The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 248: The Spread of Sin (2026)

Episode Date: September 5, 2026

We close the section on human dignity and goodness by learning how sin engenders vice. Our readings today discuss the proliferation of sin and how capital sins, in particular, lead to vices that can become rooted in a person or society. Fr. Mike reminds us that while sin is a personal act, it is also possible for us to cooperate in and encourage the sins of others. This can lead to the formation of “structures of sin” that lead others down the path of evil and contribute to establishing “social sins.” Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 1865-1876. This episode has been found to be in conformity with the Catechism by the Institute on the Catechism, under the Subcommittee on the Catechism, USCCB. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/ciy Please note: The Catechism of the Catholic Church contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

Hi, my name's Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Catechism in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's plan of sheer goodness for us, revealed in scripture, and passed down through the tradition of the Catholic faith. The Catechism in Year is brought to you by Ascension. In 365 days, we'll read through the Catechism of the Catholic Church, discovering our identity and God's family as we journey together toward our heavenly home. This is Day 248. We're ending our section on Chapter 1 on Human Dignity and Goodness and all the good things. We're talking about sin today's still. We're reading paragraphs 18. 165 to 1876, some nuggets in there. As always, I'm using the Ascension edition of the

Catechism, which includes the foundations of faith approach, but you can follow along with any recent version of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. You can also download your own catechism in a year reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash C-I-Y. And lastly, you can click follow or subscribe in your podcast app for daily updates and daily notifications. Today is day 248, hierographs 1865 to 1876. I think I've said that three times now. We're talking about the proliferation of sin. Man, you know, in the past, in the recent, in the past, the recent past, we've talked about, well, not just us, but other people have also talked about, man, that no one seems to talk about sin anymore. And yet, sin is one of those things

that it's like, it's like a virus. It just, it spreads. There's the proliferation of sin. And sin creates a proclivity to sin. That's the first line in paragraph 1865. Let's say that again, because it's compelling and it's also involved the word proclivity. Sin creates the proclivity to sin. it engenders vice by repetition of the same acts. And so we just realize that there is sin begets sin. Just like love begets love, you know, virtue begets virtue. Sin makes it easier to sin. We all, we know this.

I think it's helpful for all of us, not just to know this, but to interiorize it, right, to acknowledge that this is the truth in my life, not just out there. Yeah, the world's going to hell in a handbasket, but wow, in my own life. because I make certain choices, it makes other choices either more difficult or easier. We are also going to talk a little bit about vices and the capital sins, as well as certain sins that, as Scripture says, cry out to heaven, that we realize that while sin is a personal act, we have responsibility for sins committed by others when we cooperate in them. This is relatively brief.

We only have five paragraphs before we get to the nuggets of the day, but there's a lot that gets covered. So let's ask the Lord for help right now. Father in heaven, we give you praise. And we ask for your help. In Jesus' name, we ask that you come and meet us, not just to be with us throughout this episode of the catechism in a year, but also to be with us throughout this day. Lord God, when we experience the conviction of your truth, we're invited to walk in the light of your truth. Help us to not just experience the conviction, but also to be given the grace, be given the power, the courage, to not only step into the light, but to walk in the light, to live in the light. Oh God, as you illumine our hearts, we see things there that we wish weren't there.

As you illumine our hearts, we see things that we know you don't want there. So we ask you, come into our hearts with the fire of your love. with the light of your truth and dwell in our hearts so that we can dwell in you. Be with us so that we can walk in your light and live in your light. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen. It is Day 248. We're reading paragraphs 1865 to 1876.

The proliferation of sin. Sin creates a proclivity to sin. It engenders vice by repetition of the same acts. This results in perverse inclinations which cloud conscience and corrupt the concrete judgment of good and evil. Thus, sin tends to reproduce itself and reinforce itself, but it cannot destroy the moral sense at its root. Vices can be classified according to the virtues they oppose or also be linked to the capital sins, which Christian experience has distinguished following St. John Cashin and St. Gregory the Great. They are called capital because they engender other sins, other vices.

