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Transcript
Historical Developments in the Catholic Moral Tradition
(2) The Sacrament of Penance

Part 2 of the presentation is on the development of the sacrament of confession

 In the 4th century, the early Christian communities were divided over how to deal
with persons who have been sent out of the community because of grave offenses.
The early Christian communities considered idolatry, adultery, and murder as the
most serious sins.
 There was also a growing tendency toward perfectionism in the early Christian
communities. Some Christians wanted to give grave sinners the chance to be
welcomed back into the community while other Christians wanted to permanently
excommunicate grave sinners.
 To deal with this issue, the Council of Nicea (325 AD) set up a policy of readmitting
excommunicated offenders after appropriate penances were fulfilled.
 Confession of sins is to be done publicly before the Christian community.
 Readmission can only happen once in one’s lifetime. A second grave offense will
mean permanent excommunication.
 Penances imposed were public, took many years to fulfill, and were very difficult.
Even when penances were fulfilled and the penitent was allowed to receive the
Eucharist, the person remained marked for life and was disqualified from various
activities such as military service and marital relations.
 Because of the strictness of this penitential practice most Christians postponed
seeking forgiveness and penance until they are dying. Penance became associated
with preparation for death. This attitude toward confession as something associated
only with preparation for death is still present in our local church communities.
 In the 6th century, a change in the rigid practice of penance occurred under the
influence of the monastic tradition.
 In monasteries in Ireland, the practice of spiritual direction between individual
monks and their spiritual directors led to a form of individualized private confession
between penitent and confessor.
 This new form of confession could be repeated as often as need. This practice
spread beyond the monastery and was used in local Christian communities. It was
introduced to the rest of Europe through Irish missionaries.
 Because of this new practice, penitential books were written by various Christian
writers as guides for confessors in giving penances.
 Penitential books were basically lists of sins with corresponding penances. These
books were focused primarily on sins; but they also expressed the care that
confessors must exercise when making a moral evaluation of actions.
 There are many moral insights about how to dealing with sins in the penitential
books:
o Care was made to distinguish acts committed out of ignorance, error,
carelessness, or malice. The person’s knowledge of the sinfulness of his or
her action was considered, as well as the intention that accompanied the
action. Wrong actions that were done out of ignorance or error were not
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considered sinful, while those actions done out of carelessness or malice

had varying degrees of gravity and sinfulness.
o Spontaneous thoughts are distinguished from those deliberately fostered.
Spontaneous thoughts are not sinful since they were not freely chosen
unlike deliberately fostered sinful thoughts.
o Planned sins had a higher penance than sins committed impulsively. Sins
that are planned have more gravity because a person had more freedom
to choose to commit it or not, compared to a sin committed impulsively
because of uncontrollable emotion.
o A habit of sin is treated differently from a single act of sin. A pattern of
sins required a more radical change of behavior and attitude compared to
an isolated sin that has no pattern in the person’s life.
 In 1215, the Fourth Lateran Council imposed on the whole Church the obligation for
every adult Catholic to confess all sins in private at least once a year and receive
communion at least at Easter. This is what is called the Easter duty.
 The confessor must ask about the circumstances of the sinner and sin in order to
apply appropriate pastoral advice.
 The requirement to go to confession at least once a year necessitated the training of
priests as skilled confessors to properly administer the sacrament.

This ends Part 2 of the presentation. You can pause for a moment to reflect on the insights
of the lesson before proceeding to Part 3.