Morals of the Church
Library › Wouters, Manual of Moral Theology › Volume I › Book II. On the Exercise of the Christian Life, or on the Cultivation of the Virtues › Treatise II. On the Cultivation of the Moral Virtues › Dissertation I. On the Precepts of the Decalogue › Part I. On the First Precept of the Decalogue › Section II. On Opposed Vices › Chapter I. On Superstition

Article — Wouters, Manual of Moral Theology

Article I. On Vicious Worship of God

591.

I. Vicious worship of God is either false or superfluous.

  1. It is false when someone worships God by signifying something false. This is done: 1. by one "who now offers worship to God through the ceremonies of the old law, for example circumcision, the immolation of the lamb, etc.," because these signify that Christ is still to come and has not yet come; 2. by a layman who worships God as though he were a public minister of the Church, for example by sacrificing, absolving, etc.; 3. by one who on his own authority proposes that certain things be done as though they had been ordained by the Church for the worship of God; 4. by one who proposes false relics, or pretends that he has had these or those revelations, whether to make profit or to increase devotion; 5. by one who, in order to move the people, pretends that some miracle or history is found in Sacred Scripture, etc." (St. Alphonsus, III, 3).

  2. Superfluous worship according to St. Thomas occurs when in the worship of God something is done which either is in itself empty or ridiculous, or is apart from the institution of God or of the Church, or is opposed to common custom. "If," says the holy Doctor, "there is something which, so far as it is of itself, does not pertain to the glory of God, nor to this, that the mind of man be borne toward God, or that the disordered concupiscences of the flesh be restrained; or even if it is apart from the institution of God and of the Church, or against common custom, which according to Augustine is to be held as law, all this must be accounted superfluous" (II-II, q. 93, a. 2).

Hence St. Alphonsus: "Superstition of superfluous worship is, for example: 1. the ceremony of hearing Mass before sunrise, with a certain number, arrangement, or order of candles, or of a priest who is called John, or who has the stature of Christ, etc.; because this worship is in itself empty and useless for arousing the spirit; 2. to fast on Sunday when you do not fast on other days; 3. likewise in Mass, contrary to the rubric, to form more crosses, to say alleluia more times, to say the Gloria or Creed contrary to the rubrics, or to remove or add other ceremonies, even if they are done out of devotion; for this devotion must be corrected. Because these things are apart from the custom of the Church" (St. Alphonsus, III, 4).

II. False worship commonly involves grave sin, because it commonly contains grave irreverence (St. Alphonsus, III, 3). I said commonly, because sometimes smallness of matter is admitted, as if someone on one or another occasion were to narrate a fictitious miracle.

Superfluous worship is for the most part evil only venially; for since it exceeds only in the mode, it commonly does not contain grave irreverence toward God. It can, however, be gravely evil, for example by reason of scandal, or of a grave ecclesiastical precept violated, or of the baseness of the act, as if a lascivious song were inserted into the divine offices (St. Alphonsus, III, 4).

Superstition, Idolatry, and DivinationWrong Ways of Worshipping God