Category: Theology

Can children under the age of reason commit venial sins? From my external observation, I think they can. I can think of several cases where my daughter and older son have known what was the right thing to do, and deliberately chosen not to do it. Also, when my wife and I discipline them, I don’t get the idea that we’re disciplining mere jumbles of instincts and passions, but that their intellects and wills are thrown into the mix.
So while I have no trouble believing that small children can’t commit mortal sins because they are incapable of full, rational choice, I would think they could commit venial sins. Anybody have an answer for me?

My daughter, Anna, is three years old, and has the personality of an exceptionally curious, willful puppy. Last night, I had to reprimand her for disobeying — a common occurence — and she said through her tears, “Daddy, do you love me even when I’m fussy?”
Before I gave the standard reply (“I always love you, no matter what”) my older son Charlie piped up: “Yes, he loves you, Anna, he just doesn’t like the fussy!”
I don’t want to read too much into a 4-year-old’s comment, but it’s delightful to see a small child grasp the idea that you can love people without approving of all of their actions. Yet how many adults argue that unless we approve of their vices, we are unloving bigots? Sometimes, kids really are wiser than adults, or at least they see things more clearly.

Grovel Week has arrived on PBS, and they’re begging us for money to keep their Very Special Programs on the air. Lord knows we watch a lot of public broadcasting in our house, but it’s limited to fare like Clifford the Big Red Dog. I don’t feel guilty about watching their shows and not paying for them, because we gave at the office — the tax office, that is. On average, tax-paying households “donate” $6.40 to the IRS every year for PBS funding, and in gratitude for your cooperation, the congenial folks at the IRS refrain from confiscating your home, freezing your bank accounts, or throwing you in jail.
Quick “Simpsons” moment:

Marge: What are you gonna spend your money on, kids?
Bart: There’s a special down at the Tacomat: a hundred tacos for a hundred dollars. I’m gonna get that.
Lisa: I’m going to contribute my money to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
Marge: Tacos? Public broadcasting? I will not have either of you waste your money.

To convince recalcitrant viewers to cough up more clams, PBS re-ran “The Power of Myth,” a conversation between LBJ advisor Bill Moyers and Professor Joseph Campbell of Sarah Lawrence College. They filmed the six episodes of the series back in 1987, so this is probably a re-re-re-re-re-re-rerun at least….

Over lunch today Professor Russell Hittinger gave a lecture at the conference about Pope Leo XIII (Gioacchino Pecci). He mentioned that before Leo XIII’s papacy, his predecessor had issued the famous “Syllabus of Errors”, a wide-ranging list of doctrinal errors Catholics were to shun, and Bp. Pecci had contributed to the document’s draft. For better or worse, the Pope didn’t adopt his suggestion for the document’s title: “Mary, Exterminator of Heresies”.
On hearing that, the folks at our table, including Fr. Sibley, exchanged the thumbs-up sign: we think it was a great title: it would sound good, say, in the name of a religious order, or even just a local church (“I go to Mass at Mary Exterminator of Heresies Parish”)!