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Faith Fact
Responding to Scandals in the Church

CUF
From the Sep/Oct 2004 Issue of Lay Witness Magazine

Issue: What is scandal? If the Church is holy, how can there be scandal in the Church? How ought we to respond to scandals?

Response: Scandal is an attitude or behavior that leads another to do evil. We ought to examine our consciences, repent of our own sins of scandal, make reparation, and, when prudent, offer fraternal correction in response to scandal.

What Is Scandal?

Scandal, in everyday speech, is the dishonor brought upon an institution by the egregious misconduct of one or more of its members. An institution typically responds to such dishonor by seeking to regain its reputation. It assures the public, for example, that steps have been taken to ensure that such misconduct will never happen again.

In the Catholic catechetical tradition, the word “scandal” has a different meaning. A scandal is not a question of institutional dishonor; it is, rather, a sin that violates the Fifth Commandment (“You shall not kill”):

Scandal is an attitude or behavior which leads another to do evil. The person who gives scandal becomes his neighbor’s tempter. He damages virtue and integrity; he may even draw his brother into spiritual death. Scandal is a grave offense if by deed or omission another is deliberately led into a grave offense. Scandal takes on a particular gravity by reason of the authority of those who cause it or the weakness of those who are scandalized. . . . Scandal is grave when given by those who by nature or office are obliged to teach and educate others (Catechism, nos. 2284-85).

Scandal in the Church, then, extends far beyond the sexual abuse of children by a tiny minority of priests. When homilists and confessors distort the moral teaching of the Church and lead others to believe that their sins are not truly sinful, they commit the sin of scandal. When Catholic parents and teachers do not present the Gospel in its integrity and do not in some way confront the sins of those under their care, they commit the sin of scandal. When theology professors embitter their students against the Church’s Magisterium, they commit the sin of scandal.

Scandal is not limited to those who have the grave responsibility to teach and educate others. Those who commit liturgical abuses also commit the sin of scandal.[1] The admission to Holy Communion of those known to have divorced and remarried outside the Church is an instance of the sin of scandal.[2]

Women who dress immodestly commit the sin of scandal. Businessmen who encourage fraud commit the sin of scandal. Those who, through harshness of speech, provoke others to anger commit the sin of scandal (cf. Catechism, no. 2286).

Lay Catholics have the duty to spread the Gospel; they are the salt of the earth and the light of the world:

Lay believers are in the front line of Church life; for them the Church is the animating principle of human society. Therefore, they in particular ought to have an ever-clearer consciousness not only of belonging to the Church, but of being the Church. . . .

Since, like all the faithful, lay Christians are entrusted by God with the apostolate by virtue of their Baptism and Confirmation, they have the right and duty, individually or grouped in associations, to work so that the divine message of salvation may be known and accepted by all men throughout the earth (Catechism, nos. 899-900).

Whenever lay Catholics, by word, deed, or omission, fail in this responsibility and offer bad example to others, they lead others to sin (or help others continue in their sins), and there is scandal in the Church.

Holy Church and Scandal

Some believe that the teaching Church is hesitant to admit the existence of scandals in the Church. This perception is false. In 1994, Pope John Paul II wrote, “[I]t is appropriate that . . . the Church should become more fully conscious of the sinfulness of her children, recalling all those times in history when they departed from the spirit of Christ and his Gospel and, instead of offering to the world the witness of a life inspired by the values of faith, indulged in ways of thinking and acting which were truly forms of counter-witness and scandal.”[3] The Holy Father noted that periods of Catholic history have been marred by the scandalous sins against Christian unity and scandalous “acquiescence . . . to intolerance and even the use of violence in the service of truth.”[4] He then listed several contemporary scandals in the Church:

· religious indifference

· a loss of the transcendent sense of human life

· confusion in the ethical sphere, even about respect for life and the family

· secularism and ethical relativism

· erroneous theological views and disobedience to the Church’s Magisterium

· acquiescence to human rights violations by totalitarian regimes

· responsibility for grave forms of injustice and exclusion

· a lack of knowledge and practice of the Church’s social doctrine

· an inadequate, distorted reception of the Second Vatican Council, manifested, among other ways, in a failure to make the Word of God the soul of theology and the inspiration of Christian living, a failure to witness to the truth courageously, and the adopting of democratic, sociological notions incompatible with Catholic teaching on the Church[5]

