PERICULUM ANIMAE ET SCANDALI.— According to the common theological meaning (cf. cann. 1131 § 1, 1935 § 2), it is the possibility that an external act may provide one’s neighbor with the occasion of sin and spiritual ruin. This act is the first condition required for scandal to be recognized, and it may consist of words, gestures, or even a merely verbal omission: “convenienter dicitur quod dictum vel factum minus rectum praebens occasionem ruinae sit scandalum” (Sum. Theol., q. 43, a. 1).
Scandal therefore occurs whenever it is reasonably foreseeable that an omission or a morally defective action, performed in public, may lead the observer to commit a sin that he would not otherwise have committed. Scandal is active and passive: the former consists in the external act that occasions sin, the latter in the observer who is thereby led into sin. Taking into account the intention that provoked it, scandal may be direct or indirect. The former arises when the agent deliberately intends to provide another with the occasion of sin through persuasion or counsel, or through a fully deliberate bad example; the latter, indirect scandal, may occur in many circumstances, and practically whenever an act that is in itself indifferent or appears evil risks publicly leading others into sin (e.g., abandonment of the faith or of religious practice). Passive scandal is the sin of one’s neighbor: it is a sin occasioned by scandal and stands to active scandal as effect to cause. Its gravity varies according to the quality of the subjects and the circumstances of the scandal. If the scandal has been public, public reparation is likewise required. Thus, one who has induced others to accept false doctrines regarding faith or morals is bound to retract his errors publicly; one who has notoriously lived in concubinage must renounce his sinful relationship by publicly approaching the Sacraments. It is precisely to avoid the possibility of scandal that the Church has instituted special forms of marriage celebration, such as the so-called “marriage of conscience” (v.), and has established particular laws for convalidation.