The inheritance of guilt (Latin - culpa) is a distinctly Protestant teaching. The Catholic teaching, according to Trent, is that what is inherited is reatus (that is the actual word used by Trent, not culpa).
Unfortunately, English translators often translate reatus as “guilt.” This has led many (both Catholic and "non-"Catholics) to mistakenly imagine that the Catholic Church teaches that humanity has inherited Adam’s guilt (or blame) (culpa) for his sin.
This is actually exactly what the Catholic Church teaches as well, though English translators have unintentionally portrayed the matter differently by often translating reatus as “guilt.”
On the matter of St. Augustine, the Oriental Orthodox Church also considers him one of its fathers. Like the Catholic Church, the OOC does not accept everything that St. Augustine taught on this topic. Like Latin and Oriental Catholics, the Oriental Orthodox generally use the language of “debt” and “Justice” very commonly when describing Original Sin –
Hello mardukm,
Holy Scripure says: “We had all gone astray like sheep, all following our own way; But the LORD laid upon him the guilt of us all.” (Isaiah 53:6). Now, the Catholic Church baptizes infants who have only the stain of original sin but the Scripture says that God laid upon Jesus the guilt of us all. Therefore, original sin has the character of guilt or fault in every human being.
Further, Psalm 51:7 says “Behold, I was born in guilt, in sin my mother conceived me.” And St Paul says “Therefore, just as through one person sin entered the world, and through sin, death, and thus death came to all, inasmuch as all sinned.” (Romans 5:12). “Inasmuch as all sinned,” i.e., as all mankind sinned in Adam for “the whole human race is in Adam as one body of one man.” (CCC#404). Therefore, original sin has the character of guilt or fault in every human being.
Further, the Council of Trent stated “If anyone denies that by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is conferred in baptism, the guilt of original sin is remitted, or even asserts that the whole of that which has the true and proper nature of sin is not taken away, but says that it is only touched in person or is not imputed, let him be anathema.” (DS 1515). Original sin has the true and proper nature of sin, i.e., guilt or fault and punishment. The latin word “reatus” is properly translated as guilt while “culpa” is properly translated as fault. Strictly speaking, reatus (guilt) is a mean between fault and punishment according to St Thomas Aquinas, although it is sometimes transfered to mean either fault or punishment. The Church more commonly uses culpa (fault) and reatus (guilt) interchangably as can be seen in its doctrine on indulgences “An indulgence is the remission before God of the temporal punishment due for sins already forgiven as far as their guilt is concerned.”
Further, the Council of Trent states that the washing away of original sin in baptism does not just refer to the consequences of original sin and its punishments but it refers to the cleansing of sin also, i.e., to its guilt. "If anyone asserts that the transgression of Adam has harmed him alone and not his posterity, and that the sanctity and justice, received from God, which he lost, he has lost for himself alone and not for us also; or that he having been defiled by the sin of disobedience has transfused only death “and the punishments of the body into the whole human race, but not sin also, which is the death of the soul,” let him be anathema, since he contradicts the Apostle who says: “By one man sin entered into the world, and by sin death, and so death passed upon all men, in whom all have sinned” [Rom. 5:12]. (DZS 1512).
Further, the CCC states : "1262 The different effects of Baptism are signified by the perceptible elements of the sacramental rite. Immersion in water symbolizes not only death and purification, but also regeneration and renewal. Thus the two principal effects are purification from sins and new birth in the Holy Spirit.
For the forgiveness of sins . . .
1263 By Baptism all sins are forgiven, original sin and all personal sins, as well as all punishment for sin.65 In those who have been reborn nothing remains that would impede their entry into the Kingdom of God, neither Adam’s sin, nor personal sin, nor the consequences of sin, the gravest of which is separation from God."
Now, nobody can be forgiven original sin or any sin unless sin has the character of fault or guilt. Nor can anybody be forgiven the punishment due to sin unless they are first forgiven of the fault or guilt of sin. For punishment follows upon fault or guilt. Every sin has a double consequence, namely, fault or guilt and punishment as the Church’s doctrine on indulgences states.
The CCC#405 says that original sin does not have the character of personal fault in any of Adam’s descendants. This does not mean that original sin does not have the character of fault at all. It means that original sin is imputed to us as our own sin (cf DS 1513) not as a sin we personally committed as Adam and Eve did, but in the sense of being the members of the head of the whole human race which is Adam. For the CCC#404 says " The whole human race is in Adam as one body in one man."
St Thomas Aquinas explains it thus:
And just as the actual sin that is committed by a member of the body [for example, a murder which the hand commits], is not the sin of that member, except inasmuch as that member is a part of the man, for which reason it is called a “human sin”; so original sin is not the sin of this person, except inasmuch as this person receives his nature from his first parent, for which reason it is called the “sin of nature,” according to Ephesians 2:3: “We . . . were by nature children of wrath.” ( Pt. I-II, Q. 81, Art.1).
Richca
