Is remaining silent a sin?

[Jragzz123]

In my catholic center group chat (which is very modernist) people were openly denying hell. I took a screen shot of what the catechism says on the reality of hell and what we believe sends us there (mortal sin) and sent it to the group. It ended up starting a world war in the group chat between more progressive and traditional Catholics. The whole thing got me wondering whether or not it is a sin to remain silent when other Catholics are spreading thing contrary to church teaching?

 

[SFV]

1285 Baptism, the Eucharist, and the sacrament of Confirmation together constitute the “sacraments of Christian initiation,” whose unity must be safeguarded. It must be explained to the faithful that the reception of the sacrament of Confirmation is necessary for the completion of baptismal grace.89 For "by the sacrament of Confirmation, [the baptized] are more perfectly bound to the Church and are enriched with a special strength of the Holy Spirit. Hence they are, as true witnesses of Christ, more strictly obliged to spread and defend the faith by word and deed."90

I presume it is a sin because it isn’t defending the faith.

 

[Mindypin]

It is an act of mercy to instruct the uninformed, so you did the right thing. I don’t know if it would have been an actual sin to have kept quiet in this case, but you probably wouldn’t have been pleasing Jesus by withholding an important teaching from those who purport to be Catholic. I admire your courage.

 

[christismylord]

Not sure about your case, but remember James 4:17: “If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.”

Also, for your sake and their sake: Ephesians 5:11 “Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.”

And 2 Corinthians 10:4-5 “The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”

Great courage speaking up, what a ridiculous notion of there not being Hell. In essence “there’s no consequence for denying God?” It says “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1) for a reason. Clearly implying that there is condemnation for those who refute Him.

 

[0Scarlett_nidiyilii]

If a group is calling itself Catholic, but denying Catholic teaching, then yes, correction is in order.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

Sounds like this was a Catholic group chat, so I’m not seeing anything “spreading” if it was Catholics arguing with other Catholics.

A Catholic who really wants to know the Church teaching is fully capable of referring to the Catechism or speaking to his priest. Some Catholics will deny Church teachings all day even if the Pope appeared before them with a copy of the Catechism and explained the correct teaching very clearly in their native language.

It’s fine to use prudential judgment about when one should speak out and when one should not. It’s most important to speak out when another person is being bullied or treated unkindly or there is some sort of prejudice going on, such as anti-Semitism, or someone claiming all the Protestants are going to Hell, etc. I would say it’s also important to speak out when people are going to be led astray in their behavior, for example if someone claimed that it was okay to have sex before marriage. However, the existence of Hell is likely not going to influence people’s behavior when everyone arguing about it is Catholic and presumably trying to live good lives and not saying “there’s no Hell so I can just go do what I want”. So if you want to bring it up and start World War III, that’s your prerogative. If you want to ignore the discussion and go do something else, that’s also your prerogative.

I personally wouldn’t even want to be a part of a group that’s going to waste so much time arguing over an established Church teaching. They’re not going to make Hell go away by pretending it doesn’t exist or by arguing about it.

It’s fine to say “oh yes, you should defend the faith” but in some of these groups you’d be sitting there correcting people all day long. That’s when it’s time to really think about whether you want to bother with such a group.