Who's culpable?

[Epistemes]

If a person were to be advised by priests and religious that some specific sin wasn’t a mortal sin, mainly due to it being a confirmed addiction, and advised that this person need not *always *immediately go to confession for this specific sin (or, at least, need not feel the compulsion to go to confession) but that an Act of Contrition would suffice between committing the sin and going to the confessional before receiving the Sacrament, which is what this person has since practiced - provided that the priests and religious who advised him as such were wrong and that that person had been committing the act of sacrelige unbeknownst, who would be culpable - the priests or the person?

 

[Monica4316]

hmm good question…

I think that God wants us to be obedient to the Church and any spiritual authorities, so I’m leaning towards the priests being culpable in this case. **But I don’t know for sure. **

I think with addictions, it’s kind of tricky… it IS true that our culpability is lessened for addictions because our free will is lessened. But we should make every effort to still choose the right thing. To fight the addiction. If we habitually give in, without really trying, that could be a big problem. I think sometimes i’ts really important to practice spiritual mortification by putting ourselves through pain (not giving into the addiction) simply out of love for God.

Also, maybe it depends on the person’s thought/decision making process… if they keep on giving in to the addiction without really thinking about it, then maybe it’s not a mortal sin. If they carefully consider it each time, and then give in, that could be problematic. In that case it would be good for them to speak with their priest. If the priest gives the wrong advice…I’m thinking that he would be culpable?

the only thing, that’s very unfortunate too… maybe if the priest makes a mistake through ignorance, it’s not a sin on his part

I’m sorry I have no concrete answers, lol!

God bless

 

[kimmielittle]

hmm good question…

I think that God wants us to be obedient to the Church and any spiritual authorities, so I’m leaning towards the priests being culpable in this case. **But I don’t know for sure. **

I think with addictions, it’s kind of tricky… it IS true that our culpability is lessened for addictions because our free will is lessened. But we should make every effort to still choose the right thing. To fight the addiction. If we habitually give in, without really trying, that could be a big problem. I think sometimes i’ts really important to practice spiritual mortification by putting ourselves through pain (not giving into the addiction) simply out of love for God.

Also, maybe it depends on the person’s thought/decision making process… if they keep on giving in to the addiction without really thinking about it, then maybe it’s not a mortal sin. If they carefully consider it each time, and then give in, that could be problematic. In that case it would be good for them to speak with their priest. If the priest gives the wrong advice…I’m thinking that he would be culpable?

the only thing, that’s very unfortunate too… maybe if the priest makes a mistake through ignorance, it’s not a sin on his part

I’m sorry I have no concrete answers, lol!

God bless

Maybe, the person suffers scrupulosity?
Simply put…we don’t have enough information to say