YOU WROTE: “Say if you really wanted something and spent a considerable time browsing the internet, catalogs etc have you sinned?”
Not in any way. There is absolutely nothing in all official Catholic teaching prohibiting “really want(ing) something,” or spending a lot of time on the Internet. This is a ridiculous worry.
YOU WROTE: “I think you would of sinned because you would be too ardently seeking things of this world rather than things of the next.”
This is NOT how “seeking things of this world” is understood by the Church. The Church simply teaches that we are not to REPLACE our worship of God with the things of this world.
You could be wealthy beyond the dreams of avarice, having money to burn, and love luxury (who doesn’t?) and not be “sinning” at all. All the Church requires is that we recall that all our wealth comes from God. What, exactly, is difficult about this? Just remember God. That is all. I hear this mentioned so often in Church I would think that it would be nearly IMPOSSIBLE to forget that our wealth comes from God. Any other viewpoint is a distortion of this simple teaching, and is wrong.
YOU WROTE: “So if you brought this sin to confession how would you number it?
- The number of items you wanted
- The time you spent looking for them (what if you don’t know?)
- Or some other way?”
This is not a sin. You are not to bring this to confession. Such a thing verges on scrupulosity, the action of a disordered conscience. The priest will probably just be annoyed by this.
“Owning things” is not a sin. God has placed no limits on what we can own or buy. He has placed no limits on how you spend your money. If you are looking for such a limit, you will never find it. There is no “highest amount of possessions” listed anywhere in the Bible, nor in all Catholic Doctrine. There is no statement reading “if I own, say, a cruise liner, or a luxury car, I have sinned.” Such a thing would be ridiculous.
We can spend however we want. We can purchase whatever we like. Pope Leo XIII actually wrote an encyclical about this, called “Rerum Novarum.” Here, every person’s right to own and accumulate private property and wealth, and to dispose of it however we like, is outlined to an exhaustive degree. The Pope even goes so far as to describe our right to own property and to spend our money as we like as being “sacred.” I am absolutely astonished how few Catholics have read, or have even HEARD, of “Rerum Novarum.”
The full text can be read on the Vatican website, here:
vatican.va/holy_father/leo_xiii/encyclicals/documents/hf_l-xiii_enc_15051891_rerum-novarum_en.html
I cannot understand why Catholics often worry about “owning too much,” or “being too rich.” We are not taught to regard such things as sinful by our faith. Such concerns are absolutely bizarre, and a complete waste of time. No progress can be made by thinking about them. They will simply make you miserable for nothing.
YOU WROTE: “Another question: When numbering our sins can we uses phrases instead of numbers. For example: a bit, often, frequently. I recall once confessing I had been a bit short tempered. Is this ok?”
Being “a bit short tempered” is NOT a mortal sin. A mortal sin has to be about a genuinely GRAVE MATTER, like killing someone, or destroying someone’s reputation. If it is not a “grave matter,” then it is not a mortal sin. Simple as that. Confess it if you like, but DO NOT worry about it.
Obsessing over such tiny details as the words to describe a very minor sin (perhaps not a sin at all) is a sign of a conscience that has been badly informed about official Catholic teaching. Worrying overmuch about tiny things that are NOT mortal sins, as if they WERE mortal sins, is strongly discouraged by confessors. The application of correct theology should solve such worries. Thankfully, the associated unease usually disappears when the person who is worried receives accurate information about Roman Catholic teaching.
My only question would be, where did you obtain such a gross misunderstanding about Church doctrine? This is very worrying indeed. It concerns me to see Catholics uneasy because of a bad understanding of what their own Church teaches. Such things usually cause needless guilt and fear for absolutely nothing.
If such fears persist, you might want to check out a website run by the Redemptorist Order, called “Scrupulous Anonymous.” It is specifically designed to help Catholics suffering from needless worries about their salvation. The information there is accurate and precise. Go here is this is an issue for you.
mission.liguori.org/newsletters/scrupanon.htm
