Question III: Concerning Penitents Who Are to Be Instructed and Admonished

I. Obligation of instructing and admonishing. - The confessor, from his office, is bound under grave obligation:

1. As minister of the sacrament, to instruct the penitent, not indeed concerning all things which the latter is bound to know, but concerning those things which he is bound to know in order here and now rightly, that is, validly and fruitfully, to receive the sacrament; unless, however, absolution can be deferred to another time.

2. As teacher and physician, who ought to direct in the way of salvation, at least to admonish the penitent concerning matters which he is bound to know and to do, or concerning other truths and obligations which he ought to know, so that he may learn or fulfill them.¹

¹ Cf. Reuter, o. c., p. I, c. IV, nn. 5-9; St. Alphonsus, Th. M., l. VI, nn. 608-616; Billuart, de Poen., diss. 6, a. 10, § 3; Berardi, Praxis conf., nn. 1107-1114; Tanquerey, o. c., nn. 473-478; Theol. Mechl., de Poen. (4), nn. 78-79; Lehmkuhl, Th. M., II, nn. 571-576; Aertnijs, Th. P., nn. 63-66; Ballerini-Palmieri, de Poen., nn. 811-831; Genicot, Th. M., II, nn. 357-359; Noldin, Th. M., III, nn. 393-394.

II. Instruction and admonition always to be made before absolution. - From this it is clear concerning what things in particular penitents must always be instructed or admonished before absolution, namely:

1. Those who culpably or inculpably are ignorant of truths certainly to be believed by necessity of means (namely, that God exists and that He is a supernatural rewarder) are absolutely to be instructed before absolution, as being incapable of contrition, justification, and absolution. Likewise, generally, those who are ignorant of truths probably to be believed by necessity of means (God triune, and the Son incarnate and redeemer), because in doubt concerning means necessary to the end, especially to the ultimate end, eternal salvation, the safer part is to be chosen; unless, however, there is extreme necessity in which it is impossible to instruct the dying person concerning these things. In that case, the other necessary things being given, he must be absolved under condition: if you are capable; and if he survives, he is to be instructed and absolved again. It should be noted, however, that a very developed or scientific knowledge of these mysteries is not required, but that it suffices that it be believed that there are three distinct ones (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) who are one God, and that the Son of God, having become man, redeemed us by His death; these things can easily be taught. But if someone cannot retain them, it suffices to recall them in confession.

2. Likewise those are to be instructed or admonished before absolution who are ignorant of, or do not have, the dispositions necessary for receiving the sacrament validly or licitly and fruitfully, namely contrition, a firm purpose, and the mode of confessing integrally; for otherwise they are exposed to the danger of receiving absolution invalidly or illicitly.

3. Likewise those who are ignorant of necessary things to be known by necessity of precept (the Symbol, the Decalogue, the precepts of the Church, the sacraments to be received by them, the Lord's prayer, and other things necessary for establishing a right Christian life) are to be admonished. But they can be absolved if they grieve for negligence and seriously promise to learn these things as soon as possible; for then they are sufficiently disposed. But if they have several times promised in vain, it must be examined whether absolution should be deferred because of defect or doubt of purpose. But if all means of learning these things are lacking to the penitent, from charity the confessor can be bound to teach him, and, if he is a parish priest, from justice; and therefore the place and time for receiving instruction are to be designated.

4. Likewise those who are ignorant of the things necessary for rightly fulfilling their office are, of themselves and generally, not to be absolved unless they are prepared to relinquish their office (of judge, physician, advocate, confessor, parish priest), or to acquire the required knowledge, and meanwhile to abstain from exercising those things by which grave harm could probably be brought upon the neighbor. Otherwise they would be indisposed, as exposing themselves to the proximate danger of causing grave harm. Sometimes, however, the admonition concerning leaving the office can be omitted, if it is not hoped that it will be profitable and scandal is lacking; but the obligation of acquiring the necessary knowledge as soon as possible must always be urged.

5. Likewise, before absolution, penitents are to be admonished concerning obligations which result from their sins (unless in good faith they are ignorant and certainly will not act, nor is a greater evil feared otherwise), such as the obligation of restoring reputation, honor, or goods; the obligation of avoiding proximate occasions of sin; the obligation of laying aside grave hatred, reconciling oneself with an enemy, repairing scandal, etc. These the confessor should impose in such a way that he does not give ear to the vain pretexts of penitents, but prescribes them as an essential condition of absolution.

