Section — Prümmer, Manuale Theologiae Moralis
§ 1. On the internal act of faith by precept
Proposition. There is a divine precept of eliciting internal acts of faith (and indeed explicit ones) concerning the principal articles of faith.
For the sake of clarity we shall explain a) the existence, b) the extension, c) the time of obligation of this precept.
500. a) The existence of the precept of internal faith is altogether certain. For if God speaks to man, he speaks with this counsel, that faith be had in him. Nor can he who refuses faith fail to inflict injury either on God's knowledge or veracity, while he intimates that he is not free of error or fraud; or on God's wisdom, while he thinks him to act or speak without counsel; or on his supreme dominion, to which he does not wish to submit himself. Hence the precept of faith can deservedly be called a precept of natural law, in the sense that it follows necessarily and naturally from the very relation between God and man. - Moreover, from a positive divine precept all men having the use of reason are bound to believe. Hence Christ says: "He who does not believe shall be condemned,"33 and St. John says: "And this is his commandment: that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he has given commandment to us."34 Hence also the following proposition was condemned (in 1679) by Innocent XI: "Faith is not judged to fall under a special precept and according to itself."35
33 Mark 16, 16.
34 1 John 3, 23.
35 Denz. n. 1166.
501. b) The extension of this precept. According to diverse instruction and especially according to their diverse offices, men are bound to have more or less perfect knowledge of the truths of faith. Hence pastors, teachers of religion, parents, etc., who must instruct others, must have a more perfect knowledge of faith than other simple faithful. Here we treat only of those revealed truths which all men are bound to know or believe. The Church has determined nothing concerning these truths, whence in certain Catechisms five points are enumerated, in others seven, which all are bound to believe or know. But moral theologians usually enumerate the following four as necessarily to be believed or known (as to substance) by necessity of precept, namely:
- The Apostolic Symbol, 2. the Lord's Prayer, 3. the precepts of the Decalogue, 4. the sacraments necessary for all, namely baptism, penance, the Eucharist. The other sacraments must be known by him who is going to receive them.36
501. You will ask: Are the faithful bound to know these truths by memory? Several theologians require that the faithful know by memory the Apostolic Symbol, the Lord's Prayer, and the Decalogue. Certainly all pastors of souls are bound to labor according to their strength that the faithful committed to them be diligently instructed in matters pertaining to faith and good morals; whence Pius X in the Encyclical "Acerbo nimis" (April 15, 1905) prescribed: "All parish priests and generally all who have care of souls, on Sundays and feast days, for the space of a full hour, are to instruct boys and girls from the catechism booklet concerning those things which each must believe and do in order to attain salvation." Nevertheless it cannot be proved by solid arguments that the faithful are bound to know any formulas of faith by memory (at least per se and by divine precept). For the Decalogue and the Lord's Prayer are handed down in diverse places of Sacred Scripture not in the same words. Therefore a determined formula of words to be handed over to memory is not from divine precept. By accident there is a grave obligation of learning the Lord's Prayer by memory, because otherwise an imminent danger arises that all prayer will be wholly neglected. Hence in practice almost always any man perfectly possessing the use of reason is bound to learn this prayer. The half-witted or those so dull in mind that they cannot learn anything are excepted.
The obligation of instructing the faithful in matters of faith primarily binds pastors of souls; nevertheless a case can also occur in which the confessor is bound in the confessional to teach penitents concerning things necessarily to be believed. For if he perceives that the penitent is very ignorant in matters of faith, he must explain to him that God is one and three; that Christ is true God and has redeemed the world; that by his merits remission of all sins is given to men truly contrite; that Christ is really present in the sacrament of the Eucharist and that he will come at the end of the world to judge all men. Especially concerning children confessing for the first time a doubt can arise whether they sufficiently know the articles of faith. In this case, if they confess some mortal sin, they must be briefly instructed in the confessional; but if they do not accuse themselves of any grave sin, and if it is too burdensome to instruct them in the confessional itself, they are better dismissed with only a blessing, and afterward are instructed outside the confessional.
36 Cf. St. Alph., Theol. mor. l. 2, n. 3.
502. c) The time of obligation of this precept. The precept of eliciting an act of faith obliges sometimes per se and sometimes by accident.
