A correspondent recently told me that he heard a priest say that a Catholic who dissents from Church teaching is committing a “sin against the faith.” He wanted to know what it meant to "sin against the faith." After all, we either have it or we don't, right?
Recent popes have said that we are living through a “crisis of faith.” We rarely hear about sins against the theological virtue of faith, but if indeed we’re living through such a crisis, it stands to reason that sins against faith happen--and happen more frequently than we might initially think.
Sins against faith are seemingly “victimless” sins. Not only that, it takes a rare humility today to admit that we’re wrong about anything. And when it comes to religious convictions--true, false, or just plain weird--our society takes a “to each his own” approach. Thus, in many Catholic circles today, rejection of Church teaching brings into play many fancy concepts, such as “diversity,” “tolerance,” “plurality,” “religious freedom,” “lived experience,” and “primacy of conscience.”
But no mention of “sin.”
In its treatment of the first commandment, the Catechism of the Catholic Church devotes three paragraphs (nos. 2087-89) to sins against faith. The Catechism says that the first commandment requires us to “nourish and protect our faith with prudence and vigilance,” rejecting everything that is opposed to it. We can all do a better job of nourishing and protecting our faith, especially through prayer, sacraments, and sound spiritual reading.
The Catechism identifies several sins against faith, including voluntary doubt, incredulity, heresy, apostasy, and schism. None of these sins are four-letter words, but they may as well be, given the deliberate avoidance of these terms today.
Scripture frequently speaks of the necessity of faith for salvation. Indeed, without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb. 11:6). Faith entails the acceptance of all that our Lord has revealed through His Church, based on His own authority as the Son of God.
Mere agreement is not the same as faith. We can’t put Christ’s teachings through an approval process, rejecting those teachings that are confusing or disagreeable to us. Now the fact that we might on occasion have difficulties or questions concerning Church teaching is not a sin, and all of us are “works in progress” as we journey home to our Father. The important thing is that we allow the faith to form us, rather than take it upon ourselves to shape the faith according to our own preferences and limited understanding.
Christ changes us—not the other way around!
But even acceptance of the person and teachings of Jesus Christ isn’t enough. We need to do what the Lord says (Lk. 6:46). We must bear witness to our faith in our daily lives: “So every one who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven; but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven” (Mt. 10:32-33; cf. Catechism, no. 1816).
When we cultivate doubt or dissent, the result is spiritual blindness. Our choices are no longer guided by objective standards of moral conduct, and the Word of God ceases to be a light for our path. We cannot be indifferent to the personal dimension of the “crisis of faith” in our midst, perhaps writing off those who seem to be set in their dissident ways. Reaching out to those who struggle with sins against faith is a vitally important task—indeed, a spiritual work of mercy.
And so faith isn’t merely a one-time, all-or-nothing proposition, but a continual call to an ever-deepening commitment to Our Lord. Surely all of us can and must believe everything that God has revealed through Christ and His Church with greater understanding, conviction, and joy. With the Apostles, we do well to beg the Lord to “increase our faith” (Lk. 17:5).
I initially posted this response on the question and answer page of School of Faith, a Kansas City-based apostolate. School of Faith's 24-lesson "Faith Foundations" course is now available at My Catholic Faith Delivered.