Jimmy Akin clarifies what simony is understood to be as a Catholic. He explains that the key to understanding simony lies in the intention behind the purchase.
Transcript:
My question is about simony. I’m I’m new I’m still going through RCIA or I guess it’s OCIA now and There was this list of some mortal sins that I was going through and some simony and just you know buying like blessed items I think
But I had read that I guess it
Sorry, I understand it
It was people are trying to buy blessings from the apostles or something originally, but then it Ended up to include other things. So my question is like would this be buying like stuff out of the church or like if you’re in a gift shop and They said oh these have been blessed already and then you’re paying them
Okay, sure. I need I I need to ask a question It sounds like you were going over an examination of conscience or a list of mortal sins And was buying blessed objects on that list. Did I hear that correctly? Yeah
Okay, you may want to consider the list Because buying a blessed item is it’s it’s at least badly phrased buying an item that has been blessed is not itself simony furthermore not all simony is mortal sin Some simony is now the term you’re right comes from Scripture where in chapter 8 of the book of Acts Simon Magus tries to buy the from the Apostles the ability to bestow the Holy Spirit on people and That’s where this sin gets its name. It’s after Simon Magus. That’s why it’s called simony
But
And and essentially what simony is is offering or receiving money in exchange for something holy But that doesn’t mean that every time you purchase something that’s holy that it is You’re actually committing simony. It’s only simony if you’re offering money for the holiness So the standard way to look at it is If let’s say someone has a rosary and they want to sell you a rosary it has not been blessed So simony is not on the table. You can buy the rosary from them and let’s say you pay $5 Okay. Well, let’s suppose then someone goes over to Rome and has the Pope bless the rosary so now it’s a blessed rosary the person can come back and Sell you the rosary because you’re paying for the rosary you can pay the same five dollars and it’s not simony But if they say oh the Pope bless this I’m gonna charge you ten dollars
Well, then you’re paying five dollars for the blessin and that is simony So it you can buy the item for whatever the value would otherwise be What you’re not supposed to do is pay extra for the blessin and even if you do Five dollars is a minimal amount. It’s not going to be a mortal sin It needs to be something more substantial than that Just like you tell a little white lie to someone Maybe it was a little sin, but it’s not a mortal sin or you steal a dollar from a person who has thousands of dollars It’s it is sin, but it’s not a mortal sin There needs to be some serious substance there and the same thing is true in this area
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