Per se, or by force of the very precept of believing and independently from every other obligation, man is bound to elicit an act of faith:
- First, when divine revelation has been sufficiently proposed to him. But this happens for Catholics when they have acquired the perfect use of reason. The reason is that man, after having attained the use of reason and knowing the existence and revelation of God, is bound to submit himself to God and to revere him. Moreover, it would be the greatest irreverence if man refused or neglected
502. to render the faith due to God revealing. But this precept is already sufficiently fulfilled by children when they devoutly recite prayers to God. - But for heretics and unbelievers this occurs when they know the truth of the Catholic religion. The reason is the same. For immediately when revealed truths have been sufficiently proposed, each one is bound to assent to them, because otherwise he gravely injures the honor due to God. Therefore such heretics and unbelievers are bound at once to be converted to the true religion (at least secretly). But if at some time public conversion is most difficult, e.g. on account of civil laws (in Russia) or on account of the greatest inconveniences following from it, then it is licit to defer it for a time according to the prudent judgment of the pastor or confessor.
When a new dogmatic definition is proposed by the Church. Thus, e.g., when Pius IX declared the dogma of the infallibility of the Supreme Pontiff, all Christians were bound to elicit an act of faith concerning this dogma.
More often in life. Wherefore proposition (1) was condemned in 1665 by Alexander VII: "At no time in his life is man bound to elicit an act of faith, hope, and charity by force of the divine precepts pertaining to those virtues."37 But the following propositions were condemned (in 1679) by Innocent XI: "It is enough to elicit an act of faith once in life"; and: "It is probable that not even every strict five-year period obliges per se by the precept of charity toward God."38 Since, however, the necessity of charity and of faith is almost the same, the precept of faith also obliges at least in any five-year period.
Some authors here raise the question how often precisely a man is bound under grave obligation to elicit an act of faith. Some affirm that an act of faith must be elicited at least once each year, others once a month, others once on each Sunday and feast of the Lord.39 All these opinions are arbitrary and rest on no solid foundation. For the rest, the faithful living in a Christian manner abundantly satisfy this precept through the diverse exercises of religion which they are accustomed to perform. But a man who for long years neither prayed nor performed the exercises of the Christian religion has certainly gravely transgressed also the precepts of eliciting acts of faith, charity, and prayer; but the confessor, from this general omission once known, is already sufficiently able to judge concerning the state of the penitent, and is not bound to investigate each point.
- More probably in the article of death,40 because then we are most bound to believe in God as merciful and as a just rewarder.
By accident, i.e. from a peculiar circumstance, the precept of faith obliges: 1. when some precept must be fulfilled which requires an act of faith, e.g. in the reception of the sacraments. Nevertheless in these cases an implicit act of faith seems to suffice, although no better preparation for the reception of the sacraments is given than explicitly and fervently to elicit an act of faith, hope, and charity. 2. If a grave temptation arises against some virtue, which cannot be conquered otherwise.
37 Denz. n. 1101.
38 Ib. n. 1167, 1156.
39 Cf. St. Alph., Theol. mor. l. 2, n. 7.
40 Thus also St. Alph., Hom. ap. tr. 4, n. 13; Lehmkuhl, Theol. mor. I, n. 398, and several others. Noldin, De praecept. n. 14, c, teaches the contrary.
503. Scholion. On the omission of an act of faith in the practice of the confessor. The faithful of timorous conscience ought not to be anxious lest they have not fulfilled the precept of eliciting faith, since any pious prayer is already a sufficient act of faith; nevertheless they are to be diligently exhorted to elicit acts of faith very often and fervently. For from repeated acts faith becomes more fervid and pervades all actions, whence St. Paul admonishes: "The just man lives from faith."41 But the faithful who are not very religious and who approach the sacrament of penance after a long time are nevertheless rarely to be judged to have sinned gravely for this reason, that for a long time they did not elicit acts of faith; for they are accustomed to be ignorant of the obligation of this precept. Therefore the confessor is not bound to ask the penitent for what length of time he has not elicited an act of faith. For the rest, it is not established how great a duration of omission of an act of faith is required for constituting mortal sin, as was already said above.
41 Rom. 1, 17; Hebr. 10, 38.