prayer; because they enervate the force of the mind, distract it by leading it to trifles, fill the spirit with anxieties, and make it unfit for union with God. Hence follows not only ceasing spiritual gain, but also immense arising harm.

5. They break fortitude: for what great thing would one dare who is wholly occupied in trifles, and, victory over his passions having been neglected, is so easily cast down in spirit?

6. They greatly lessen hope, or even destroy it, because the matter is finally brought to this, that confidence in God having been lost, one declines into laxity. For how will he trust in God as he ought, who always regards Him as a most severe exactor? Therefore the scrupulous person, unless he fights strongly against scruples, will soon be driven by them into despair, and will loosen the reins to his desires, or at least will lead a most wretched life and with great danger of damnation.

47. • Scruples are frequently concerned 1. with daily actions; 2. with depraved thoughts; 3. with confessions. Therefore:

I. To scrupulous persons who in all actions are troubled by fear of sinning, it must be enjoined that they act strenuously against scruples, and abstain from confessing them, unless they are most certain that sin is present there. For although by so acting they sometimes sin materially, nevertheless they will not sin formally by reason of the obedience which they ought to furnish to the Confessor. - St. Lig., no. 17.

II. To scrupulous persons who fear to give, or to have given, assent to any depraved thought against chastity, Faith, or Charity, it must be imposed that they despise these thoughts as mere phantasms, and abstain from confession of thoughts of this kind, unless they can swear that they truly consented to them. - St. Lig., no. 15.

III. To scrupulous persons who are always anxious about confessions, especially past ones, it must be prohibited that they think any more about the faults of past life, nor speak a word about them in confession, unless they can swear 1. that they perpetrated mortal sins; 2. that they never confessed them, especially if they have already completed a general confession. - St. Lig., no. 16.

Moreover the scrupulous and fearful, anxious about past confessions, are to be questioned thus: 1. Did you knowingly conceal a grave sin? 2. Did you propose to repeat sins? If they answer negatively to each demand, their confession must be pronounced valid.

48. • 1. In moral matters certitude is not to be sought in all things. This holds for all; but it must be applied especially to the scrupulous.

2. Supreme and blind obedience is to be furnished to the Confessor, and one must proceed in all things with great humility and confidence.

3. Doubt which could seem reasonable in others must be wholly despised in the scrupulous.

4. It is licit, indeed often obligatory, and sometimes under grave obligation, to fight against scruples. - St. Lig., no. 17.

5. Confession must never be repeated unless it was certainly sacrilegious; nor must the examination of the last confession ever be renewed, even if doubt about a grave sin omitted seems to arise.

6. Scruples are to be contemned; nor must the scrupulous ever dispute with themselves about these things.

1. Let the Confessor examine whether the penitent is truly scrupulous..., whether in all things..., and what is the origin of the scruples.

2. Let him be patient, kindly, and strong. These words of the Apostle, 2 Tim. 4. 2, pertain to him: Be instant in season, out of season; reprove, entreat, rebuke in all patience and doctrine.

3. Let him respond to one asking without hesitation and with command; let him not easily add reasons to responses; nor let sins already confessed be repeated several times.

4. Let him commend to the scrupulous person great confidence in the goodness of God, frequent prayer, flight from idleness, brevity of examination, humility of heart.

5. With the scrupulous person let him use general rules, not particular ones; for by these the scrupulous person cannot be directed, because he is unfit for applying them. - See Cases, no. 48.