Chapter — Prümmer, Manuale Theologiae Moralis
Chapter III. On Lax Conscience
314. Notions. To vincibly erroneous conscience is reduced lax conscience, which judges from an insufficient reason that either no sin at all is present, or at least that so great a sin is not present in a particular case, as it is in reality. Since, therefore, lax conscience is erroneous, Principle 3 brought above in n. 310 is to be applied to it.
Lax conscience has two degrees almost equally dangerous, namely cauterized conscience (abgestumpftes Gewissen), which from a long-standing habit of sinning makes little of all or certain determinate grave sins, indeed almost does not even perceive them. For from perverse morals the moral sense can be so clouded that man does not even abhor grave sins, but as it were drinks iniquity like water.46 Nevertheless, from this it is not licit to deduce that such a man now cannot distinguish between moral good and evil, or that he labors under moral insanity and therefore lacks moral responsibility. And truly this moral insanity is repugnant to synteresis and to the nature of conscience. The other degree of lax conscience is Pharisaic conscience, which in appearance is a tender conscience, because in certain matters, especially exterior ones, it is very, indeed too, accurate, but in other matters, and those more necessary, it sins without scruple.47
46 Cf. Isa. 5, 20; Job 15, 16.
47 Cf. Matt. 23, 13 sqq. "Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you cleanse what is outside the cup and dish, but inside you are full of robbery and uncleanness" (ib. v. 25). Those are not so far from this Pharisaic conscience who are too anxious about many external devotions; but on the other side they easily injure fraternal charity and the moral virtues. Commonly these men are called Scheinheilige, Betschwestern, Quiseln, devotes, and they are found in the male sex equally as in the female.
315. Causes of lax conscience. The first root indeed is that habitual disposition of soul proceeding from original sin, which inclines one to deny or lessen obligations and to extend freedom of acting more than is just; but the proximate causes are: 1. depraved education and intercourse. Experience, alas, clearer than the light of day shows that children educated by irreligious and ill-behaved parents attain neither the true sense of religion nor of morality. Likewise daily we see that those who habitually associate with perverse men are gradually perverted and drink in false judgments concerning religion and morality. - 2. Vehement disordered passions rather often cause a lax conscience. For such passions are accustomed to cloud the intellect and therefore impede its right judgment. Therefore the common adage is: "What one desires, this also he believes." Hence there are so many false judgments in matters of morals! For example, movements of anger are called pious indignations; unbridled ambition hears the name noble emulation; the sacred hunger for gold is called providence for adverse circumstances; sensual pleasure is named necessary care of the body, etc. - 3. A life long immersed in vices, which is accustomed to produce a clouding and finally a blinding of the intellect and an obduracy of the will. There is added the fact that a man given over to vices always receives fewer graces of God and from this slips into a deep abyss in which he no longer rightly perceives the norms of morality.
Effects. There is no one who does not see how dangerous lax conscience is, since from it arise innumerable sins, which are the more dangerous the less rightly they are perceived. Fearing this danger the Psalmist prays: "From my hidden [sins] cleanse me [O Lord]!"48 Lax conscience, unless it has arisen from bad education, is customarily culpably erroneous, and from this all sinful acts which proceed from it, although they are not recognized as sins, are imputed to fault.
48 Ps. 18, 13.
316. Remedies. 1. The first, best, and most efficacious remedy against lax conscience is devout and assiduous prayer: "Give me understanding, and I shall search Thy law, and I shall keep it with my whole heart."49 - 2. Another remedy very much to be counseled is sacramental confession and instruction made by a prudent and patient confessor. But when the confessor notices that the penitent labors under a lax conscience, let him treat him kindly, yet at the same time strongly admonishing and instructing him toward the reformation of conscience. - 3. The third remedy is the removal of the causes which produced the lax conscience. Thus, if that laxity arose from bad education, good instruction is to be imparted; if it happened from bad intercourse, the society of God-fearing men is to be counseled; if an earlier bad life made the conscience cauterized, amendment must be procured with all one's powers.
49 Ps. 118, 34.