III. Admonition regularly to be made, and at an opportune time. - It is also clear concerning what things penitents (who labor under ignorance or an erroneous conscience) are regularly to be admonished, but with prudence, and not necessarily before absolution, but at an opportune time:

1. Those who exaggerate evil for themselves and judge that to be evil which is not, or to be graver than it is, e.g., that to be mortal which is venial: for then the error is harmful, as being the cause of formal sin, and it is to be removed. This is true even if it is foreseen that from this they will more often commit venial sins; for it is better to permit innumerable venial sins than one mortal sin, as St. Alphonsus notes, Th. M., l. III, c. V, n. 130; and the confessor by his admonition will forestall such a multiplication of relapse.

2. Likewise those who diminish evil and judge licit what is evil, or less evil than it is, e.g., that to be venial which is mortal, and who are not in good faith, but whose ignorance is vincible and gravely culpable; as if they doubt or inquire, which is a sign of doubtful faith. Then in them there is culpable negligence, and they are not excused from sin, from which therefore they are to be rescued by every effort.²

² Let it be noted: 1) only sometimes, and altogether more rarely, if a greater sin is certainly feared, the confessor perhaps can dissemble the truth and say nothing, as if he had not heard the question, provided that from this he is not thought to approve the evil; 2) nevertheless he is not bound to say more than is necessary or than he is asked. For example, if one bound by a simple vow of chastity asks whether the marriage was therefore invalid, let him answer negatively, remaining silent concerning the debt; if the penitent asks whether he must render the debt to the spouse, let him answer affirmatively, remaining silent concerning the obligation not to ask. Cf. St. Alphonsus, Theol. Mor., l. VI, n. 616; Reuter, Neo-conf., p. I, c. IV, n. 7.

3. Likewise those who so judge from invincible ignorance, if that ignorance cannot remain for long, as if it is a question of first principles and first conclusions of natural law and of obvious duties of state (e.g., concerning the education of children), in one word, concerning those things which cannot be ignored for long.

4. Likewise those who err from invincible ignorance, or from ignorance not gravely culpable, if admonition is foreseen likely to be profitable, at least after some time, or if there is not a grave and serious reason for doubting this; unless sometimes greater evils would have to be feared. For the office of the confessor is to instruct penitents concerning obligations, if it can be done without grave inconvenience; but admonition must be omitted if formal sin in others or grave harms would arise. Hence the penitent who in good faith has contracted marriage invalidly generally is not to be admonished before the marriage can be revalidated, lest perhaps meanwhile he sin formally; indeed even if he is going to receive the admonition, but at the same time formal sins are foreseen in others, e.g., in the spouse, or grave harms, e.g., in the children.

5. Likewise those who err from invincible ignorance are to be admonished, even if the admonition will not be profitable, provided that omission of the admonition harms the common good, as if it is a question of scandal or of grave temporal or spiritual harm which the whole community is going to suffer from the neglect of a superior; e.g., if silence would be the cause that reading depraved books, frequenting dances, entry into the Masonic sect, or the practice of onanism would be believed or said not to be illicit, because confessors seem to oppose them little.

6. Likewise if invincible error does not harm the common good but harms the penitent himself, as if it brings danger to salvation, e.g., if it is concerned with means perhaps necessary for salvation or absolution, or if it introduces the danger of founding a depraved habit from which afterward he will free himself only with difficulty, such as fornication or self-abuse.

On the contrary, admonition is not to be made if there is no hope of amendment and the ignorance is involuntary and not more harmful to the penitent, to others, or to the common good; yet this happens not rarely: for of two evils the lesser is to be permitted so that the greater may be avoided. Hence in the concurrence of material and formal sin, the formal is more to be forestalled, for by it alone God is offended.

IV. Observations.

Therefore 1) in judging the opportuneness of admonition, it must be remembered that one mortal sin is graver than many venial sins, one formal sin than all material sins; the spiritual harm of the penitent than the temporal harm of others; the detriment of the common good than the detriment of the particular good of the penitent alone.

The reason of this last is that then the confessor, says St. Alphonsus, Praxis Conf., n. 9, "since he himself has been constituted minister for the good of the Christian republic, is bound to prefer the public good to the private good of the penitent."

2. Civil or ecclesiastical superiors who fail in their proper office with regard to those subject to them are absolutely to be admonished. The reason is both because their ignorance is not easily to be supposed invincible, since each one is bound to know the obvious obligations of his office, and because their ignorance, even invincible, will always be to the harm of the community, while others can easily think that what they see being done by superiors is licit for themselves. (St. Alphonsus, ibidem.)

