CONSUETUDINARI. — In general, *consuetudinarii* are those who have contracted a *consuetudo* in the strictest sense of a habit, and are therefore also called "habitual sinners."
In itself, habit—even in the moral sphere—is the cause that produces the disposition, and thus there is a distinction between the two akin to that between cause and effect. In moral theology, however, the two terms often coincide, as they do here. Furthermore, a habit in itself can be good or bad, but in this context, only the bad habit is under consideration.
I. GENERAL NOTIONS
At least among more recent theologians, *consuetudinarii* are sinners who have contracted the habit of a particular sin or sins and who come to confession for the first time after having formed the habit. If, after this first confession, they fall back into the same sins and present themselves again to the tribunal of penance, they are no longer called *consuetudinarii*, but relapsed sinners (*V. RECIDIVITÀ*).It is important to clarify this distinction. Regarding *consuetudinarii*, it has been noted that the subject, in repeating acts, acts from the impulse of habit rather than passion. The habit of sin, in the common theological understanding—shared by St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Alphonsus Liguori—is a permanent quality by which the individual is naturally inclined to sin, causing frequent, prompt, and easy falls with almost no resistance. Passion, on the other hand, is a movement of the sensitive appetite aroused by the perception of an external object, even if it has repercussions on the agent’s organism. Whoever acts from habit has his intellectual and volitional faculties almost naturally and permanently ordered toward an evil end; whoever acts from passion is ordinarily inclined toward good and only momentarily feels the impulse toward evil. The former sins moved from within, by a bad will; the latter is excited from without and through weakness. The former acts spontaneously, with ease and promptness, and yields even to a slight temptation without almost any resistance; the latter is also a defeated person, but one who has been overcome by a usually grave passion after having struggled seriously. Whoever sins from habit rarely experiences a movement of repentance; whoever sins from passion, however, quickly recovers and is sorrowful for the sin.
It must nonetheless be noted that falls occurring from a sudden passion, if repeated frequently, gradually become a habit.
To have the habit of sin, two things are required: 1) the repetition of sinful acts of the same kind; 2) a certain measure of frequency in the repetition of these acts.
When the habit formed can be said to be established cannot be determined by a fixed rule, since it depends on a rather practical evaluation of three elements: a) the temperament of the person sinning; b) the more or less lengthy interval between one sinful act and another; c) the varying nature of the sins.
For a general idea—one not to be taken as a mathematical rule—it might be said: 1) for sins of action committed alone, e.g., theft, drunkenness, to form the habit, five falls per month over a considerable time may suffice, provided there is some interval between one fall and another; 2) for sins of action committed with others (e.g., fornication), one fall per month for a year may suffice; for sins of thought (e.g., hatred) or of speech (e.g., blasphemy), one or two falls per week for the same period may suffice.
This always presupposes, however, that the other elements required for the formation of the habit are present, namely, that there is ease, immediacy, and an almost absolute lack of resistance in the falls, without there being immediate repentance and sorrow for the sin committed.
II. THE IMPUTABILITY OF THE ACTS OF *CONSUETUDINARII*
The habit or disposition can be voluntary or involuntary. We speak of a voluntary habit when its formation was knowingly willed and there has been no retraction—or even if the contraction of the habit was involuntary, when the subject became aware of it without retracting—or when, after retracting, the agent neglected the means necessary for the eradication of the bad habit.We speak of an involuntary habit when the subject has effectively retracted a habit voluntarily contracted; or when, having contracted it involuntarily, he retracted it as soon as he became aware of II.
As for the imputability of a bad habit contracted, it is easily stated: a voluntary habit, in the sense described above, is imputable; an involuntary one, or even one that is merely non-voluntary and not yet recognized, is not.
Regarding the imputability of the acts that, in *consuetudinarii*, are caused by the bad habit, the following principles apply: 1) when the habit is involuntary, although it increases the element of voluntariness due to the greater impulse it brings to the action, it diminishes and sometimes removes imputability, because it diminishes or removes the possibility of free determination. In other words, in this case the acts are either not imputable or have reduced imputability, depending on the degree of advertence.
When the habit is voluntary, it always increases the element of voluntariness, and although it diminishes the degree of freedom in the action, it generally increases the malice of the act. The reasons are evident: the habit was voluntarily contracted, and even with the habit there remains a certain advertence; the greater propensity of the will in the action, the ease in sinning, is due to the subject who originally willed the habit with all its consequences.
*Consuetudinarii* and sacramental absolution. — What importance does the bad habit have in relation to the judgment of evaluation that the confessor must make regarding the penitent’s dispositions (can. 886)? In other words, how should the confessor deal with *consuetudinarii* sinners?
The question is posed especially with regard to habits that incline toward grave sin. Naturally, it is assumed that the habit is voluntary and therefore imputable, and that the penitent either spontaneously denounces it as such or does so at the confessor’s request, to which he cannot refuse (Denz.-U., 1208). Now, provided there is an effective retraction of the habit—that is, the resolution to eradicate it with efficacious means—*consuetudinarii* can and should be absolved. Indeed, the bad habit is not a sin in itself, except as an initial will; over time, it is merely an inclination to sin.
It should be noted that the retraction pertains to the present disposition of the will and does not necessarily need to extend to the future, except as a resolution to employ the necessary means for the effective eradication of the habit. The foreknowledge of future difficulties does not matter in this regard.
Only when one is confirmed in grace or has received this assurance can one be certain of future impeccability.
Moreover, the retraction suffices if it is made with ordinary signs of penitence, without the need for extraordinary signs, since these are not required for the penitent to be considered well-disposed for the sacrament.