Case 6. A Too-accommodating Matron

Mary, a good Catholic, acts as matron in a certain orphanage. She indeed frequents the Catholic church, but she is asked by the Anglican minister, who conducts divine service for the Anglicans in the orphanage itself, to assist and sing in that service, since she enjoys an excellent voice and the service is celebrated after Mass. Mary consents; and when she notices that not all the Anglicans in the house are present at the service, she afterward exhorts them to be present, and thus wins the minister’s favor to the greatest extent. But when she read a certain book about indifferentism, she conceived scruples about these things, and therefore questioned her confessor concerning their lawfulness. Hence it is asked:

1. To what is a Catholic bound by reason of the faith’s being professed externally?

2. What is cooperation with another’s sin, and to what extent is it unlawful?

3. What is to be said of the case?

1. See this question answered, p. 144.

2. What is co-operation in another’s sin, and how far is it unlawful?

Co-operation, in general, is the helping of the principal agent in the doing of an action. Hence one who helps another to commit sin co-operates with him in that sin. This co-operation is formal or material. There is formal co-operation when help is given to do what is sinful and what can not be done without sin. Co-operation is material when help is given by doing something which is not sinful in itself, but which the principal agent abuses in order to commit sin. Formal co-operation in another’s sin is never lawful; material co-operation is lawful when the action of him who co-operates is good, or at least indifferent, and when there is a sufficient reason for the co-operation proportionate to the evil co-operated in, and to the closeness of the co-operation.

3. The case. Mary, a Catholic, is matron in an orphanage. She goes to the Catholic Church, but is asked by the Anglican minister, who conducts the Anglican service in the orphanage, to sing at the service, as she has a good voice, and the service is held after Mass, so that it will not prevent her going to her own Church. Mary consents, and still further conciliates the minister by urging all the Anglicans in the house to attend the service. From reading a book on indifferentism, she gets a scruple about the lawfulness of these actions, and asks her confessor about them.

Her confessor will tell Mary that she had done wrong, although she was excused on account of her good faith. She did wrong in taking part in non-Catholic religious services, for, as we saw above (p. 148), all such action is wrong. In urging others to join in Anglican worship, which she knew or ought to have known to be false, she also did wrong, although, of course, Anglicans, believing in it in good faith, join in it without committing sin. Mary should allow the inmates to follow their consciences with regard to their religious duties, and she should see that the time allowed for this purpose in the institution is not interfered with, but for the rest she should leave them alone.