Case 2. Dispositions of Converts

Caius, a missionary priest who is very busy, received several non-Catholics into the Church. He does not labor to instruct them before reception; rather, after a catechism has been given and some instruction received from certain lay people, when they declare that they understand the catechism and wish to be received into the Church, he receives them immediately without delay, saying within himself that the less instructed especially cannot understand difficult questions about the motives of credibility of the Catholic religion, and that they will gradually understand everything necessary. Nevertheless, because of certain things recently discovered by him, he is troubled by scruples about this manner of proceeding, and indeed about the lawfulness of administering the sacraments to some of them; for he heard one of his converts say that he had entered the Church led only by greater probability and that afterward he had not attained greater certainty. Hence it is asked:

1. What dispositions are required in order that non-Catholics may be received into the Church?

2. What motives of credibility of the Catholic religion are required and sufficient so that the less instructed especially may be able to embrace the faith?

3. Is it lawful to absolve one who doubts about the faith?

4. What is to be said concerning the case?

1. What dispositions must non-Catholics have to be received into the Church?

They must believe with a firm faith all that the Catholic Church proposes to be believed, and they must have the purpose of performing all the duties which are of obligation for Catholics. With regard to the faith, it is not sufficient to believe everything implicitly. It is necessary as a means of salvation to believe explicitly that God exists, that He is a rewarder of them that seek Him, and probably also the mysteries of the Blessed Trinity and of the Incarnation. It is of precept to believe explicitly the articles of the Faith contained in the Creed, the sacraments which the faithful are under the obligation of receiving, the Lord’s Prayer, and the precepts of the Decalogue and of the Church. Hence the necessity of instruction in all these matters.

2. What motives of credibility of the Catholic religion are necessary and sufficient so that especially the illiterate may be able to embrace the Faith?

The Council of the Vatican teaches that miracles and prophecy are motives of credibility which are suited to the capacity of all. The existence, history, and fertility in good of the Catholic Church is also a motive by itself for embracing and persevering in the Faith, and it is suited to the capacity even of the illiterate. The motives should be such as to render the Catholic religion evidently credible, and, moreover, such as can not be displaced by future experience or learning. On this account, although motives which are respectively sufficient to produce moral certainty in illiterate minds, though not in others, might be sufficient to enable the illiterate to make an act of faith, yet even the illiterate should be furnished with something more solid and stable before being admitted into the Church.

3. Is it allowable to absolve one who doubts about the Faith?

No, it is not. If he positively doubts whether some article of the Faith is true, he is a heretic. If he doubts negatively or suspends his assent, he sins gravely against the Faith, and can not be absolved as long as he remains in that state.

4. The case. Caius, a missionary priest and a busy man, received many converts into the Church. He did not take great pains in their instruction, but gave them a catechism, and after they had received a certain amount of instruction from some pious lay people, on their declaring that they knew the catechism and wished to be received into the Church, he received them, saying to himself, that the illiterate especially could not understand difficult questions about the motives of credibility of the Catholic religion, and that they would by degrees learn all that was necessary.

In this Caius made a mistake. It would have been better to receive a few converts well instructed than many badly instructed. Ignorance of their religion is one of the causes why so many Catholics lead un-Catholic lives, and profess such un-Catholic sentiments. Many ill-instructed converts leave the Church when difficulties arise. Caius should, at least, see that his converts have a good knowledge of the catechism. It is not necessary for them to go into difficult questions about the motives of credibility, but they should have some clear idea why they wish to become Catholics, and in some way that reason should be reducible to one or other of the ordinary motives of credibility.

Caius began to have scruples about his method of dealing with converts when he heard one of them say that he came into the Church because he thought that more probably it was the true Church of God, and that he has never had greater certainty than that. Caius had reason to be troubled, for this convert had never been a Catholic at all, inasmuch as he never had the Faith, as we gather from the twenty-first proposition condemned by Innocent XI: Supernatural assent of faith useful for salvation stands with merely probable knowledge of revelation, even with a fear by which someone fears that God has not spoken. Caius may not administer the sacraments to such as these until they are better instructed and until they firmly, without any doubt, believe the Catholic faith.