Scandals, then, do exist in the Church. On every Sunday and solemnity, Catholics profess, “We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.” How can we profess belief in a holy Church when there is so much scandal in the Church? The Church is holy:

. . . because Christ, the Son of God, who with the Father and the Spirit is hailed as “alone holy,” loved the Church as his Bride, giving himself up for her so as to sanctify her; he joined her to himself as his body and endowed her with the gift of the Holy Spirit for the glory of God.

United with Christ, the Church is sanctified by him; through him and with him she becomes sanctifying. . . . It is in the Church that the “fullness of the means of salvation” has been deposited (Catechism, nos. 823-24).

While the Church herself is holy, all of her members except the Blessed Virgin Mary have been marred by sin, including sins of scandal.

The Church . . . clasping sinners to her bosom, at once holy and always in need of purification, follows constantly the path of penance and renewal. All members of the Church, including her ministers, must acknowledge that they are sinners (Catechism, no. 827).

It would be foolish for a Catholic to leave the Body of Christ because of scandal, much as it would be foolish for a toe to seek to be cut off from a human body simply because another part of the body is diseased (cf. 1 Cor. 12). If the toe were cut off from the body, it would cease to share in the means of human life; if a Catholic left the Church, he would cease to have access to the fullness of his means of salvation.

The Church is therefore holy, though having sinners in her midst, because she herself has no other life but the life of grace. If they live her life, her members are sanctified; if they move away from her life, they fall into sins and disorders that prevent the radiation of her sanctity (Catechism, no. 827).

Catholics who leave the Church because of scandals fall into sins and disorders and thus can become sources of scandal for others.

Responding to Scandal

The first step in responding to scandals in the Church is to examine our own consciences and repent of our own acts of scandal. “Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?” (Mt. 7:3). “If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it away. . . . And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut if off and throw it away” (Mt. 5:29-30). In preparing to receive the Sacrament of Penance, we might ask ourselves:

ü Have I committed the sin of scandal against others by my words? Have I spoken unchastely and led others to sin against chastity? Have I started uncharitable conversations and led others to sin against charity? Through harsh, bitter, and cynical speech, have I made the Catholic faith less attractive to others and thus scandalized them? Have I misrepresented the teaching of the Church in any way?

ü Have I committed the sin of scandal against others by my deeds? By my decisions, my dress, my laziness, and my attachment to wealth, am I in any way providing a bad example to my family members, friends, colleagues, and neighbors—a bad example that will make the Catholic faith less compelling to them, with eternal consequences for their souls?

ü Have I committed the sin of scandal against others by my omissions? Have I performed the spiritual works of mercy of admonishing the sinner and praying for the living? Have I, with great charity and humility, discussed spiritual matters with those under my care when I have the duty to do so? Or am I concerned only for my own soul and indifferent to others’ sins and the state of their souls?

Because scandal is a spiritual condition, it must be combated through spiritual means. The second step in responding to scandals in the Church is to make reparation for the sins of scandal that we have committed. “Every offense committed against justice and truth entails the duty of reparation, even if its author has been forgiven” (Catechism, no. 2487, original emphasis). Through prayer, fasting, almsgiving, and action, we have a duty to atone for our own sins of scandal.