3. For the same reason, in the case of common harm, those who frequently receive the sacraments are to be admonished, as Benedict XIV teaches (Bulla Apostolica, § 20), lest, namely, that which is observed to be practiced by these with impunity be judged licit by others. Nor is it an obstacle that admonition here and now seems to be made uselessly, or even with scandal of the penitent; for such a penitent, when afterward he sees himself absolved by no one, will more easily be amended; and meanwhile the scandal of others will cease when they see that he is not admitted to the sacraments.

4. That the confessor may gain the confidence of penitents, let him not imprudently impose upon them undue burdens, nor immediately and precipitately respond to counsel sought or doubt proposed. More opportunely he will take time for reflection, or even, if there is no danger of harming the seal, seek the mind of one more learned and wiser.

5. Ignorance is invincible: a) when someone in no way adverts or suspects that the act is evil (or obligatory); b) when someone sometimes doubts concerning this, but in no way adverts or suspects the obligation of examining, neither implicitly nor confusedly; c) when he doubts and seriously examines, but the examination does not make the act appear illicit or the obligation of changing the manner of acting.

On the contrary, it is vincible if it can be overcome by serious examination. For this three things are required: a) doubt concerning the liceity of the action; b) advertence to the obligation of examining, at least implicit; c) negligence of examination.

V. Warning. - From the foregoing it is also evident that penitents are generally to be questioned and admonished concerning onanism: for very many principles demand this. For such a practice a) with difficulty admits invincible ignorance, at least lasting ignorance; b) harms the common good; c) harms the penitent because of the depraved habit which he contracts; d) and if the pious follow it, it causes scandal. Hence they are not to be admonished only in a very rare case. Concerning these things cf. A. Knoch, "L'Onanisme conjugal et le tribunal de la Penitence."

Wherefore those gravely fail in their office who generally neglect to question under the pretext that it is too burdensome, or that the custom of questioning no longer exists, or that the use of onanism here and there is already so general that it is rightly feared that by diligent questioning and by a stricter manner of proceeding many will therefore cease to frequent the sacraments and the church. For the decrees of the Holy Office, the instructions of the bishops of Belgium, and of the Council of Mechlin are clear; nor can they be held as a positive law subject to mutability, but they are nothing other than the authentic interpretation of the natural law. Hence they can never be changed or legitimately go into desuetude, but always and everywhere are to be applied perpetually. Therefore those who do not conform themselves to them, and never or almost never question concerning conjugal onanism, or easily or indiscriminately grant absolution to onanists as though to all, sin gravely.

Most recently the Supreme Pontiff has willed to sanction this by his supreme authority. After he solemnly promulgated: "any use whatever of matrimony in the exercise of which the act, by the industry of men, is deprived of its natural power of procreating life, infringes the law of God and of nature, and those who have committed such a thing are stained by the blemish of grave guilt"; he adds these things for confessors:

"Therefore priests who give their work to hearing confessions, and others who have the care of souls, by Our supreme authority and by Our care for the salvation of all souls, We admonish, that they not permit the faithful entrusted to them to err concerning this most grave law of God, and much more, that they themselves keep themselves immune from false opinions of this sort, and that they in no way connive in them. But if any confessor or pastor of souls, which God forbid, should himself lead the faithful entrusted to him into these errors, or at least should confirm them in these errors, whether by approving or by deceitfully remaining silent, let him know that he will have to render a severe account to God the Supreme Judge concerning the betrayal of his office, and let him consider as said to himself the words of Christ: they are blind, and leaders of the blind; but if the blind gives guidance to the blind, both fall into the pit."

Since, therefore, several confessors, the admonitions of bishops and the decrees of the Holy Office having been passed over, have in no way changed their lax manner of acting, let us see whether at least they are willing to give ear to the supreme authority of the Supreme Pontiff.

VI. Corollary concerning the rude. - From the things said before it is now sufficiently evident how one must proceed with the rude, without a special question being raised concerning them.³

³ Concerning them Reuter, o. c., nn. 3 and 114-118, and Lehmkuhl, Th. M., II, nn. 612-614, can be seen.

These persons, in the business of salvation, sometimes are well or better instructed than others, but not always, as can be evident from their accusation and answers. Concerning them let the following rules hold:

1. In accusation they are not immediately, but only when an occasion is given, to be helped, so that first they are permitted to express themselves, as was said q. 2, n. IV, C.

2. If they accuse themselves insufficiently, or this can deservedly be presumed, they are generally not to be dismissed, but are to be examined: by running through the precepts of God and of the Church and the obligations of state, as was said q. 1, n. III and IV.

3. To this end they are also to be questioned, but moderately and according to their capacity, so that the accusation may be completed in the mode in which this is possible for such persons: according to what was said q. 2, n. IV, A.

