Catholic guilt is a term used to identify the supposed excess guilt felt by Catholics and lapsed Catholics. It is a concept that many non-Catholics have, partly based on a strict definition of sacraments by Martin Luther that diminished the role of Confession in many Protestant Churches and on the extreme struggle Luther had with guilt in his life that he resolved by separation from the Catholic Church.
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In line with Luther's initial statement in his Large Catechism, some Lutherans speak of only two sacraments,[1] Baptism and the Eucharist, although later in the same work he calls Confession and Absolution[2] "the third sacrament."[3] The definition of sacrament in the Apology of the Augsburg Confession lists Absolution as one of them.[4] Luther went to confession all his life.[5] Although Lutherans do not consider the other four rites as sacraments, they are still retained and used in the Lutheran church. However, in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, private confession fell into disuse in many Protestant churches; at the present time, it is among Lutherans, for example, expected before partaking of the Eucharist for the first time.[6] Philipp Melanchthon speaking about the Confession in the Lutheran Church, claims that "we do not wish to sanction the torture [the tyranny of consciences] of the Summists, which notwithstanding would have been less intolerable if they had added one word concerning faith, which comforts and encourages consciences. Now, concerning this faith, which obtains the remission of sins, there is not a syllable in so great a mass of regulations, glosses, summaries, books of confession. Christ is nowhere read there".[7] This polemical view ignores the Catholic emphasis on faith and Christ in Catholic instruction and practice, including regarding confession.
The Catholic Church teaches that sacramental confession requires three "acts" on the part of the penitent: contrition (sorrow of the soul for the sins committed), disclosure of the sins (the 'confession'), and satisfaction (the 'penance', i.e. doing something to make amends for the sins).[8] The basic form of confession has changed over the centuries. At one time confessions were made publicly.[9] This was discontinued. Sometimes the practice of the sacrament emphasized doing acts of penance, sometimes it emphasized making one's sorrow or contrition authentic, sometimes it emphasized confessing all one's serious sins, sometimes it emphasized the power of the priest to absolve the penitent of sin, and currently there are forms that include simply one-on-one confession to a priest or communal preparation and then one-one-one confession to a priest.[10]
A study by the University of Parma found that devout Catholics are more likely to show symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder than less religious people. Ian Hancock, an expert in OCD from Dumfries and Galloway Primary Care NHS Trust, believes that although there is probably a genetic component to the condition, environmental factors, such as parenting, are likely to play an important role in its development, claiming that "as a religion catholicism does rather tend to emphasise personal responsibility, guilt and right and wrong. Any strong teaching that emphasises these issues in a very powerful way could be additional pressure for somebody who is prone to feeling guilt in the first place." Mr Hancock said it was important that devout Catholics who found themselves struggling with OCD took on board the broad teachings of the church, and tried not to focus exclusively on the elements that emphasised personal responsibility.[11]
Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited involves guilt in the Catholic religion. Distressed by her romantic relationship with Charles Ryder, Julia Flyte exclaims:
Living in sin, with sin, by sin, for sin, every hour, every day, year in, year out. Waking up with sin in the morning, seeing the curtains drawn on sin, bathing it, dressing it, clipping diamonds to it, feeding it, showing it round, giving it a good time, putting it to sleep at night with a tablet of Dial if it's fretful. Always the same, like an idiot child carefully nursed, guarded from the world. 'Poor Julia,' they say, 'she can't go out. She's got to take care of her little sin. A pity it ever lived,' they say, 'but it's so strong. Children like that always are. Julia's so good to her little, mad sin.’ [12]
The 30 Rock episode "The Fighting Irish", Catholic guilt is described by Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin).
Jack Donaghy: That's not how it works, Tracy. Even though there is the whole confession thing, that's no free pass, because there is a crushing guilt that comes with being a Catholic. Whether things are good or bad or you're simply... eating tacos in the park, there is always the crushing guilt.
Tracy Jordan: I don't think I want that. I'm out.
[Jack turns to leave]
Jack Donaghy: [to himself] Somehow, I feel oddly guilty about that.
[Jack crosses himself] [13]