Define Sacrilege

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atassina

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Read the explanation in the Catholic Encyclopedia regarding sacrilege. It seems to me that sacrilege requires intent and not simply accident.

For example, receiving Holy Communion in the state of mortal sin is as sacrilege. Why? Accidentally spilling the hosts on the floor is not a sacrilege because the minister did not intend any harm. Throwing them by your own free will is a sacrilege. Why a sacrilege and not just something bad to do.

What is the distinction between a tasteless, foolish, inappropriate or bad idea and a sacrilege?
 
Pro,
i read the new advent piece and I am still not won over. If I throw my gum wrapper on the ground in the church parking lot, have i committed a sacralege?
 
atassina said:
Pro,
i read the new advent piece and I am still not won over. If I throw my gum wrapper on the ground in the church parking lot, have i committed a sacralege?
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No, because you have not violated a sacred object. A parking lot is not a sacred thing. Sacrilege is very simple to explain: you know something is sacred: something consecrated for liturgical use, a sacramental, or so forth. If you wilfully misuse it, damage it, or destroy it, you have committed the sin of sacrilege. Likewise with receiving a sacrament without the proper disposition–receiving communion while in a state of mortal sin, withholding mortal sins in the confessional, and so forth…
 
bardegaulois said:
No, because you have not violated a sacred object. A parking lot is not a sacred thing. Sacrilege is very simple to explain: you know something is sacred: something consecrated for liturgical use, a sacramental, or so forth. If you wilfully misuse it, damage it, or destroy it, you have committed the sin of sacrilege. Likewise with receiving a sacrament without the proper disposition–receiving communion while in a state of mortal sin, withholding mortal sins in the confessional, and so forth…
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This is good. Thanks.
 
Our definition Sacrilege needs another defining term.Two thieves know that there is gold in the church. The bust open the tabernacle. Steal the ciborium spilling his sacred body. Steal the chalices and monstrance from the sacristy.

They are only wondering how we got the money to pay for all these things. They have no idea what they are and neither any idea of how sacred they are. To them the objects are just valuable things to be sold.

They have no intent at profanation, desecration or Sacrilege.

Objectively it is a sacrilege. At least it seems that way to me. However, have they committed a sacrilege?
 
atassina said:
Objectively it is a sacrilege. At least it seems that way to me. However, have they committed a sacrilege?
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If one doesn’t believe in the sacredness of an object, event, etc. then technically IMO he has not desecrated it, if that’s what you mean. But I’m no moral theologian.
 
Like I said already, intent.

Objectively, the act is sacrilegious. Just as killing someone is objectively morally wrong.

For the individual to be guilty of a sacrilege, it requires intent. Guilt is the subjective part of the objective act, which, if lacking, results in no guilt.
 
otjm said:
Like I said already, intent.

Objectively, the act is sacrilegious. Just as killing someone is objectively morally wrong.

For the individual to be guilty of a sacrilege, it requires intent. Guilt is the subjective part of the objective act, which, if lacking, results in no guilt.
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This reminds me of the old George Carlin skit: " If you woke up in the morning and said, ‘I’m going down to 42nd street and commit a mortal sin!’ Save your car fare; you did it, man! …"
 
Moral theology can be difficult. That George Carlin made a good joke there.
 
Modern Catholic Dictionary:

SACRILEGE. The deliberate violation of sacred things. Sacred things are persons, places, and objects set aside publicly and by the Church’s authority for the worship of God. The violation implies that a sacred thing is desecrated precisely in its sacred character. It is a sin against the virtue of religion.

Personal sacrilege is committed by laying violent hands on clerics or religious of either sex; by unlawfully citing them before secular courts, i.e., without just cause and without express permission of their ecclesiastical superiors; by unlawfully demanding of them the payment of civil taxes or military service; and by the commission of acts of unchastity by or with a person bound by the public vow of chastity.

Sacred places are violated by sacrilege through defilement, e.g., serious and unjust shedding of blood, as in willful homicide or by putting the sacred place (church or shrine) to unseemly use, e.g., secular trading, acts of debauchery; by grave theft from the Church or consecrated edifice; and by violating the immunity of a place as having the right of sanctuary.

Sacred objects are desecrated by sacrilege whenever something sacred is used for an unworthy purpose. This includes the Mass and the sacraments, along with sacramentals; sacred vessels and church furnishings; and ecclesiastical property. Desecration in each of these areas includes the deliberate invalid reception of the sacraments, simulation of Mass, grave irreverence to the Eucharist; gravely profane use of sacred vessels or vestments; and the unlawful seizure of sacred things or ecclesiastical property.

Sacrilege is many times reprobated in Sacred Scripture, notably in the second book of Maccabees and in the writings of St. Paul. Grave sacrilege in the Old Testament was punishable by death, and in the Catholic Church is considered a mortal sin. (Etym. Latin sacrilegium, the robbing of a temple, the stealing of sacred things.)
 
Thanks Thistle. This is enough definitions for me. I do not think there is any further refining left for those of us participating in this thread.

The OP
 
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