Morals of the Church
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Section — Wouters, Manual of Moral Theology

§ II. On Scrupulous Conscience

240.

He has a scrupulous conscience who habitually, from an empty reason and with a certain anxiety, apprehends sin where there is no sin; these things will become clearer from what must be said about scruples.

I. The notion of scruple. A scruple,1 as is gathered from what has been said, is an apprehension resting on an empty reason and joined with anxiety of mind; an apprehension, I say, that something is or was a sin where there is not or was not sin.

It is called an apprehension, by which it is signified that scruple differs both from a determinate judgment that something is a sin and from a true doubt whether something is a sin. Scruple properly so called is had when the intellect neither determinately judges that something is a sin nor properly doubts about it, but, while having and retaining the judgment that it is not a sin, totters and fluctuates from a certain apprehension of evil (St. Alphonsus, I, 11; Praxis Conf., n. 98).

It is said to be joined with anxiety of mind, by which it is indicated that scruple pertains not only to the intellect, but also to the will.

Scrupulous conscience also differs from tender or timorous conscience, which vividly apprehends even the smallest sins and defects.

II. The signs of a scrupulous conscience are:

  1. If someone fears that those things are sins which commonly, even by the timorous, are not held as sins (St. Alphonsus, I, 11).

  2. If he does not acquiesce in the judgment of a prudent confessor or director, and asks them again and again about the same matter, or commonly consults several (St. Alphonsus, cited place).

  3. If he does not make an end of examining his conscience, opens in confession the most minute and irrelevant circumstances, or repeats the same thing rather often; if he often wishes to repeat confessions already made, either entirely or in part.

  4. If he recites prayers anxiously, repeats them frequently, and often stops in order to renew intention and attention.

  5. If he uses empty signs to drive away temptations, for example, by contracting the eyebrows, etc.

Note 1. Let someone not immediately be judged scrupulous: 1. who after a sinful life is for some time troubled about confessions already made, and after a general confession several times manifests some sins as not yet sufficiently declared; 2. who sometimes doubts whether he has sinned gravely, because the doubt can be prudent.

Note 2. There are also those who are scrupulous in certain matters and plainly lax in others. The remedies soon to be explained should not be applied to them except in the matter in which they are scrupulous.

III. Causes of scruples. Some are intrinsic, such as natural temperament, ignorance, inconstancy, obstinacy; sometimes also excessive austerities, by which, when the brain is weakened, the mind is easily made anxious. Others are extrinsic, such as the company of scrupulous persons, incautious reading of stricter authors either in Moral Theology or in asceticism, the use of a scrupulous confessor; besides these, the instigation of the devil, who introduces scruples in order to induce desperation or impede spiritual progress. God sometimes permits scruples, either as punishment for sins, or so that a man may more detest true sins, or so that he may exercise humility and patience.

IV. Harms of scruples. Scruples: 1. produce continual disturbance and affliction of mind; 2. close the approach to the consolations of the Holy Spirit; 3. draw the soul, weary from affliction, away from good works; 4. disturb moral judgment and so render a man unfit for duties; 5. create danger of health being undermined, of madness or pusillanimity, of desperation (St. Alphonsus, I, 13).

V. The licitness and obligation of acting against scruples. 1. A scrupulous person can act against scruples. This is clear from the notion handed down, since a scruple "is not a true dictate of conscience or a formed conscience, as Gerson well distinguishes, nor a true practical doubt; nor does it take away the previously formed judgment, which virtually perseveres, although then because of the force of fear it is not noticed, namely, that he himself does not sin by doing anything which he does not recognize as certain sin. For then he acts not against conscience, but against that empty fear" (St. Alphonsus, Praxis conf., n. 98).

  1. A scrupulous person is often held to act against scruples, namely, so that the harms that would follow from scruples not resisted may be avoided (St. Alphonsus, I, 17). Nevertheless in practice he is commonly excused from formal sin, especially grave sin.

