Curiosity and Negligence

The Vices Opposed to Studiousness.—(a) The vice of excess is called curiosity. It is a desire of knowledge that is inordinate on account of the motive (e.g., when one is curious about the doings of others because one wishes to injure them, when one gazes about to satisfy impure desire) or on account of its circumstances (e.g., a curiosity about the latest news or rumors that keeps one from duty or more important matters, a curiosity that consults fortune-tellers, a curiosity that tries to peer into the inscrutable mysteries of God, Ecclus., iii. 22).

(b) The vice opposed to studiousness by defect is negligence, which is a voluntary omission of study of those matters one is bound to know, as when a schoolboy wastes his time in play and idleness. Curiosity and negligence are usually found in the same person (e.g., those who pry into the affairs of others without reason, do not, as a rule, mind their own business well).

The Malice of the Sins against Studiousness.—(a) Curiosity in itself is venial, for it does not seem a serious offense to busy oneself with things superfluous. But circumstances sometimes make it mortal. Thus, the subject-matter may make it serious, as when one is curious about obscene books, or has a prurient desire to gaze on unbecoming pictures or plays, or tries to fish out of others sacramental or other confidential secrets; or the purpose may make it serious as when one is inquisitive or spying because one wishes to blacken a neighbor (Prov., xxiv. 15), or the means may make it mortal as when recourse is had to calumny, fraud, reading private papers, etc., in order to get information.

(b) Negligence is mortal or venial according to the gravity of the duty of knowledge. Thus, if a lawyer gave no study at all to a case and thereby inflicted a grave loss on his client, the negligence would be a mortal sin.