Article — Noldin, Summa of Moral Theology
Article Fourth. On the Precept of External Faith
16. Whether there exists a divine precept and when it obliges. 1. There exists a grave obligation of confessing faith externally, even with danger to life; this is established from Sacred Scripture: Everyone therefore who shall confess Me before men, I also will confess him before My Father who is in heaven; but he who shall deny Me before men, I also will deny him before My Father who is in heaven.1 If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart, you will be saved: for with the heart belief is unto justice, but with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.2
Since this precept also is affirmative, it is asked when the obligation of confessing faith externally urges. The question, however, is concerning formal confession of faith, which is made with the intention that internal faith be outwardly manifested, not concerning material confession, which is made through the observation of a precept that contains a manifestation of faith.
- The divine precept of formally confessing faith obliges:
a. When the honor of God or of Christ requires external confession, where namely from the omission of confession great detriment of divine honor follows, but from confession great honor accrues to God or to Christ; and this happens especially: a. if someone is asked about his faith by public authority in a cause of faith; b. if the doctrine of faith is mocked or if sacred things are violated.
a. If someone is asked by public authority in a cause of faith about his faith, namely whether he is a Catholic, or what he thinks about some truth of faith, whether this happens publicly or privately, he is bound to confess his faith without ambiguity, even with danger to life,3 because the omission of profession among unbelievers would greatly diminish esteem for God and for the true religion; on the contrary, through public confession the true faith is confirmed and propagated. But if some private unbeliever or heretic asks someone about his faith, of itself he is not bound to confess it, but can be silent or evade the question in another way.
b. If in your presence the doctrine of faith or of the Church is exposed to mockery or blasphemies, you are bound not only to profess the faith, but also, if you judge yourself sufficient for this, to defend it; and if in your presence the Most Holy Eucharist or sacred images or relics are violated, you are bound to manifest yourself as a Catholic and to restrain the injuries, unless you foresee that your efforts will be of no profit.4
b. When the utility of the neighbor requires external confession, where namely from the omission of confession the faithful would fall away from the faith and unbelievers would be confirmed in their error; but, on the contrary, from confession unbelievers would be converted and the faithful confirmed in the true faith.
Whether an adult who receives baptism or returns to the Church ought publicly to profess the faith. Every Christian, by the will of Christ, ought visibly to adhere to the Church; but he adheres visibly to the Church through profession of faith. This obligation of outwardly manifesting the faith endures throughout the course of life; but it is fulfilled by this very fact, that the precepts are observed which contain the external profession of faith, such as hearing Mass, receiving the sacraments, etc.
a. Hence, outside the case of necessity, it is not permitted to baptize an adult or admit him to conversion secretly, with only the priest knowing, but this ought to happen publicly before others, at least two witnesses. Therefore the Church prescribes that the abjuration of heresy which is required of new converts be made before two witnesses, and that the completed conversion be inserted into the parochial books, both so that satisfaction may be made to the obligation of professing the faith, and so that the converted person may be subject to the jurisdiction of the Church in the external forum.
b. Baptism received or conversion completed may indeed be hidden for a time for a grave reason, without being made public, provided the new convert does nothing by which he professes a false sect; thus, as history witnesses, hidden Christians lived in the court of the Roman emperors; but meanwhile he is excused from the positive precepts either of God or of the Church on account of grave inconvenience. Yet concealment for a long time is illicit, both because the obligation of professing the faith urges, and because in practice it cannot happen that circumstances will not soon occur in which the convert must deny the faith and externally profess the sect. Therefore it has been established that a Mohammedan who on account of danger to life wishes to be and remain a hidden Christian cannot be admitted to baptism, but he ought to transfer himself to places where he can publicly profess the Christian religion.5
c. In a case of necessity, where namely one dying, for a grave cause, refuses public conversion to the faith, he can be received into the Church altogether secretly by any priest, so that provision may be made for his salvation, unless the reason of preventing scandal or of promoting the salvation of the neighbor requires otherwise, as in a man of great dignity and authority. But even in this case the conversion can be made before only two witnesses, who, if there is need, can afterwards make the matter public.6
2 Rom. 10:9 ff. Cf. 2 Tim. 2:12.
3 Proposition 18, condemned by Innocent XI: If someone is questioned by public authority, I counsel that he sincerely confess the faith as glorious to God and to the faith; to be silent I do not condemn as sinful of itself.
4 Sporer-Bierbaum, I, tract. 2, n. 43.
5 S. C. de Prop. Fide, 28 May 1635.
6 Cf. Lehmkuhl, Casus conscientiae, I, n. 182 ff.
17. By ecclesiastical law, to certain persons, both ecclesiastical and lay, in certain circumstances profession of faith is prescribed. The cause of this precept is judged to be grave, namely lest spiritual or temporal rule and the office of teaching others be committed to an unbelieving or heretical man. Yet in many regions this precept, at least in part, has been abolished by desuetude.1
1 Concerning who must emit the profession of faith according to the form prescribed by Pius IV, with the addition made by Pius IX, see Lehmkuhl, I, n. 296; Aichner, Compendium iuris ecclesiastici, Brixen: Weger, 1900, §150, 3.