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What Do Material and Formal Mean?

This Rock Volume 17, Number 11   November 2006     Reasons for Hope By Cherie Peacock   Letters   Lead, Kindly Light: John Henry Cardinal Newman at Littlemore By Joanna Bogle   He Knows What He Is About   Seven Things Lay People Wish Their Priests Knew By Robert P. Lockwood   Read Them For Goodness Sake By Marcellino D'Ambrosio   Name that Document   Where to Find Them   Why I Choose Chesterton By Mark P. Shea   Scrupulosity: The Occupational Hazard of the Catholic Moral Life By Mark Lowery   What Do Material and Formal Mean?   Further Reading Resources on scrupulosity   Damascus Road Led Where I Did Not Want to Go: My Journey to the Catholic Church By Jennifer Taylor   By the Book You Can't Get Past this Rock By Tim Staples   Truth Be Told A Pius Legend By Robert P. Lockwood   Up a Notch Celtic Coptic Anglicans? A Modern Myth to Dodge the Authority of Rome By Dwight Longenecker   Quick Questions   Last Writes By Karl Keating    Subscribe    Permissions

The distinction between material sin and formal sin is so important that it is a good idea to do a couple exercises with it before applying it to scrupulosity. Test yourself with the following two examples:

What is the difference between material and formal heresy?

1) A material heretic holds a particular view that is contrary to doctrine but is either unaware of that fact or incapable of understanding the matter properly. For instance, it is somewhat common for people to have misconceptions of the Trinity or of the nature of Jesus Christ without knowing it. Someone might think that the Father, Son, and Spirit are three manifestations of a single God (the heresy of modalism), or someone might think that Jesus Christ is a divine soul infused in a human body (the heresy of Apollinarianism). For the material heretic, these misunderstandings are unfortunate but innocent. It is only when one becomes aware of the heretical nature of one’s position and obstinately refuses to change that one is a formal heretic.

Say that you have offended someone unintentionally. What would it mean to say "the offense was material, not formal"?

2) To say the offense was material is to acknowledge that it was a genuinely offensive thing to do or say—a very healthy acknowledgement. To add that the offense was not formal is to state that it was not intended as offensive.