Scrupulosity: A Little Bit of Hell

Do you never feel forgiven no matter how many times you confess your sins?
Do you obsess over blasphemous thoughts that invade your mind against your will?
Do you agonize about whether or not something you\’ve done is sinful, even when other faithful Catholics and even your priest assure you that it\’s not?
Is your conscience so hyper-sensitive that you cannot find peace with God?
If so, you might want to start reading up on a condition called scrupulosity. It is one of the most painful psychological states there is — it can feel like hell to the sufferer.
I was surprised to learn that Fr. Paul Marx, the late, great pro-life hero, suffered from scrupulosity as a young seminarian. He recounted in his autobiography that the agony of that condition was worse than any other pain he had suffered in his life (and he suffered an incredible amount of physical and psychological pain in his worldwide, decades-long mission to end abortion).
I know from personal experience how devastating scrupulosity can be. A family member of mine suffered from it, and when things became torturous for her, intervention was needed. There is an understanding now that scrupulosity is one type of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD); recognition of that fact is how my relative was able to get her scrupulosity/obsessive thoughts under control. The relief is beyond description.
Scrupulosity is incredibly harmful and can lead souls right out of the Church. Martin Luther suffered terribly with feelings of total depravity — he could not feel \”clean\” no matter how many times he received absolution. His scrupulosity led to the formation of his doctrine of sola fide (salvation by faith alone) and the idea of \”eternal security,\” i.e., that sin, even grave sin, cannot jeopardize a Christian\’s salvation. It\’s not a stretch to say that scrupulosity was a catalyst for the Protestant Reformation, which tore the Body of Christ asunder.
I had a dear friend, now deceased, who grew up Catholic in the 1950s. She suffered from torturous scrupulosity as a girl, causing her ultimately to leave the Catholic Church. I asked her about her experiences, and she told me the following:

I\’m not sure how or exactly when it started. I know I was still in grade school. I went to a Catholic school for 9 years. Sometimes we would go to Mass before school and I would take Communion like most of the other kids. In school we learned about sin — venial, mortal, and the worst of all, mortal sin of sacrilege. I remember trying to grasp the concept of eternity in hell. Fire, forever, without end. This is what would happen to a person who died with mortal sin on their soul. I found the idea too frightening.

We went through the Ten Commandments and the sins against them — some of which I was too young and innocent to comprehend. Then one day on my way up to Communion, it occurred to me that maybe I had a mortal sin on my soul, but I continued to receive Communion. That\’s when it all started. I felt ill and had my mom pick me up from school. I spent the rest of the day with a knot in my stomach, worried that I had committed the dreaded mortal sin of sacrilege. Eventually I was able to dismiss the fact that I had done such a thing. But I decided that I wasn\’t going to repeat that episode. I know now that what I thought was sin at that time wasn\’t. But I was ignorant and unsure so just to be on the safe side I avoided Communion.
We were expected to receive Communion every first Friday of the month so during the week we had Confession during school hours. I found myself confessing to numerous sins (just in case) because a bad confession was considered a sin of sacrilege. After Confession my mind would be bombarded with all kinds of things which I tried to fight but eventually I would decide that at some point I had a sinful thought, could not go to Communion, at which point the torture would stop. Then all I would have to do was be sick that Friday. Eventually it got to the point where I was \”sick\” all that week.
I was embarrassed and ashamed because all my friends were receiving Communion on a regular basis. The struggle within me was pure torture and in that I felt totally alone.
I told no one. I was too ashamed because it all seemed so crazy. I had no hope that anyone could possibly understand. Looking back, I wonder how in the world the priests who heard my confession didn\’t have a clue about my scrupulosity.
It wasn\’t until high school that I heard anything about a scrupulous conscience. I went to public high school (freedom) but attended religious class once a week. The nun who conducted the class once referred to a boy who had to continue to go to confession because he suffered with a scrupulous conscience. It was then that I realized my problem.

