What is Apostasy

[StephenL]

I know that apostasy is a serious sin, but what is it?

 

[RCIAGraduate]

Apostasy means leaving one’s faith or religion(from my existing knowledge).

 

[RCIAGraduate]

From ETWN.com

Definitions
"The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines these three sins against the faith in this way:…

apostasy is the total repudiation of the Christian faith; "

…“The same is true of apostasy. The person who leaves not just the Catholic Church but who abandons Christ Himself is materially an apostate. He is formally an apostate through willful, and therefore culpable, repudiation of the Christian faith.”…

Link ewtn.com/expert/answers/heresy_schism_apostasy.htm

From dictionary.com

World English Dictionary
apostasy (əˈpɒstəsɪ)

— n , pl -sies
abandonment of one’s religious faith, party, a cause, etc

[C14: from Church Latin apostasia, from Greek apostasis desertion, from apostanai to stand apart from, desert]

 

[ready]

Apostasy is the abandoning of the true Faith.

 

[AnneElizabeth]

I don’t believe it is 'leaving the true faith" but just means that you’ve left believing in Christ altogether.

That is what I was taught and always heard.

 

[ready]

I don’t believe it is 'leaving the true faith" but just means that you’ve left believing in Christ altogether.

That is what I was taught and always heard.

How can a person truly believe in Christ without truly believing in the Faith that He has established in His Church? When you commit apostasy* a fide *you abandon Christianity/Catholicism – the Christian Faith, the true Faith.

Here is part of New Advent’s definition of apostasy. It encompassed different kinds of apostasy (apostasy from the faith is just one kind of apostasy):

Apostasy

The word itself in its etymological sense, signifies the desertion of a post, the giving up of a state of life; he who voluntarily embraces a definite state of life cannot leave it, therefore, without becoming an apostate. Most authors, however, distinguish with Benedict XIV (De Synodo di£cesanâ, XIII, xi, 9), between three kinds of apostasy: apostasy a Fide or perfidi£, when a Christian gives up his faith; apostasy ab ordine, when a cleric abandons the ecclesiastical state; apostasy a religione, or monachatus, when a religious leaves the religious life. The Gloss on title 9 of the fifth book of the Decretals of Gregory IX mentions two other kinds of apostasy: apostasy inobedientiæ, disobedience to a command given by lawful authority, and iteratio baptismatis, the repetition of baptism, “quoniam reiterantes baptismum videntur apostatare dum recedunt a priori baptismate”. As all sin involves disobedience, the apostasy inobedientiæ does not constitute a specific offense. In the case of iteratio baptismatis, the offence falls rather under the head of heresy and irregularity than of apostasy; if the latter name has sometimes been given to it, it is due to the fact that the Decretals of Gregory IX combine into one title, under the rubric “De apostatis et reiterantibus baptisma” (V, title 9) the two distinct titles of the Justinian Code: “Ne sanctum baptisma iteretur” and “De apostatis” (I, titles 6, 7), in Corpus juris civilis ed. Krueger, (Berlin, 1888); II 60-61. See München “Das kanonische Gerichtsverfahren und Strafrecht” (Cologne, 1874), II, 362, 363. Apostasy, in its strictest sense, means apostasy a Fide (St. Thomas, Summa theologica, II-II, Q. xii a. 1).

 

[ready]

I don’t believe it is 'leaving the true faith" but just means that you’ve left believing in Christ altogether.

That is what I was taught and always heard.

In his posts, RCIAGraduate has offered other definitions of apostasy which indicate that it commonly refers to the abandonment of the true Faith – the Christian/Catholic Faith.

 

[BluesPicker]

Apostasy is to reject God completely. It is a mortal sin.

Angelic spiritus were created with intellects far superior to ours.  From the moment they were created they had infused knowledge, all that is/was necessary to be saved. Spirits are not affected by passions, and fallen nature as we: therefore,  Satan's and his rebel angel's sin has all the markings of mortal sin.  Fallen angels cannot repent. There will is irrevocable fixed in their evil choice.  That is fallen angels are refered to as apostate

Our human knowledge is experiential. We learn in steps, we are affected by passions and our fallen nature. But we can repent if God sends us the graces of reconcillation. Sometimes people who sin and abandon the inspirations of the Holy Spirit grieve the Holy Spirit so much He departs. These poor people’s Salvation is dependant entirely on the sacrafices, penances and prayers of others to obtain graces of reconcillation, We can’t repent unless one recieves graces of reconcillation.

 

[ready]

Apostasy, in its strictest sense, means apostasy a Fide (St. Thomas, Summa theologica, II-II, Q. xii a. 1).

Apostasy a Fide means apostasy from the Faith. And when we say “the Faith” we mean the true Faith – the Catholic Faith.