They are pride, avarice, envy, wrath, lust, gluttony, and sloth, or accedia. The catechetical tradition also recalls that there are sins that cry to heaven, the blood of Abel, the sin of the sodomites, the cry of the people oppressed in Egypt, the cry of the foreigner, the widow, and the orphan, injustice to the wage earner. Sin is a personal act. Moreover, we have a responsibility for the sins committed by others, when we cooperate in them, by participating directly and voluntarily in them, by ordering, advising, praising, praising, or approving them, by not disclosing or not hindering them when we have an obligation

to do so, by protecting evildoers. Thus, sin makes man accomplices of one another and causes concupiscence, violence, and injustice to reign among them. Sins give rise to social situations and institutions that are contrary to the divine goodness. Structures of sin are the expression and effect of personal sins. They lead their victims to do evil in their turn. In an analogous sense, they constitute a social sin. In brief, God has consigned all men to disobedience, that he may have mercy upon all. Sin is an utterance, a deed, or a desire contrary to the eternal law.

It is an offense against God. It rises up against God in a disobedience contrary to the obedience of Christ. Sin is an act contrary to reason. It wounds man's nature and injures human solidarity. The root of all sin lies in man's heart. The kinds and the gravity of sins are determined principally by their objects. To choose deliberately, that is, both knowing it and willing it, something gravely contrary to the divine law and to the ultimate end of man is to commit a mortal sin. This destroys in us the charity without which eternal beatitude is impossible. Unrepented, it brings eternal death.

Veneal sin constitutes a moral disorder that is reparable by charity, which it allows to subsist in us. The repetition of sins, even venial ones, engenders vices, among which are the capital sins. All right, paragraphs 1865 to 1876 right there. Let's dive in because this is, I think there's so. as I said at the very beginning, there's so much packed into these first five paragraphs that it is worth taking a look. So sin creates a proclivity to sin 1865 right away. We recognize that when I choose sin, it's easier to choose sin. Let's just let's get it out there. We all know this. Thus,

sin tends to, last line here, thus sin tends to reproduce itself and reinforce itself. Why? Because it clouds our conscience, right? We recognize how many times we, I knew this was wrong. But the more more I do it, the more like, are you sure, is it really wrong? Like, it clouds our conscience. And it can corrupt the concrete judgment of good and evil. We can convince ourselves that what we knew was the right thing to do. Well, in some cases, maybe someone else. Or I knew this was the wrong thing to do. Well, are you really sure? I mean, we're modern people now. It's the 21st century. Sin clouds our judgment. That's one of the reasons why those people, those people who have resisted sin, have walked in virtue. They are among the clearest, you know, sometimes we

see people who are choosing virtue, and we can say, well, they're so naive. They're so naive. And yet, we have to ask the question, wait, are they naive? Like, they don't really know how the world works? Or are we so blinded by our compromises that we make super simple things? things really complex. I mean, how many times? Have you and I been in this situation where, okay, this is clear. The right thing to do is this. But because we have such a vested interest in doing our own will, we have such a vested interest, and what would I lose? What would it cost? That we make this simple thing. Complex. When it's not a complex thing, we can complicate things because our judgment has been clouded because we've chosen sin. Moving on, paragraph 1866

talks about capital sins. And I think this is remarkable. In one paragraph, the author of this section of the catechism, whoever that person is, in this one paragraph, they say more and they explain more than, I mean, if you were asked right now, what is a capital sin?

Why are they called capital sins? Would any of us be able to answer? Now, we might be able to answer what the capital sins are because there was this movie called Seven with Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt back in the day and not advocating, and I'm just saying it existed.

And basically, the story behind the whole thing is there's a serial killer who's killing people according to the seven deadly sins, these capital sins. So again, not endorsing the movie. I'm just saying that many people who are roughly my age would know the seven deadly sins because we remember the movie and how scarring it was. It's not a good movie.

