Rigid Christianity?

In bringing this up, I have even seen Catholics effectively defend scrupulosity as a necessary state, something that happens as one grows spiritually. The name of the article mentioned earlier even seems to imply this. The idea seems to be that as one becomes more pious (read: traditional), one can’t help but be overcome by the weight of one’s sins and thus be plagued by scruples. At first, this may sound like it makes sense—growing pains exist in the spiritual life. But scrupulosity is no more necessary to growth than is gluttony, pride, or any other specific sin. It is a way that the Devil catches us like any other—a way all the more treacherous and common for those seeking a certain sort of piety, often rooted in a mistaken definition of repentance. Scrupulosity is particularly sad because it takes well-meaning (often young) Catholics, desiring “the traditional Faith” and spits them out embittered, sullen, or both. How can we remain blind to this? The Faith is a source of hope, not fear and pain.

Having had this discussion before, I’d like to address a response I’ve heard time and time again. People ask “why concentrate on this, when there is so much else wrong in the Church? Isn’t that imprudent?” My answer is twofold: first, all evil things must be addressed and combatted. Second, if it is true that young people want “tradition,” then we ought to be talking about this now, before we end up with a Church plagued by scrupulosity, perhaps just as that of the twentieth-century found itself plagued by laxity.

My first response ought to be clear enough. While it might make sense that we need people discussing laxity in the Church (in fact, I would say we definitely need this), it does not follow that those combatting it should allow an opposite evil to grow in its place. The desire to see a better catechized Church is absolutely noble. That, however, is no reason to allow others to fall into sin, often snuck in through the best of intentions.

To the second point, we may see a growth in this problem, and therefore it makes sense to address it before it grows. I have already seen how an mixture of politics and self-righteousness has led many Catholics to immediately dismiss anything and everything the pope does (in other words, we see the emergence of a sort of dualism, ultimately rooted in the false sense of repentance discussed above). Mike Lewis’ series on Raymond Arroyo and other American Catholics shows how this can happen in vivid detail. Why wait to think this through?

And even that final question implies that this is a new critique. Yet, we know it isn’t. Never mind Christ’s many attacks on the Pharisees and their misapprehension of repentance and piety. Pope St. Pius X wrote the following:

“Piety, however, grew cold, and especially afterward because of the widespread plague of
Jansenism, disputes began to arise concerning the dispositions with which one ought to receive frequent and daily Communion; and writers vied with one another in demanding more and more stringent conditions as necessary to be fulfilled. The result of such disputes was that very few were considered worthy to receive the Holy Eucharist daily, and to derive from this most health-giving Sacrament its more abundant fruits […] To such a degree, indeed, was rigorism carried that whole classes of persons were excluded from a frequent approach to the Holy Table

[…]

The poison of Jansenism, however, which, under the pretext of showing due honor and reverence to the Eucharist, had infected the minds even of good men, was by no means a thing of the past. The question as to the dispositions for the proper and licit reception of Holy Communion survived the declarations of the Holy See, and it was a fact that certain theologians of good repute were of the opinion that daily Communion could be permitted to the faithful only rarely and subject to many conditions.” (WherePeterIs)

Here he discusses Jansenism and the Eucharist, but such is just one manifestation of a mentality that has long dogged us.

Again, I do not mean to say that any and every Traditionalist is a rigorist in the sense outlined above. But I do think this is a real issue, one easily snuck in under cover of increased piety. This is something we must be aware of, something that may, as I have said, become more important to address as we move forward through the twenty-first century.

Let us, in thinking this through, pray:

Remit, pardon and forgive, O God, our sins committed voluntarily and involuntarily, by word and deed, knowingly and in ignorance, by thought and purpose, by day and night; forgive all these for You are gracious and love mankind.

Repentance is a lifelong task.