The Basis For Invincible Ignorance

[mycatsasha]

I have heard that Catholics believe that if someone is not aware that an act is a sin, they are not considered responsible, though the act is no less evil. I have grown up with this belief, though I am not Catholic. Recently, it came up in a conversation with a dear friend of mine who believes that a person is responsible for these acts, however ignorant they might be. She cited a few verses (the only one I can recall is “My people perish for lack of knowledge.”) and I wasn’t sure how to respond.

I had never had this doctrine challenged and I’m having some difficulty finding a basis for it, either Biblical or traditional. Any ideas?

 

[St_Francis]

That teaching is quite subtle in the Catholic Church. In Romans, St Paul says that the natural law is written on our hearts, so we have some knowledge. Even a child knows when he is doing something wrong by the discomfort his conscience causes him.

The Church talks about objective mortal sin, which means that a certain action is a mortal sin, taken without reference to anything else. However, a particular person’s committing that sin may have a reduced culpability because of mitigating factors which can include ignorance: the three things necessary for a *particular *act to be mortal are full knowledge, full consent, and serious matter.

The thing is, if we commit sins, ignoring that little voice that says, doesn’t this seem wrong?, or isn’t this too good to be true? then overriding that little voice makes it get quieter; our consciences get dulled. Then we can end up doing worse and worse things. A person starts off just doing this little bad thing and that little bad thing, and then does something to cover up something else, and it starts a process which can end up in a very bad place. When you hear about situations escalating, they started off with some conflict, the conflict grew worse, and the next thing you know, murder has been committed, and it’s really hard for anyone to say that they didn’t know *that *was wrong.

So it goes both ways. Yes, ignorance can reduce culpability, but there is still damge to one’s soul.

 

[RebeccaJ]

[BIBLEDRB]john 9:39-41[/BIBLEDRB]

[BIBLEDRB]john 15:22[/BIBLEDRB]

 

[Earnest_Bunbury]

There are values inherent in God’s Creation that can be known by human reason. This is part of the natural law, which is our participation in God’s Eternal Law. His Divine Revelation of His Divine Law directs us toward our supernatural end but it is the inherent values which can be known by human reason that no one is ignorant of except by ones own fault or mental deficiency. Romans 1:

[20] For the invisible things of him, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made; his eternal power also, and divinity: so that they are inexcusable.

It is God Himself that builds upon this creation by acts interior and exterior. Romans 1:

[19] Because that which is known of God is manifest in them. For God hath manifested it unto them.

Invincible ignorance is in regards to the Divine Law which comes directly from Divine Revelation, which is offered by those who preach and teach it. Some may not have received that, but all have seen God’s Creation and could have felt His presence.

It is in the values inherent in creation naturally, without ever receiving knowledge of the Divine Law from Jesus or the Church, that one would still be responsible for, save to extenuating circumstances.

 

[mycatsasha]

Thanks, RebeccaJ! That’s pretty much exactly what I was looking for!

 

[Big_Dummy]

Romans 2:15
They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them.)

Ah, how many sins does it take to go to hell?

Romans 3:21-26 (New International Version)

21 But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness is given through faith in[a] Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25 God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— 26 he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.

Romans 6:20-23 (New International Version)
20 When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. 21 What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

 

[Big_Dummy]

St. Augustine, Tractate 89, on John 15:22-23- “What, then, does He [Jesus] mean by the words, If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin? [John 15:22] Was it that the Jews were without sin before Christ came to them in the flesh? Who, though he were the greatest fool, would say so?.. But when He went on to say, But now they have no excuse for their sin, some may be moved to inquire whether those to whom Christ neither came nor spoke, have an excuse for their sin. For if they have not, why is it said here that these had none, on the very ground that He did come and speak to them? And if they have, have they it to the extent of thereby being barred from punishment, or of receiving it in a milder degree? To these inquiries, with the Lord’s help and to the best of my capacity, I reply, that such have an excuse, not for every one of their sins, but for this sin of not believing on Christ, inasmuch as He came not and spoke not to them.”

 Fr. Francisco de Vitoria, O.P., a famous 16th century Dominican theologian, summed up the traditional teaching of the Catholic Church on this topic very well.  Here is how he put it:

“When we postulate invincible ignorance on the subject of baptism or of the Christian faith, it does not follow that a person can be saved without baptism or the Christian faith. For the aborigines to whom no preaching of the faith or Christian religion has come will be damned for mortal sins or for idolatry, but not for the sin of unbelief. As St. Thomas says, however, if they do what in them lies [in their power], accompanied by a good life according to the law of nature, it is consistent with God’s providence that he will illuminate them regarding the name of Christ.”

St. Augustine (426): “Consequently both those who have not heard the gospel and those who, having heard it, and having been changed for the better, did not receive perseverance… none of these are separated from that lump which is known to be damned, as all are going… into condemnation.”

2 Corinthians 4:3: “And if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the god of this world [Satan] hath blinded the minds of unbelievers, that the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should not shine unto them.”

Pope Eugene IV, Council of Florence, “Cantate Domino,” 1441, ex cathedra: “The Holy Roman Church firmly believes, professes and preaches that all those who are outside the Catholic Church, not only pagans but also Jews or heretics and schismatics, cannot share in eternal life and will go into the everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels, unless they are joined to the Church before the end of their lives; that the unity of this ecclesiastical body is of such importance that only for those who abide in it do the Church’s sacraments contribute to salvation and do fasts, almsgiving and other works of piety and practices of the Christian militia produce eternal rewards; and that nobody can be saved, no matter how much he has given away in alms and even if he has shed blood in the name of Christ, unless he has persevered in the bosom and unity of the Catholic Church.”