AAA says "you're home free" ?!

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duskyjewel

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This answer from AAA bothers me so much. Whatever happened to sin by omission? These Catholic parents were obviously aware of the restrictions on who may receive Eucharist, and that they had a child with them who did not fit the requirements. Wasn’t it their OBLIGATION to pay attention and make sure this didn’t happen? Didn’t they sin by failing to pay attention and/or failing to explain to this child that he should not take Eucharist?

I would consider myself to have sinned, by omission, in these circumstances. I do agree, however, that the child is innocent, obviously.
 
So do you deny that one can sin by omission? Was my catechesis wrong in that respect?

And just FYI… I in no way suffer from scrupulosity. I am an OK Catholic, but should not be used as an example for anyone else. :o My mother once described me as devout and I laughed… I try but I am not what anyone could call devout.
 
One can never accidentally sin …

unless (possibly) carelessness has become a vice & no effort has been made to correct it.
 
I am not finding the commandment about this please enlighten me. A child not my own does something he does not even realize is wrong, in a time and place where it is hard to correct him w/o causing a commotion, and I have sinned? I am now supposed to anticipate sins others might correct and stop them from so doing, otherwise I am guilty of sin by omission? whoa am I in trouble.
 
Why wouldn’t you explain this before Mass to a child you knew was not Catholic and was coming to Mass with you?

From the Catholic Encyclopedia quoted at newadvent.org (bolding mine):

Omission

(Latin omittere, to lay aside, to pass away).

“Omission” is here taken to be the failure to do something one can and ought to do. If this happens advertently and freely a sin is committed. Moralists took pains formerly to show that the inaction implied in an omission was quite compatible with a breach of the moral law, for it is not merely because a person here and now does nothing that he offends, but because he neglects to act under circumstances in which he can and ought to act. The degree of guilt incurred by an omission is measured like that attaching to sins of commission, by the dignity of the virtue and the magnitude of the precept to which the omission is opposed as well as the amount of deliberation. In general, according to St. Thomas, the sin of omission consisting as it does in a leaving out of good is less grievous than a sin of commission which involves a positive taking up with evil. There are, of course, cases in which on account of the special subject matter and circumstances it may happen that an omission is more heinous. It may be asked at what time one incurs the guilt of a sin of omission in case he fails to do something which he is unable to do, by reason of a cause for which he is entirely responsible. For instance, if a person fails to perform a duty in the morning as a result of becoming inebriated the previous night. The guilt is not incurred at the time the duty should be performed because while intoxicated he is incapable of moral guilt. The answer seems to be that he becomes responsible for the omission when having sufficiently foreseen that his neglect will follow upon his intoxication he does nevertheless surrender himself to his craving for liquor.
 
Um…I forgot? I never thought about it? It never occurred to me he would go? I thought he knew?

It was a mistake, an accident, an oops- end of inquisition.
 
Perhaps I have just seen too many obviously non-Catholic kids come along with families and take Communion, not knowing what they are doing, even screwing around while receiving…

As non-Catholics are barred from taking the Eucharist, if I knew I had a non-Catholic with me who might not know the rules, I would think it was my duty to explain that for both our sakes.

Why am I being chastised for taking this seriously? I’m not saying I think it’s a mortal sin that should condemn someone to Hell… but carelessness about something as serious as the Eucharist could be at least a venial sin, couldn’t it? We as Catholics can be sinful by not receiving with proper reverence, or by being careless in handling the Body and Blood, can we not?
 
chastise your priest for not making it clear … the mother in the AAA question is not guilty.

One cannot sin accidentally unless carelessness has become a vice and no effort is made to correct the vice. not the case here.
 
Oh that’s just silly. People can sin accidentally and without even knowing sometimes.

A sin is still a sin, despite the circumstances of it.
 
Well, I don’t think a true accident can really be a sin. Something totally unforeseen, where there is no intent and no chance to stop it… obviously not a sin.

What I am saying is that carelessness can be sinful, which quasimodo seems to agree with. And I see this as more carelessness than accidental.
 
This whole thing could have been easily solved Before Mass.