VI. Remedies of scruples. Some are general, others particular. The principal general remedy is that the scrupulous person subject himself altogether to the judgment of the confessor, and not examine the reasons, or, after consulting one, approach another. "Several Doctors assign rules for the scrupulous; but it is certain that for these persons, after prayer, the greatest remedy (indeed the only one, as Father Segneri rightly says) for curing them is obedience toward their own director" (St. Alphonsus, Praxis conf., n. 95). The special remedies are:

  1. "He who is always anxious about past confessions, because he fears that he failed in integrity or sorrow, if he himself has already completed a general confession at another time, or for some notable time has diligently made his confessions... should think no more about past faults, nor say a word about them in confession, unless he can swear with certainty that he committed those mortal sins, and besides that he has never confessed them. Indeed... someone can be troubled by scruples in such a way that, although it seems certain to him that he has not said certain things, he is still not held to confess them" (St. Alphonsus, I, 16; Praxis conf., n. 97). Moreover, before confession the scrupulous person should not undertake a lengthy examination, especially concerning those things in which he is more vexed; nor should he confess distinctly except certain sins. Indeed, if there is question of a very scrupulous person, he should confess sins according to a fixed norm composed by the confessor, and should not be allowed to add anything.

If, however, there is question of a sinner recently converted, founded doubts about the integrity of a confession already made can more easily occur; account of this should be prudently taken in one or another confession. But if there is discourse about a sinner converted for a longer time, the rule set down above should be held as the norm.

  1. He who always fears that he has given assent to evil thoughts, for instance against faith, chastity, or charity, "should not omit always using that rule wisely handed down by the Doctors, namely, that those who are of a timorous conscience, unless they know with moral certainty that they have consented to grave sin, are to be judged immune from sin; for, as Father Alvarez says, it is impossible for sin to enter a soul that abhors it without being clearly recognized by it" (St. Alphonsus, I, 15).

  2. He who is troubled by scruples concerning the fulfillment of precepts, for example, the hearing of Mass or the recitation of the breviary, should never repeat the Hours, or for that reason assist at another Mass. Indeed, "if someone were suffering grave anxieties, the recitation of the Office could sometimes even be forbidden to him until he seems able to recite without such great inconvenience, since great inconvenience excuses in itself from the precepts of the Church" (St. Alphonsus, IV, 177, at the end). Moreover, a scrupulous person is commonly excused from fraternal correction, both because he cannot discern when the obligation urges, and because it does not oblige with such great inconvenience.

  3. Those who fear in every action lest they commit sin should "act freely, despise scruples, and act against them where evident sin does not appear; because ordinarily they themselves, on account of reason disturbed by excessive fear, fear that sin is present where it is not" (St. Alphonsus, I, 17).

VII. The confessor of a scrupulous person. 1. The confessor should kindly receive a scrupulous person destitute of a confessor, and the first time, or even a second time, should listen patiently until he has manifested his scruples; otherwise he will scarcely win the person's confidence. I said "a scrupulous person destitute of a confessor," since he should not easily admit another's penitent.

  1. According to the different circumstances, he should assign to the penitent the remedies explained above and command him to use them; but especially he should "take care to persuade penitents vexed by scruples that he walks altogether safely who acquiesces in the counsels of his director and obeys in all things" (St. Alphonsus, I, 13). This obedience he should firmly require. "With obedient scrupulous persons one must act gently; but with those who fail in obedience, the greatest rigor and austerity must be exercised: for, deprived of this anchor of obedience, they themselves can never be healed" (St. Alphonsus, I, 16).

  2. He should solve proposed doubts without hesitation. If sometimes he hears another's penitent once or again, he should not resolve much, lest from a solution perhaps different the scruples become worse. Besides, he should teach the scrupulous person to think of the Lord in goodness, "and should exhort him to live secure about his salvation, always fleeing to Jesus and Mary" (St. Alphonsus, Praxis conf., n. 96).

1 Thus called metaphorically from scrupulus, i.e., from a little stone fixed in the shoe, which troubles the foot and slows the step.

The Scrupulous Conscience