Chapter III: On Satisfaction

534. Satisfaction (satis-facere) is an act by which someone does as much as he ought, an act by which he pays a debt, or compensation for placing equality in things; but in the strict sense it is compensation for an injury inflicted on another.

In theology it is so called as a voluntary recompense, according to a certain equality of justice, for the injury inflicted on God through sin.

One kind is ordered to repairing fault itself and to reconciliation with God, and this is contrition itself; another to destroying the temporal punishment which often remains to be undergone after the remission of fault. This can be considered in purpose or vow and acceptance, according as it is a sincere will of fulfilling penance, or in execution, according as it is the actual fulfillment of the penance enjoined. Considered in purpose it is not distinguished from contrition, which includes the purpose of confessing and satisfying, as also of sinning no more (III, q. 90, a. 2, ad 1): for he is not truly contrite who does not wish to repair sin. But regarded in reality it is a distinct special act, and a twofold kind is distinguished: one is extrasacramental, which is voluntarily taken up by the penitent and has satisfactory force ex opere operantis; another is sacramental, which is imposed by the minister and operates ex opere operato. This is defined: the voluntary toleration of punishment, imposed by the judicial power of the minister, for compensating the injury inflicted on God and redeeming the temporal punishment due for the injury, even after sin has been remitted; or compensation for the temporal punishment due to sins through good and penal works, measured by the confessor and voluntarily accepted by the penitent (Suppl., q. 12, a. 3).