IMPENITENT. – From ecclesiastical Latin impenitent, i.e. the sinner who, directly or indirectly, through ignorance or culpable negligence, refuses to repent of his sins when the precept of penance requires it of him.
Impenitence ordinarily arises from vicious habits that blind the intellect and pervert the will, hence the ease and insatiability of sinning, obstinacy, and presumption. The remedy, besides prayer, is consideration of the malice and consequences of this state, in order to arouse fear, trust, love of God, and sorrow for sins.
Formal impenitence in grave matter, which alone is discussed here, is guilty of the gravest sin against the Holy Spirit, because the refusal to repent not only deprives one of Grace, but also increases the strength of the vices, weakens the will, and exposes one to the danger of final impenitence. He always has the possibility of conversion, because God does not deny Grace to anyone who converts at any moment of life; but repentance becomes increasingly difficult, and the penance to which the sinner reduces himself only at the end of life generally leaves many doubts as to its nature and efficacy.
As regards the Sacraments, the impenitent must be treated as a sinner in accordance with the Rituale, tit. IV, chap. 1, 8-9; Extreme Unction must be denied him if he persists contumaciously in manifest mortal sin, and, if this is doubtful, it is to be conferred conditionally (CIC, can. 942). Anyone who dies impenitent, in the cases indicated by can. 1240, is deprived of ecclesiastical burial.