Q. The internet is full of material — such as videos of movies filmed in theaters or books uploaded without permission — that seem to infringe on copyrights. Uploading the material is, of course, piracy, and is illegal. But viewing such material, without downloading it or transmitting it in any way, is not illegal here in South Korea, where I live. But is it still a sin? — T., South Korea   

A. Presuming the content of the material you view is innocent — not pornographic, and so forth — there is nothing in what you have said that suggests viewing them is in itself mortally sinful. 

To commit a mortal sin, three conditions must be met.

First, the act that you commit must constitute “grave matter.” When we speak about an act’s matter, we are referring to the degree of the wrongness of the act. If an act is wrong, but not a grave violation of human good and our relationship with God — only a marginal infringement — we refer to its wrongness as “light matter.” But if an act is a grave violation of charity, something that seriously injures human good, such an act constitutes “grave matter.” The Catechism of the Catholic Church (1858) mentions murder and adultery as examples of grave matter. 

Interestingly, the Catechism also mentions stealing. But although the text does not say it, Catholic tradition has recognized that not all acts of taking possessions against their owner’s will are grave matter. 

Snatching a grape from a fruit stand or taking a piece of candy from someone against his will are usually only minor violations of another’s well-being, and so would be instances of light matter. The central point to keep in mind is that grave matter involves serious harm to human good or to the duties that one owes to God.

The second condition for mortal sin is called “sufficient reflection.” You must know or seriously suspect at the time of choosing that what you are doing is gravely wrong. To sin mortally, it is not enough to learn after the fact that what you did was grave matter. You must have knowledge of the act’s wrongness at the time of choosing. 

Finally, you must engage in “deliberate consent” — you must freely choose to do the wrongful act. This means you must have sufficient control of your faculties at the time of choosing in order to choose not to do the act, yet choose to do it anyway. 

Absence of Grave Matter

It seems clear that the actions you are describing do not constitute grave matter. Although certain kinds of media piracy can be grave matter if they seriously harm copyright holders, this is not what you are describing. You are streaming from legal platforms. Although the material you are viewing on those platforms is illegally uploaded, you are not engaging in those illegal actions. 

In most countries, including South Korea, as you say, simply viewing such content from legal sites — without uploading it or distributing it — is usually not considered illegal. If the law does not consider viewing such material illegal, then one may conclude that the community does not consider it to be a serious infringement of the rights of copyright holders. Although viewing such material for enjoyment does indirectly support more serious forms of piracy, I do not see how simply viewing the material constitutes serious harm to media creators. And given that the acts are legal, I doubt that in themselves they constitute even light matter.

Subjectively Meeting the Conditions for Mortal Sin 

Having said all this, I would like to raise a delicate question of how the conditions for mortal sin could possibly apply to one who suffers from scrupulosity. I do not know if the following applies to you. But I lay it out for your own and your confessor’s consideration. 

Even if what a person is doing does not constitute objectively grave matter, if he has sufficient control of his faculties to make and carry out moral judgments, and he truly believes that something he is doing is mortally sinful, and then freely chooses to do it, this person subjectively has met the conditions for mortal sin. This is because he violates his conscience, which tells him that what he’s doing is evil. 

Catholic moral tradition (following Aquinas) teaches that to act against one’s conscience — even a conscience that is in error — is sinful. When one does so, one acts against one’s own last and best judgment about whether an act is good or evil. 

A person may believe wrongly that what he is contemplating is evil. But if he proceeds with the act, he is doing what he judges to be evil. He acts against what his own reason tells him he should not do. This, by definition, is evildoing. His subjective belief that he is choosing something gravely wrong fulfills the requirements of sufficient reflection and deliberate consent. Such a person should go to confession. 

Scrupulosity Can Impair One’s Judgment

I said that this person must have sufficient control of his faculties. We have reasons to conclude that severe scrupulosity can interfere with such control. 

Most mental-health professionals consider severe scrupulosity to be a psychiatric disorder, a form of obsessive-compulsive disorder. The intrusive and unwanted thoughts create guilt and fear and interfere with daily functioning. This impairs people’s judgment, which can include their ability to achieve sufficient reflection and deliberate consent, in which case, the scrupulous person is not fully responsible for acts committed under compulsion of his scruples.

Indeed, scrupulosity can even impair judgments about grave matter, giving a scrupulous person reason to doubt whether his conclusion that a particular act involves grave matter is correct. This is especially so if the act resembles others that his scrupulosity has previously led him to misjudge as grave. In such cases, there is good reason to doubt that his last and best judgment really was that the act constituted grave matter.

Catholics who suffer from scrupulosity should consider seeking the assistance of a competent Catholic therapist. They also should be transparent with their confessors about their struggles with an excessive fear of sinning and about the specific kinds of behaviors they fear are gravely sinful.

Advice for Dealing With a Scrupulous Conscience

There are several things a good confessor should communicate to a penitent suffering from scrupulosity. (These are not necessarily in order of importance.)

He should patiently explain what conscience is, affirm its primacy for acting, and then inform the penitent never to act against it. 

He should likewise explain the concept of mortal sin, focusing especially on the penitent’s understanding of the concept of grave matter.

He should stress that each person has a serious moral responsibility to form his conscience and then assist the penitent in rightly forming his conscience, especially on the nature of actions over which the penitent is suffering scruples. This means addressing whether the behaviors in question constitute light or grave matter.

He should advise the penitent to take salutary steps — including possibly seeking professional assistance — to address the problem of scrupulosity. 

He should also advise him to place himself, if possible, under the direction of a trustworthy spiritual guide and then to prefer his director’s guidance — at least until things improve — over his own untrustworthy, anxious judgments. He might even advise the scrupulous penitent to cease confessing doubtful sins until his doubts are resolved and he becomes confident that he is dealing with grave matter. 

The goal is the same as for every Catholic: to have a healthy, well-formed conscience that can direct action toward what is genuinely, humanly good. 

For the scrupulous person, this will mean, in addition to good conscience formation, focusing on God’s mercy rather than obsessing over possible guilt; for even if the penitent does meet the conditions for mortal sin, absolution in confession forgives all sin and removes all guilt.