My friend never did come back to the Catholic Church, living out her life as an evangelical Protestant, resigned to live \”on My Father\’s front porch\” as she put it, never quite able to come back inside the home she missed and longed for.
Scrupulosity is not a condition unique to Catholicism by any means, however, as Protestants, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, and those of other faiths are affected as well.
If you think you are scrupulous, there is help! First, understand that you likely have a form of OCD and it can be treated. Second, please read the monthly Scrupulous Anonymous newsletters and the \”Ten Commandments for the Scrupulous\” (along with the \”revised\” Commandments). Third, read the book, Understanding Scrupulosity: Questions, Helps, and Encouragements, by Thomas M. Santa. And fourth, find a spiritual director or confessor who has experience dealing with scrupulosity.
It might be hard to believe, but with the help of others and God\’s grace, you can and will find peace.

http://www.catholicstand.com/scrupulosity-a-little-bit-of-hell/

saint

“There is no basis for that which some respond to this: that these Fathers based themselves on ancient law, while nowadays, by decree of the Council of Constance, they alone lose their jurisdiction who are excommunicated by name or who assault clerics. This argument, I say, has no value at all, for those Fathers, in affirming that heretics lose jurisdiction, did not cite any human law, which furthermore perhaps did not exist in relation to the matter, but argued on the basis of the very nature of heresy. The Council of Constance only deals with the excommunicated, that is, those who have lost jurisdiction by sentence of the Church, while heretics already before being excommunicated are outside the Church and deprived of all jurisdiction. For they have already been condemned by their own sentence, as the Apostle teaches (Tit. 3:10-11), that is, they have been cut off from the body of the Church without excommunication, as St. Jerome affirms… All the ancient Fathers…teach that manifest heretics immediately lose all jurisdiction, and outstandingly that of St. Cyprian (lib. 4, epist. 2) who speaks as follows of Novatian, who was Pope [i.e. antipope] in the schism which occurred during the pontificate of St. Cornelius: “He would not be able to retain the episcopate [i.e. of Rome], and, if he was made bishop before, he separated himself from the body of those who were, like him, bishops, and from the unity of the Church.’” — St. Robert Bellarmine, An Extract from St. Robert Bellarmine, De Romano Pontifice, lib. II, cap. 30, (http://www.cmri.org/02-bellarmine-roman-pontiff.html .This link is placed merely for purposes of attribution; no endorsement of this site is hereby intended.)

http://betrayedcatholics.com/wpcms/articles/a-catholics-course-of-study/traditionalist-heresies-and-errors/true-status-of-schismatic-priests-and-bishops-ignored/ad-evitanda-scandala-the-jurisdiction-dilemma-and-can-2261-§2/

dimond

Excommunicated persons are forbidden to receive the Sacraments. After a declaratory or condemnatory sentence they may not be buried from the church, if they should die before obtaining absolution (Canon 2260).

An excommunicated priest is forbidden to celebrate Holy Mass or to administer the sacraments and sacramentals. The faithful, however, may for any good reason ask the sacraments and sacramentals of an excommunicated priest, especially when there is no one else to minister to the applicant, and in cases where the excom municated priest is requested he is allowed to administer the sacraments and is not obliged to inquire why he is requested to do so. The faithful, however, are not allowed to ask the sacraments from a priest who is an excommunicatus vitandus or a priest excommunicated by a sentence in the ecclesiastical court, except in case of danger of death (Canon 2261).

Every excommunicated person is deprived of the indulgences and of his share in the public prayers of the Church. The faithful, however, may privately pray for the excommunicated and a priest may privately apply Holy Mass for their intentions, provided that no scandal is given (Canon 2262). As Protestants fall under the class of the excommunicati tolerati, the Code allows Holy Mass to be applied for their intentions; but privately only.

The exercise of jurisdiction both in the internal and the external forum on the part of an excommunicated person is unlawful; and if the excommunication was imposed by sentence in the ecclesiastical court all acts requiring jurisdiction become invalid, except in danger of death, when any priest can validly absolve a person in such extremity (Canon 2264).

The New Canon Law in Its Practical Aspects: Papers Reprinted from "the ...