I'm not recommending it at all. Although my mom, like she bought the silver edition of that. She loved that movie because she's like, no, this is how the world is. This is like the brokenness of the world. We need God's grace. So it was for her. I'm not saying this is not a recommendation. It is a like scary movie.

and it's disturbing images in the movie. I'm just saying that Mrs. Schmitz, she, for her, it was a little, it was an examination of conscience, I guess, I don't know what it was. Anyways, the seven deadly sins are pride, avarice, or greed, envy, wrath, lust, gluttony, and sloth or accedia. Now, we look at these and say, wait, so they're deadly sins or their capital sins. Paragraph 1866 doesn't say deadly sins, but they're common. commonly called deadly sins, capital sins. Why would we call them deadly sins? Why would they be called capital sins? Is that because whenever those are present, they're always mortal? Great question,

Camper. The answer is no. And in one sentence, the author explains why they're called capital sins, why they're called deadly sins. It says they're called capital because they engender other sins, other vices. Basically, they're gateway sins. That they are, they're capital sins because out of my pride come other sins. Out of greed, avarice, right, come more sins. Out of, envy come other sins. And so they're, again, to say it like this, they're gateway sins, that they lead to other sins. And like they say, they engender other sins or other vices. So on its own, gluttony, yeah, there's a sinfulness in gluttony, obviously. But gluttony, if you just look at your own life and think, wait, gluttony then led me to the next thing,

to the next thing, to the next thing. Or sloth in accedia. That is like a slowness to do what I'm supposed to be doing in this moment. As slowness, to recognize in this moment, to act in this way or that way is what God's will is. And so I'm not inclined to do that. How many times have we been in that situation where, okay, I'm not doing what I'm supposed to be doing, and that leads to even graver sins. So the example I think is just a great example is of King David. So King David, here's the deadly sin of sloth. It says in First Samuel that when kings went out on campaign, that time of the year where kings went into battle, basically fighting for their people, David was back at home in Jerusalem. him. So the opening of the scene here in the story is David's supposed to be doing something. He's supposed to be out in the battlefield. So he's supposed to be out with his men, but he's not. He's back home. And then he's taking a siesta and he strolls wrong. He sees Bathsheba bathing somewhere else. And then he calls her to himself and then essentially commits adultery with, violates her sexually. And then there's a child. So he tries to have, and it actually succeeds in having Bathsheba's husband, Yariah, killed. And all of this. So he went from simply,

not doing what he was supposed to be doing. It's supposed to be on the battlefield. But slowly, slowly, became an adulterer, a sexual assaulter, and a murderer. And we realize, oh, that's one of the reasons why Sloth or Aesedia is a capital sin or a deadly sin. It can lead to other deadly sins. It leads to other more serious sins. Hopefully that makes sense. Now, paragraph 1867 highlights there are sins that cry out to heaven. So from the scriptures, all these are examples right from the Bible. The blood of Abel, right, cries out from earth to heaven, cries out for justice. The sin of the Sodomites cried out to God for justice. The cry of the people oppressed in Egypt, cry of the foreigner, the widow, and the orphan, injustice to the wage earner, realize that when

there are people who are violated, when there are people who are, again, we talked about yesterday, when the dignity of the human person is being violated. So here is the blood of Abel, that his life is, violence against him, the sin of the Saddamites, this sexual sin, the violation of the human dignity of the human person, but also the cry of those people oppressed in Egypt, of the foreigner, the widow, the orphan, injustice to the wage earner. Here are people that have dignity, and that dignity of a weak person, a person in a place of vulnerability, and that they're steamrolled, that they're used, that they're abused, that cries out to heaven for justice. And the last thing here, paragraph 1868 and 1869, we realize, okay, sin is a personal act, right?