In addition, Our Lord grants Christians the privilege of participating in His reparation on the Cross and atoning for the sins of others (cf. Col. 1:24). When Our Lord appeared to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, He did not ask her to complain to her friends about liturgical abuses committed by priests and religious; instead, He asked her to atone for their sins. Likewise, when Our Lady appeared to the children at Fatima, she asked, “Are you willing to offer yourselves to God and bear all the suffering He wills to send you, as an act of reparation for the sins by which He is offended, and of supplication for the conversion of sinners?” By the cheerful acceptance of trials, by the performance of the duties of our state of life, and by prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, we can make reparation for the scandal committed by others.[6]

We can also make reparation for scandals in the Church by taking actions that undo their effects. If the Catholic faith is not being imparted in its integrity in our parish, it does little good to gossip about the situation; we could do much more good by volunteering to teach in the parish religious education program. If the celebration of the Mass at our parish is marred by grave liturgical abuses, we ought not to avoid Mass; rather, we ought to make reparation by intensifying our love for the Blessed Sacrament and participating more devoutly in the Church’s liturgical life.

The final step in responding to scandals in the Church is to follow the teaching of Sacred Scripture on fraternal correction. St. James writes, “My brethren, if any one among you wanders from the truth and some one brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins” (Jas. 5:19-20). St. Paul teaches that we must do so with gentleness and humility: “Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Look to yourself, lest you too be tempted” (Gal. 6:1). Our Lord teaches that we must speak to the sinning brother privately first: “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother” (Mt. 18:15; cf. 1 Cor. 6:1-6). The Church’s Magisterium, too, encourages fraternal correction if it is conducted “in truth and charity.”[7] At the same time, the precept of fraternal correction is not a command that binds one always and everywhere. St. Thomas Aquinas, commenting on Proverbs 9:8, cautions that we ought not to correct another when our words will make the situation worse.[8]

If we encounter sins of scandal like defective catechesis and liturgical abuses, we should pray for the person we believe to be committing the sin, and we should pray about whether we should discuss the situation privately with the person. We should beg God to free us from a critical spirit and should take care not to gossip about the matter, lest we commit scandal ourselves. St. Ignatius of Loyola writes:

We ought to be more prompt to find good and praise . . . the ways of our Superiors. Because, although some are not or have not been such, to speak against them, whether preaching in public or discoursing before the common people, would rather give rise to fault-finding and scandal than profit; and so the people would be incensed against their Superiors, whether temporal or spiritual. So that, as it does harm to speak evil to the common people of Superiors in their absence, so it can make profit to speak of the evil ways to the persons themselves who can remedy them.[9]

If, after prayer, we believe it is prudent to discuss the matter with our pastor or parish staff member, we should do so with great humility, gentleness, and discretion. Please call (800) MY-FAITH and request our Faith Fact “Effective Lay Witness Protocol” for assistance in dealing with such matters at the parish level.

By the inscrutable providence of God, wheat and tares grow up together in the Church, and Our Lord does not remove the tares until the Day of Judgment (cf. Mt.13:24-30). “Woe to the world for temptations to sin! For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the man by whom the temptation comes!” (Mt. 18:7; cf. Lk. 17:1). Woe to us if we do not repent of our own sins of scandal, make reparation, and, when prudent, love others enough to offer fraternal correction.

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[1] Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, Instruction on Certain Matters to Be Observed or to Be Avoided Regarding the Most Holy Eucharist Redemptionis Sacramentum (March 25, 2004), no. 11. This document is available online. Go to http://www.ewtn.com/library/CURIA/CDWRDSAC.HTM

[2] Declaration by the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts (June 24, 2000), no. 1. This document is available online. Go to http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/intrptxt/documents/rc_pc_intrptxt_doc_20000706_declaration_en.html

[3] Apostolic Letter on Preparation for the Jubilee of the Year 2000 Tertio Millennio Adveniente (November 10, 1994), no. 33. This document is available online. Go to http://www.ewtn.com/ library/papaldoc/jp2third.htm

[4] Ibid., no. 35.

[5] Ibid., no. 36

[6] Pope Paul VI, Apostolic Constitution on Penance Paenitemini (February 17, 1966). This document, which governs penance in the Church, is available online at http://www.ewtn.com/library/PAPALDOC/P6PAEN.htm

[7] Redemptionis Sacramentum, no. 184.

[8] Summa Theologica, II-II, q. 33, art. 6, at http://www.newadvent.org/summa/303306.htm

[9] Tenth Rule, Spiritual Exercises, available online at http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/loyola-spirex.html