Transcript

Historical Developments in the Catholic Moral Tradition

(3) The Council of Trent

Part 3 of the presentation is on the Council of Trent and Manualism

 In 1545, the Council of Trent was convened to define Catholic dogma and reform the Church
in response to the Protestant Reformation.
 On of the criticism of Protestant reformers about the practice of confession is the
inadequate and unsatisfactory way the clergy administered the sacrament of confession
 There was no systematic way of training priests to hear confessions during that time.
Confessors who were incompetent or over-zealous made going to confession a form of
torture of the conscience.
 In response to Protestant criticism of the teaching and practice of confession, the Council
reasserted and clarified the rule of the Fourth Lateran Council: Catholics are obliged to
confess all mortal sins in kind and number at least once a year.
 The Council also established the seminary system of training priests with a standard course
of studies.
 Due to the great need of the Church to train good confessors, the subject of moral theology
was given a special place in the seminary program.
 In the seminary program, students were trained to identify sins in kind and gravity.
 Great importance was given to identifying and confessing mortal sins. The Church at that
time traditionally taught that if one died in a state of mortal sin, one would go to hell.
 With this focus on identifying sins, moral theology became sin-oriented, with less attention
given to spirituality and growth in holiness. Avoiding evil was the focus, not doing good.
 Manuals were written by professors of moral theology to serve as seminary textbooks and
guides to confessors.
 These manuals presented a minimalist view of the moral life, giving the impression that the
moral life is all about following the law, avoiding sin, and nothing more.
 Until the middle of the 20th century, before Vatican II, Catholic morality and moral theology
were individualistic, sin-centered, legalistic, and minimalist.

This ends Part 3 of the presentation. You can pause to reflect on the insights of this lesson before
proceeding to Part 4.