Question:

Dear Father: I have a problem with a friend, for whom I have taken a certain antipathy and I dislike everything she does. So, I wanted to ask you if antipathy is a sin and what should I do to fight against it. Thank you.

 Answer:

Antipathy is defined as an ‘instinctive aversion for someone’.

Indeliberate movements of aversion, unguarded and uncorrected by the guided reason of faith, often lead to even grave sins against justice and charity. It is true that indeliberate (i.e., non-voluntary) movements of aversion are not sinful, but we have the obligation to repress them if they are disordered by reason of their object, or if they create a danger of sinning. To omit this repression implies by cause of itself venial guilt, and it can be a grave sin if the indeliberate movement causes a grave danger of sinning mortally. To consent to a disordered movement of aversion is a sin whose degree of guilt depends on the nature of what is detested (it is not the same to feel aversion or antipathy for a stranger as for a brother or for one’s father). Moreover, I remind you that for there to be subjectively grave guilt, then, full knowledge of what one is doing and a deliberate will are also required.

As a remedy to fight against it, I remind you that whoever experiences antipathy for some person should try to be kind, do favors and, above all, pray for that person; thus, with the effort and repetition of these acts contrary to antipathy, one ends up weakening and dominating the disordered passion. It is also convenient to abstain from observing out of curiosity the conduct of one’s neighbor and from considering the defects of others when one is not obliged to do so, such as the instances of an educator or superior.

Miguel A. Fuentes, IVE

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