4. But if they seem unable to institute a sufficiently accurate examination, let the confessor also suggest to them the manner of examining themselves.

5. Those who are not negligent in enumerating sins are to be admonished concerning sorrow and purpose (unless, however, it is evident that in this matter they are solicitous), so that they may seriously weigh the malice of sin, and, motives of contrition having been proposed according to their grasp, may exercise themselves in sorrow: for there are those who think it suffices after confession merely materially to recite the formula of contrition (cf. q. 2, n. IV, C, 3, b; and q. 3, n. II, 2).

6. If some scarcely have anything to accuse (or say nothing particular), it must be examined from what the defect arises:

a) If from a uniform life and continual labor they scarcely have occasion of sinning, and thus easily abstain from graver things and hold light things of little account, they are to be helped so that they may accuse lighter things and, for the security of contrition, accuse a graver sin of their past life.

b) If from defect of examination, they are to be admonished concerning the obligation of examining conscience, and, according to prudence, either dismissed until sufficient preparation, or subjected to an examination of conscience to supply the defect. This, from charity, must often be done if they themselves cannot examine themselves, or if something worse is to be feared, e.g., if it is foreseen that they would be gravely offended or not return (q. 1, n. III).

c) If certain matter is not present, or if they reveal nothing because of imbecility, rudeness of instruction, or dullness, and have not confessed for some months, after sorrow concerning sins in general has been elicited, they will be able to be absolved under condition, at least if it is to be feared that they could be in mortal sin (q. 2, n. V, 3).

d) Such persons, however, are always to be examined concerning necessary things to be known: for if they confess nothing, or know how to answer nothing except that they have sworn or cursed animals, there is a prudent suspicion of crass ignorance. For these persons detestation must be enjoined concerning the fact that they have been negligent in the business of the soul; and the truths of faith must at least be proposed and recalled to memory, so that at least here and now they may know them, if they cannot retain them, just as can easily happen in the old, who knew them before (q. 3, n. II, 1 and 3).

e) With all the aforesaid persons, sorrow and serious purpose must be treated, as we have already said.

7. If they are doubtfully disposed, they are to be seriously admonished and, as far as possible, disposed; but if they remain doubtfully disposed, although of itself absolution should be deferred, nevertheless for these persons, more than for others, there often occurs one of the cases in which they can be absolved under condition, namely so that a greater evil may be avoided, as will be said, q. 4, n. IV, 4.

8. In relation to the satisfaction to be imposed, among other things those which Reuter has (o. c., n. 118) can be useful:

"For rustics and common people, for penances, prayers are almost always to be enjoined, and these usually such that they may discharge them immediately on the same day or on the next feast; unless custom or negligence in divine things counsels something else. Hence if they are negligent in receiving the sacrament of penance, it will usefully be enjoined that after a month or on the next greater feast, or if then they cannot, on the next occasion after it, they confess again. If they have a habit, e.g., of cursing or swearing, for 14 days or for a month let them recite in the morning three times the Our Father and Hail Mary in praise of the Most Holy Trinity; or: let them ask pardon of their sins, offer to God in satisfaction, in a simple manner, their labors and difficulties to be undergone that day, and ask the grace of amendment; or also: in the evening let them repeat the same prayers, grieve and ask pardon, saying, e.g., 'God, be propitious to me, a miserable sinner'; or let it be enjoined upon them that as often as they again curse or swear, they strike the breast and ask pardon; nevertheless they are to be admonished that, if at any time they forget, it suffices that afterward they repair or compensate. If someone were guilty of many grave sins and no other fitting penance occurred, it could be enjoined that for a month, or until the next confession, on Sundays and feasts he devoutly offer to God in satisfaction for his sins the Mass which he already ought to hear, and on the same days say the rosary (or five decades) at Mass, or as he pleases. It will also be useful, especially if it is feared lest the penitent be deficient in sufficient sorrow and efficacious purpose, to enjoin upon him that before communion he elicit faith, hope, and charity with sorrow, or at least contrition with purpose, and renew these acts after communion and offer them to Christ to be confirmed: for thus he will consult the reverence and fruit of the sacrament, as far as can be done."

Lehmkuhl, however, observes: with rude men and those of inferior condition, the confessor, on the one hand, can sometimes use a more severe manner of acting and speaking by rebuking them, if they are of a harder temperament and given to sins and not diligent in detesting them; on the other hand, he must beware lest he repel them by harshness, but must devote himself so that he may console them and win them for God. For the ruder are offended even by a hard manner of acting and are more deterred than the cultivated; but attracted by kindness and affability, they are formed to good morals with great docility. In one word: let severity be tempered by meekness.