Because it's my own. I'm making this choice. I'm making a choice. So I'm responsible for my own choices. But because I'm responsible for my choices, I'm not responsible for someone else's choices, but I do have responsibility for the sins committed by others when I cooperate in those. So I, yeah, I'm not necessarily, I'm not responsible for someone else's decisions. decisions, but I am responsible for the sins committed by others when I cooperate in them. So if I

participate directly and voluntarily in them, then that's my responsibility. So I'm participating directly and voluntarily in someone else's sins. I am cooperating in them. By ordering, advising, praising, praising, or approving them, I'm cooperating in that sin. And we can think about where might there be a situation in your life or in my life? where I might be participating directly and voluntarily in someone else's sin, or where it might be there be a situation in my life when if I've commanded someone to sin, or I've advised someone to sin, or I've praised someone's sin, or approved someone's sin. These are situations where there is a seriousness where I need to go back and look over my life and say, have I ever counseled someone to

sin? Have I said, well, you know, you're in a really bad situation, so here's the way out of the situation and counseled them to do evil? Or have I praised someone's sin or approved someone's sin? You know, sometimes that happens to us where I don't know if you've ever found yourself in a conversation with someone and they're talking about all of their sin. And you're kind of like, wait, do I just, do I start shaking my head saying that's bad? You know, or do I, am I polite? In Minnesota, we're usually just polite. Just like, oh, wow. Huh, that's. interesting. Oh, wow, interesting. Yet, if I praise or approve someone's sin, then I'm guilty. I think it's one of the reasons why, as Catholics, we have to ask the question, are there certain

like weddings that I can't go to? And there are? Are there certain celebrations that I can't go to? And there are. Because by going to some of these weddings or some of these celebrations, I would be praising or approving of them. Just my presence approves of them. And I can't. can't do that without cooperating in the sin that's happening. It goes on to say, by not disclosing or not hindering sins when we have an obligation to do so, and by protecting evildoers. And this turn the mirror back on the church here. And we know this. We know that there are some places in our country, some places around the world where the church was there when the church knew of abuse and the church didn't disclose.

but the church instead protected some people who are committing horrible, horrible acts. And we must not, we must not ever do that. If there is a way in which we can stand up for those who are being hurt, if there's a way to be able to stand up and say, okay, this is going to cost something, but we have to disclose the evil that's happening here. We cannot protect the people doing the evil. We have to do that. And that's the high call.

that's the call that God is extending to every single one of us. Because if we do that, it goes on to paragraph 1869. If we do that, it says, thus sin makes men accomplices of one another and causes concupiscence, right, attraction to sin, violence, and injustice to reign among them. And that can arise to those things like structures of sin or they might call social sin, because when we permit that to exist in our own world, when we permit other people to commit sin or even just vaguely approve or vaguely praise or order or participate or voluntarily or not disclose what's going on or protect evildoers that were creating these structures of sin.

And I know for myself, I know that for me, it's just like, man, Lord, I can hardly, I can hardly choose virtue on a daily basis. I can hardly resist sin in my own life. But I have to not only resist sin in my own life. I also have to help all people, the people around me resist sin. lives too. And if I can't, at the very least, I have to refuse to participate directly and voluntarily in those sins. I have to refuse to order a praise or approve of those other people since I have to fight to be in the place. And you do too. We all do. So when we when we see

something evil going on, we have to disclose it that we must not protect evildoers. And that's a huge responsibility. I mean, it is huge enough to, again, as I said, it's huge enough for us to fight against sin in our own hearts, but also to guard against the invitation, the temptation, the opportunity to cooperate with someone else's sin. We have to fight against that as well, which is hard. And yet it's the least we can do. The people who are the most vulnerable among us,

they need us to be as strong as we can be. on their behalf. The God who loves us, who poured out his life for us, gives us the grace and gives us the strength to be the people we can be for the people around us. Again, to fight injustice when we see it, to disclose evil when we find it, to never cooperate with it in our own hearts

or in someone else's heart, to never approve or praise it when we see it. But to do everything, we can to be like Jesus in this world. And that is tough. In fact, it is, as you know, we are not able to do that on our own. We need God's help. And therefore, we need to pray. And I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name's Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.