Defining scandal

[Antonio5]

My examination of conscience asks: “Did I give scandal to anyone, thereby leading them to sin?”. But what is scandal? Is it saying something which shocks people? Swearing for example. If someone knows you are a Catholic and hears you swear and is shocked are you creating scandal? Or if someone knows you are Catholic and watches you become impatient and angry with your family members does it cause scandal?

Many thanks

 

[Usige]

Scandal is actually about causing others to sin. To use your example of swearing, but lets say that the swearing involves taking the Lord’s name in vain. While outrage might be one outcome, the true scandal is if your actions lead others to believe it is okay to use the Lord’s name in vain. When your actions lead others to sin, that is scandal.

 

[Samuel63]

Scandal is breaking the rules and then behaving as if you did not. It leads others to do the same.

A good example is using birth control pills and strolling up the aisle to recieve the Eucharist, as if you were in communion with the Church. This is a scandal that happens every day.

Another example is when a church is renovated and the priest has all the statues of Mary removed. This actually happened at my church six years ago. The parishioners suffer a lot from this.

At this same church, during the Easter season of 2008, this same priest gave a homily and emphatically denounced our pope. This hurts the body of Christ in a big way.

These are real scandals.

 

[1ke]

No and No. And because past posts of yours have indicated you have a tendency to scrupulosity, this is something you should discuss with your priest to ensure you have a right understanding and that your hyper-sensitive conscience is not leading you to believe there is scandal everywhere you turn.

Scandal is something very specific. From the CCC:

2284 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.

2285 Scandal takes on a particular gravity by reason of the authority of those who cause it or the weakness of those who are scandalized. It prompted our Lord to utter this curse: "Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened round his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea."85 Scandal is grave when given by those who by nature or office are obliged to teach and educate others. Jesus reproaches the scribes and Pharisees on this account: he likens them to wolves in sheep’s clothing.86

2286 Scandal can be provoked by laws or institutions, by fashion or opinion.

Therefore, they are guilty of scandal who establish laws or social structures leading to the decline of morals and the corruption of religious practice, or to "social conditions that, intentionally or not, make Christian conduct and obedience to the Commandments difficult and practically impossible."87 This is also true of business leaders who make rules encouraging fraud, teachers who provoke their children to anger,88 or manipulators of public opinion who turn it away from moral values.

2287 Anyone who uses the power at his disposal in such a way that it leads others to do wrong becomes guilty of scandal and responsible for the evil that he has directly or indirectly encouraged. "Temptations to sin are sure to come; but woe to him by whom they come!"89

 

[timreg]

I have been pondering about the same topic. When is an action scandal?

Somebody mentioned to me 1 Cor 8, when Paul is talking about meat being sacrificed to idols. He says it is ok to eat it as long as you don’t lead your brother into sin. My question is when would this lead anybody into sin? I guess I don’t understand the situation he was referring to.

He’s another question that just came to me. Suppose you are visiting a non-Catholic Christian church that has communion (but not the Eucharist). Is it scandalous for a Catholic to partake of this communion? Certainly our understanding would not be that it was really the body and blood of Christ the way the Eucharist is, but would it somehow give the impression that we don’t see a difference between their communion and ours?

Can an action that could be contrued as scandalous simply be explained by a person why it was done and thus why it was not sinful? Would this avoid it being scandal?

Thanks,
Tim