One doesn't hear much about "Giving Scandal", from any source. So, today, when I read Terry Nelson's journal piece on this subject, it gave me pause -- a moment to reflect. The only time I ever heard a pastor talk about "giving scandal" was when he gave a homily on calumny. I had no idea what that word meant, but he went on to explain that a child had come to him in confession the day before saying that his mother told him that Father was a bad priest because he just bought himself a new car. I have never seen a priest express so much anger from the pulpit - we certainly went away that day knowing that to commit calumny was a grave sin; add to that corrupting a child's mind with gossip. As it turns out, the car was a gift to Father from his Mother and Father.
2284 Scandal is an attitude or behavior which leads another to do evil. The person who gives scandal becomes his neighbor's tempter. He damages virtue and integrity; he may even draw his brother into spiritual death. Scandal is a grave offense if by deed or omission another is deliberately led into a grave offense.
2285 Scandal takes on a particular gravity by reason of the authority of those who cause it or the weakness of those who are scandalized. It prompted our Lord to utter this curse: "Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened round his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea."86 Scandal is grave when given by those who by nature or office are obliged to teach and educate others. Jesus reproaches the scribes and Pharisees on this account: he likens them to wolves in sheep's clothing.87
2286 Scandal can be provoked by laws or institutions, by fashion or opinion. Therefore, they are guilty of scandal who establish laws or social structures leading to the decline of morals and the corruption of religious practice, or to "social conditions that, intentionally or not, make Christian conduct and obedience to the Commandments difficult and practically impossible."88 This is also true of business leaders who make rules encouraging fraud, teachers who provoke their children to anger,89 or manipulators of public opinion who turn it away from moral values.
2287 Anyone who uses the power at his disposal in such a way that it leads others to do wrong becomes guilty of scandal and responsible for the evil that he has directly or indirectly encouraged. "Temptations to sin are sure to come; but woe to him by whom they come!" - CCC (from Abbey Roads Blog)
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