March 15, 2026 : Vice
Jesus Christ: Yesterday, Today and Forever ~
In a follow up to last week’s pastor’s column on the virtues, I thought I would write one on the vices. Many of you have seen the “How to go the Confession” guide that Holy Redeemer has been using for years; now at St. Thomas and Star of the Sea. In it, there is an excellent examination of conscience. The list of sins in it has helped thousands of penitents to get a better grasp of what acts would constitute serious sin, when coupled with knowledge of the seriousness at the time it was committed, and freedom on the part of the penitent at the time it was committed. What that list doesn’t list are sins of omission, things God wants us to think, say, and do that we don’t. Nor does that list explore the motivations for the acts listed on it. This pastor’s column seeks to help in that regard.
By examining the virtues from last week’s pastor’s column and the vices from this pastor’s column, one begins to understand the breadth and depth of the moral life – life in communion with God, and outside of communion with God. The vices here are taken from a website on a list of the virtues and vices by Father Chad Rippenger, found here https://www.manandwar.com/2023/01/31/full-list-of-virtues-from-father-ripperger/. Of course, all of these vices will be overcome in us in the next life, yet by the grace of God, we can make great progress in overcoming or at least lessening many of them now.
A word about the sacrament of Confession: use it. We have a generous Confession schedule in Columbia River Catholic, with multiple times and locations for the sacrament of Confession. Confession times are always listed on page 2 of the weekly bulletin. Here is the normal weekly schedule:
Holy Redeemer: Friday 3:30-4:30pm; Saturday 9:00-10:00am, 2:30-4:15pm; Sunday 7:30-8:15am, 10:00-10:45am.
St. Thomas Aquinas: Wednesday 5:00-5:45pm; Saturday 4:00-4:45pm; Sunday 7:30-8:15am.
Star of the Sea: Sunday 10:45-11:15am.
In addition to the Confession schedule, we will also host a penance service at Holy Redeemer with eight priests on Wednesday, April 1 at 6:00pm. That’s the night before Holy Thursday.
Why do we go to Confession? Because we’re sinners in need of reconciliation with God. Why do we sin? Because we are not virtuous enough to overcome our temptations to vices (evil). Here’s a little help identifying those vices.
What is a vice? A bad moral habit. Technically a vice is the strong tendency to a gravely sinful act acquired through frequent repetition of the same act. Thus, they become evil habits. Qualities that characterize a vice are spontaneity, ease, and satisfaction in doing what is morally wrong.
Vices Against Prudence
1. Precipitation: the vice in which one does not take counsel (results in acting too quickly)
2. Inconsideration: the vice in which one does not judge which means is the best among the various means arrived at during counsel
3. Inconsistency: a vice in which one does not command or do the action which has been counseled and judged as the best
4. Negligence: failure to take counsel or a failure to do what one should when he ought
5. Carnal prudence: the vice in which one applies one’s reason to arrive at means to attain created goods which are seen as one’s final end
6. Craftiness: industry in not using the right or true means to an end
7. Guile: the habit of deceit in words
8. Fraud: the habit of deceit in deeds
9. Curiosity: inordinate desire for useless or profane knowledge
Vices Against Justice
1. Acceptation of person (human respect): excessive deference paid to someone
2. Murder: unjust killing of the innocent
3. Mutilation: physical harm or changes made to one’s body aside from the order of nature
4.Theft: secretly taking that which belongs to another
5. Robbery: non-secretive (often violent) taking of that which belongs to another
6. Judgement: judging another over whom one does not have authority
7. False accusation: accusing somebody of something that is false
8. Perjury: lying under oath
9. Calumny: saying something false to damage another’s reputation
10. Detraction: saying something true to damage another’s reputatio
11. Murmuring: secretive detraction in order to separate the affections of one person from another
12. Derision: laughing at another in order to lower him in the estimation of others
13. Cursing: calling down condemnation on something or someone
14. Usury: the taking of excessive interest on a loan
15. Illicit adjuration: swearing an oath outside of due circumstances
16. Superstition: the rendering of some honor or some practice to a creature which is due only to God
17. Idolatry: worshiping some created thing as God
18. Divination (and witchcraft): the use of the demonic in order to achieve something, such as knowledge of the future, hidden knowledge, to gain power over something, etc.
