Sins of Omission
Pope St. Felix III (483-492)
"Not to oppose error, is to approve it, and indeed to neglect to confound evil men,
when we can do it, is no less a sin than to encourage them."
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In how many ways may we either cause or share in the guilt of another’s sin?
Answer: We may either cause or share the guilt of another’s sin in nine ways:
1. By counsel;
2. By command;
3. By consent;
4. By provocation;
5. By praise or flattery;
6. By concealment;
7. By being a partner in the sin;
8. By silence;
9. By defending the ill done.
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Catholic writing of Ezechiel 3:19 >
"But if thou give warning to the wicked, and he be not converted from his wickedness, and from his evil
way: he indeed shall die in his iniquity, but thou hast delivered thy soul."
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Catholic writing of Ezechiel 3:20 >
"Moreover if the just man shall turn away from his justice, and shall commit iniquity: I will lay a
stumblingblock before him, he shall die, because thou hast not given him warning: he shall die in his sin,
and his justices which he hath done, shall not be remembered: but I will require his blood at thy hand."
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Saint John Chrysostom, Doctor of the Church >
"What an evil! Covering up the rottenness of another! For the Lord says that you make yourself a sharer of
the retribution that will come to them, and rightly too."
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Catholic writing of Leviticus 5:1 >
"If any one sin, and hear the voice of one swearing, and is a witness either because he himself hath seen,
or is privy to it: if he do not utter it, he shall bear his iniquity."
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Catholic writing of Romans 16:17-18 >
"Now I beseech you, brethren, to mark them who make dissensions and offences contrary to the doctrine
which you have learned and avoid them. For they that are such serve not Christ our Lord but their own
belly: and by pleasing speeches and good words seduce the hearts of the innocent."
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Fourth Lateran Council, 1215 A.D., Constitution 3, Paragraph 1 >
"If however a temporal lord, required and instructed by the church, neglects to cleanse his territory of this
heretical filth, he shall be bound with the bond of excommunication by the metropolitan and other bishops
of the province."
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Fourth Lateran Council, 1215 A.D., Constitution 3, Paragraph 2 >
"Moreover, we determine to subject to excommunication believers who receive, defend or support heretics."
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Fourth Lateran Council, 1215 A.D., Constitution 3, Paragraph 3 >
"If any bishop is negligent or remiss in cleansing his diocese of the ferment of heresy, then when this shows
itself by unmistakeable signs he shall be deposed from his office as bishop and there shall be put in his
place a suitable person who both wishes and is able to overthrow the evil of heresy."
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Pope Leo XIII, Inimica Vis >
"An error which is not resisted is approved; a truth which is not defended is suppressed ... He who does not
oppose an evident crime is open to the suspicion of secret complicity."
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Catholic writing of Romans 1:18,32 >
"For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and injustice of those men that detain
the truth of God in injustice: Who, having known the justice of God, did not understand that they who do
such things, are worthy of death: and not only they that do them, but they also that consent to them that
do them."
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Catholic writing of 1 Kings 3:12-14 >
"In that day I will raise up against Heli all the things I have spoken concerning his house: I will begin, and I
will make an end. For I have foretold unto him, that I will judge his house for ever, for iniquity, because he
knew that his sons did wickedly, and did not chastise them. Therefore have I sworn to the house of Heli,
that the iniquity of his house shall not be expiated with victims nor offerings forever."
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