My son invited a Baptist friend to Mass, before we entered church, I spoke to the young friend and told him that “when we all go up to receive Holy Communion, you may go with us, only cross your arms infront of your chest and the priest will give you a blessing”👍

We received our Lord in the Holy Eucharist and my son’s friend received a blessing from our priest. No fuss, no commotion.

As an aside,that young friend of my son’s really enjoyed Mass and wants to come again, although he said he didn’t understand most of it, but DID recognize the readings from his own bible readings at Sunday School.👍
 
I’m sorry, I just don’t understand why it is that there is so much focus on whether or not someone else sinned. Why do we search for sin? Dusky, are you saying that the apologist gave bad advice? Not all of us can forsee all possible pitfals in front of us. I can be pretty slow, especially in the morning, and something like this could happen to me. Again, a sin has to be purposeful. She didn’t say she purposely told the kid to go up for communion. It was one of those “oops” moments.

Is every mistake a person makes, a sin? No. It requires choice and purpose.
 
Starwynd said:
Oh that’s just silly. People can sin accidentally and without even knowing sometimes.

A sin is still a sin, despite the circumstances of it.
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Is that based on scripture or just your expert personal opinion?
 
The act itself is gravely sinful. The person should have confessed it in the confessional with a priest. I find it strange that they brought it up online here. But we are not the judge of someone else’s conscience. That is up to the priests who are led by the Holy Spirit on such matters.
 
duskyjewel said:
Well, I don’t think a true accident can really be a sin. Something totally unforeseen, where there is no intent and no chance to stop it… obviously not a sin.

What I am saying is that carelessness can be sinful, which quasimodo seems to agree with. And I see this as more carelessness than accidental.
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Yes, we can blind ourselves into believing we are not sinning when we are. That is a different issue than this. I think we’re in that “avoid the near occaision to sin” area. And I’ll admit this is an idea that I have trouble with.

Driving carelessly down the street may be a sin. But one made a choice as to doing something careless like speeding, driving with eyes closed, lights off after dark, drug impaired. Something like that. It isn’t careless because you weren’t being EXTRA careful because you forgot school was out today and a kid could be playing and come running out between cars.
 
eucharisteo said:
The act itself is gravely sinful. The person should have confessed it in the confessional with a priest. I find it strange that they brought it up online here. But we are not the judge of someone else’s conscience. That is up to the priests who are led by the Holy Spirit on such matters.
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There is something fishy about it as it’s the only post the person has made. But I guess they were wondering if they needed to go to confession prior to Mass next time because of this.
 
newbetx said:
Yes, we can blind ourselves into believing we are not sinning when we are. That is a different issue than this. I think we’re in that “avoid the near occaision to sin” area. And I’ll admit this is an idea that I have trouble with.

Driving carelessly down the street may be a sin. But one made a choice as to doing something careless like speeding, driving with eyes closed, lights off after dark, drug impaired. Something like that. It isn’t careless because you weren’t being EXTRA careful because you forgot school was out today and a kid could be playing and come running out between cars.
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I completely agree and still can’t see how many Church leaders allowed such sinfulness to go on unpunished in our lifetime. Instead, they hid and made excuses hiding behind worldly psychologists instead of the Holy Spirit beaconing them to help the wounded, sick…the helpless…the victims. Point being is that we all make mistakes and we can all easily fall into sin even by ommision. Culpability is only up to God to ultimately decide. The priests usually look for signs of contriteness. Sometimes a priest may not believe someone is contrite and will refuse to absolve the person. This must be done’ carefully. Because even if the priest absolves the person and that person is not truly contrite or is just playing a game ultimately the sin sticks and so does the wounded state of mortal sin. I don’t want to do that to someone unless I’m made perfect first. That’s God’s choice. There are a lot of really smart but very dumb people in the world. I’m one of them.
 
Several of you are misunderstanding the concept of sin by omission. It doesn’t mean forgetting to do, or not thinking of doing, something you should have done, it means intentionally refusing to do something you should do.

The classic example is coming across your worst enemy drowning in a pond. It would be a sin of omission to stand there and watch him drown when there is a rope or life-jacket nearby that you could easily throw him to save his life.

There was NO sin of omission on the part of the OP.
 
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