 (공)저: Andrew Brennan Meehan,Stanislaus Woywod,Michael A. Gearin

http://books.google.com/books?id=SnUrAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA84&vq=in+danger+of+death&dq=canon+law+1917&hl=ko&output=html_text&source=gbs_search_r&cad=1

saint

(c) If they have become formally affiliated with a non-Catholic sect or publicly adhered to it, they incur ipso facto the note of infamy; clerics lose all ecclesiastical offices they might hold (can. 188, 4°), and after a fruitless warning they should be deposed.

http://books.google.com/books?id=aPUoAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA193&focus=viewport&vq=heretic&dq=Those+who+contract+marriage+before+a+non-Catholic+minister+without+permission+(2319+§+1+n.+1)%3B&hl=ko&output=html_text

dimond

Sacrae ordinationis minister ordinarius est Episcopus consecratus; extraordinarius, qui, licet charactere episcopali careat, a iure vel a Sede Apostolica per peculiare indultum potestatem acceperit aliquos ordines conferendi.

The ordinary minister of sacred ordination is every (validly) consecratedbishop, even though he be a schismatic or heretic.

This was defined in the Decree for the Armenians and again by the Council of Trent.1 However, it must be added that although every validly consecrated bishop may ordain validly, yet he must make use of the proper form in the act of ordination, and have the intention of conferring the power attached to the Sacrament; or rather, let us say, the ordinans must not positively exclude the intention of the Church. From this point of view the Anglican Orders were declared invalid by Leo XIII, in his "Apostolicae curae," of Sept. 13, 1896.2

A commentary on the new Code of the canon law

 (공)저: Charles Augustine (Rev. P., O.S.B.),Charles Augustine Bachofen

http://books.google.com/books?id=0yxZAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA412&vq=heretic&dq=Those+who+contract+marriage+before+a+non-Catholic+minister+without+permission+(2319+§+1+n.+1)%3B&hl=ko&output=html_text&source=gbs_search_r&cad=1

dimond

III. VARIOUS KINDS OF DELINQUENCIES

6. 1°. Occult, Public, Notorious. (Can. 2197.) Delinquencies are always external acts, but they may be unknown or known in various degrees; hence the division into occult, public and notorious.

(a) They are occult, in the full and strictest sense, when they are known to no one but the agent. They are also considered as practically unknown and occult when they are known to only two or three prudent and discreet persons who are not likely to divulge them. They are occult materially, when the fact itself is unknown; formally, when the fact being known, its disorderly character is not.

(6) Delinquencies are public when they already are or, in all probability, will soon be divulged. To how many persons they should be known to be considered as divulged, is not defined by law nor can it easily be, as so much depends on circumstances and the character of the witnesses. St. Alphonsus holds that a crime may still remain occult although it be known to five or six persons, or even seven or eight in a large city. In another place he goes farther and demands for a crime to become truly public, that it be known to the greater part of the town, the neighborhood or the community. (Lib. vii, n. 76.) This is not, however, the ordinary sense of public as distinct from notorious. (D'Annibale, i, n. 242, note 49; Gasparri, Tractatus Canonicus de Matrimonio, n. 252, Paris, 1891; Tractatus Canonicus de Sacra Ordinatione, n. 222.)

(c) Delinquencies may be notorious by notoriety of law or by notoriety of fact. They are legally notorious after a valid judicial sentence which has become final, that is, from which there is no appeal; and after a confession made in court, in presence of the judge, with all the formalities required to give it a judicial character.

They are notorious in fact on two conditions: that they be publicly known, that is, known to the whole community, morally speaking, or to a large portion of it; and that they have been committed under such circumstances that they cannot be concealed by any subterfuge, nor excused by any interpretation of the law. They are generally known both materially and formally. (Wernz, n. 17, v; II Monitore Ecclesiastico, Ap., 1918, p. 123.) Homicide committed in presence of a crowd would be a notorious fact, but if it had some appearance of being in self-defence, it would not be anotorious crime; or it would be notorious materially, not formally.

http://books.google.com/books?id=aPUoAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA30&vq=notorious&dq=Those+who+contract+marriage+before+a+non-Catholic+minister+without+permission+(2319+§+1+n.+1)%3B&hl=ko&output=html_text&source=gbs_search_r&cad=1

saint

A latae sententiae penalty is one that followsipso facto or automatically, by force of the law itself, when a law is contravened; a penalty that binds a guilty party only after it has been imposed on the person is known as a ferendae sententiae (meaning "sentence to be passed") penalty.^[1]

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latae_sententiae