19. Tempting God
20. Sacrilege: ill use or abuse of something sacred
21. Simony: the purchasing or selling of something sacred
22. Disobedience: a lack of promptness to do the will of one’s superiors
23. Vengefulness: inordinate desire for vindication resulting in harm to another
24. Lying: saying the false in order to deceive
25. Hypocrisy: professing a belief or practice in something, while saying or doing something else
26. Boasting: the drawing of attention to or the exaggeration of one’s perfections
27. Pride: unwillingness to live in accordance with the truth; excessive striving for excellence beyond one’s state; judging oneself greater than he is
28. Irony (poor self-esteem): the lowering of oneself below one’s state
29. Adulation: the use of speech whereby one flatters another
30. Ingratitude: lack of appreciation for the benefit granted by a benefactor
31. Litigious: excessive desire or practice of taking someone to court
32. Avarice: excessive desire to make and hold onto money or wealth
33. Prodigality or wastefulness: lack of sufficient desire to hold onto one’s money or the excessive use of something outside what is necessary.
Vice Against Fortitude
1. Fear: the vice in which one has an unmoderated passion arising from the perception of future evil
2. Fearlessness: lack of moderated fear
3. Audacity: excessive aggressiveness toward imminent danger without reasonable fear
4. Presumption: thinking one can attain some end which is beyond him without aid, usually from God
5. Ambition: striving for honor above one’s excellence
6. Inane glory: seeking honor in those things unworthy of honor
7. Pusillanimity: smallness of soul; the habit of not striving for excellence
8. Stinginess: unwillingness to use one’s wealth to do great things
9. Softness (effeminacy): an unwillingness to put aside pleasure in order to engage the arduous
10. Pertinacity: excessive clinging to one’s assertions or intellectual convictions
Vices Against Temperance
1. Gluttony: eating to excess
2. Inebriation: using alcohol or drugs to excess
3. Lust: illicit desire for the pleasures pertaining to the 6th Commandment
4. Fornication: sexual acts by the unmarried
5. Foreplay: by those outside of marriage
6. Rape: sexual acts where one party does not consent
7. Adultery: romantic or sexual acts between two people, of which at least one is married to someone else
8. Sodomy: sexual acts between persons of the same gender
9. Incest: sexual acts between blood relatives
10. Pedophilia: sexual acts between an adult and a child
11. Bestiality: sexual acts between a person and an animal
12. Incontinence: lack of steadfastness because of the tumult of the appetites
13. Anger: a vice in which one does not moderate the passion of anger; an inordinate desire for vindication arising from unmoderated sorrow at some offense
14. Cruelty: unmoderated vindication toward another with respect to external actions
15. Crudity: lack of etiquette or manners
16. Immodesty: lack of moderation regarding one’s appearance
Vices Against Faith
1. Infidelity: lack of belief in the deposit of faith
2. Heresy: lack of belief in one or more of the doctrines of faith
3. Apostasy: rejection of the faith entirely by someone already baptized
4. Blasphemy: denigration of something sacred by means of speech
Vices Against Hope
1. Desperation: lack of confidence in God’s ability to save someone or to aid him
2. Presumption: excessive confidence in one’s own capacities beyond one’s abilities to achieve some end
Vices Against Charity
1. Hatred of God
2. Sloth: unwillingness to engage the arduous in order to achieve some excellence
3. Envy: desire to have something possessed by another in such a manner that the other no longer possesses it
4. Discord: the vice in which one knowingly and intentionally dissents from the divine good and good of his neighbor (a vice in which one does not seek union of wills)
5. Contention: the habit of being contrary in speech
6. Schism: lack of submission to the authority of the Church, especially the pope and bishops
7. Unjust war: the waging of battle without due cause
8. Quarreling: contrary in deeds (private warring, sometimes called feuding)
9. Scandal: the drawing of another into sin, or the placing of an impediment of the assent of faith on behalf of another
May Almighty God Bless You,
Fr. Thomas Nathe
