Examination of Conscience on the Duties of Your State

Now examine yourself on your obligations in particular, as a parent, a husband or wife, a master or servant, a magistrate, and on your conduct in the pursuit of your profession:

I. If a Parent. Have you always taken proper care of the life and health of your children? Have you not exposed them to great danger even before birth? or afterwards taken them to your own bed with danger of their being suffocated?

Have you taken care to provide for their wants, food, clothing, &c.? Have you done your best to procure them a good education, according to their condition?

Have you not manifested an unjust preference for one to the prejudice of another? Have you been neglectful, unkind, or even cruel to your step-children, or others under your protection?

Have you unreasonably forced your children into some profession, or state of life, for which they felt no vocation? Have you hindered them from pursuing their vocation, when called to a religious life? Have you, without sufficient cause, opposed their inclinations with regard to marriage?

Have you neglected the care of their salvation? Have you endeavored, in their tender years, to inspire them with the love of God, and the fear of sin? Have you neglected to teach them to pray?

Have you exposed their salvation to danger, by delaying their baptism? Have you neglected to have them prepared, and brought forward at the proper age to confession, confirmation, and first communion?

Have you neglected to get them well instructed in their own religion? Have you sent them to heretics or godless schools, to the danger of their faith? Did you always take them to church on Sundays and Holy Days? Have you put them out to some service or situation where they could not practise their religion, or where their faith or their virtue was in danger?

Have you exposed their innocence to danger, by letting them sleep together without distinction, or by taking them to your own bed, or keeping them in the same room, when already old enough to be scandalized? How often?

Have you watched them carefully to see where they spent their time, in what company, &c.; or have you let them wander where they would? Have you left them to the care of loose or irreligious servants, or whose morals were doubtful?

Have you allowed them free intercourse with the other sex; to receive visits alone, and at improper hours; or to be out late at night? Have you permitted them to read romances, or other pernicious books?

Have you neglected to punish them for their own good? Have you allowed them to curse and swear, &c., in your presence without chastisement? Have you, in fine, by your indifference or foolish fondness, left them without restraint?

Have you, on the contrary, treated them with violence and brutality in your anger? In what way? Have you cursed them? How often? Have you exasperated or scandalized them by your violent language, abusive names, &c.?

Have you otherwise given them scandal and bad example, by your neglect of your religion, and your sinful life?

II. If you are married. Did you enter into marriage through base and unchristian motives? Have you not by your light conduct given cause of jealousy and distress to your companion?

Have you been careful to observe, even in marriage, the laws of modesty? Have you profaned the holy state of matrimony by misuse? Have you done any thing to hinder its lawful end? How often?

Have you lived with your wife (or husband) in peace and union? Have you not sinned and given scandal by your disagreement and angry disputes? How long have you lived in this way?

Have you abandoned your wife (or husband) without just cause and lawful permission? Have you lived separate, or remained a long while absent?

As a Husband. Have you treated your wife in a gross, tyrannical, and cruel manner? Have you beat her in your anger or drunkenness, or injured her by any other outrage? How many times? Have you made her unhappy by your neglect, coldness, and unfeeling conduct, or by spending your leisure time away from home?

Have you treated her with attention and forbearance in the time of her pregnancy? Have you corrupted her mind by your immodesty and wicked conversation? Have you not tempted her or forced her to offend God? How often? Have you neglected to provide for her maintenance, and that of your children? Have you squandered her earnings and your own on your sinful pleasures?

As a Wife. Have you, without the knowledge of your husband, made useless and extravagant expenses, or dissipated a part of his property in favor of your own relations? How much? Have you not made difficulty in his family by your selfish jealousy and unfriendly conduct towards his relations?

Have you been respectful and obedient to him in every thing reasonable? Have you not made his home disagreeable, and his life unhappy, by your ill-temper and scolding tongue? Have you refused him his marriage rights? How often? Have you not persuaded him to offend God against the dictates of nature and of conscience? How often?

Have you done your part for the support of the family? Have you been idle and neglectful of your household duties?

III. If you are Master, Mistress, or Employer. Have you treated your servants in a harsh, tyrannical, and unfeeling manner? Have you not overburdened them with work? Have you obliged them to do unnecessary work on Sundays and other Holy Days? How often? Have you hindered them from hearing Mass on those days? How often?

Have you always given them proper and sufficient food and clothing? Have you treated them charitably in their sickness and distress? Have you dismissed them unjustly before the time agreed upon, or suddenly, by caprice, and with cruel haste?

Have you refused to your servants or laborers their just due, or wronged them by delaying to pay? Have you taken advantage of their poverty and want to engage them upon hard and unequal terms? How much have you wronged them, and how often?

Having slaves, have you cruelly parted parents from children, husband from wife, or allowed those to marry again who were still bound by a former marriage?

Have you been careful of the salvation of those depending upon you? Have you instructed them in the faith? Have you encouraged and exhorted them to frequent the church and the sacraments, and religious instructions?

Have you watched over their morals? Have you, on the contrary, retained them in your service, notwithstanding their corrupt and scandalous conduct, and perhaps with danger to yourself or your family? Have you permitted them to keep improper company and late hours, to frequent dangerous places and amusements?

Have you taken advantage of their condition to corrupt them, by your authority, your flattery, or your bribes? How, and how often? Have you allowed in your house persons of loose character, or dangerous gatherings, or tolerated in it any scandal of which you were aware? What, and how often?

IV. If you are a Servant, Clerk, or Apprentice. Have you served your employers diligently and faithfully? Have they suffered no harm by your fault? Have you wasted their substance? Have you given away their property to your own relations and friends? Have you stolen from them? Have you kept a part of what they trusted to you to make purchases for them? Have you kept or taken their property under pretence that your wages were too low? How much? How often?

Have you concealed from your employers the thefts or misconduct of your fellow-servants in matters belonging to your charge?

Have you revealed the faults of your superiors without necessity, and to their prejudice? Have you sown discord in their families, and how? Have you been the cause of other servants being sent away by your false or malicious complaints?

Have you engaged yourself in some service where your faith or your morals were in danger, or where you would not be allowed to fulfil the obligations of your religion? Have you allowed yourself to be enticed to the churches of heretics, to join in their family prayers, or to read their religious books? How many times?

Have you suffered yourself to be employed in some wicked service, or assisted your superiors in their criminal designs? What, and how often?

V. If you are a Magistrate or public officer. Have you been faithful and exact in the discharge of the duties of your office? Have you, through weakness, the fear of man, the desire of popularity, or anxiety for office and emolument, betrayed the public interest, or sacrificed the rights of particular persons, or suffered crime and disorder to go unchecked and unpunished? In what way, and how often?

Have you, directly or indirectly, received bribes; or allowed yourself to be influenced in the administration of justice, or your official conduct, by promises or presents? How, and how often?

Have you been guilty of embezzlement of the public funds? Have you made use of them for your own interest? Have you enriched yourself or your friends by means of unequal contracts, at the expense of the public? In what way? How much?

Have you abused your official power by oppression and cruelty, or applied it to purposes of revenge? Have you unjustly favored your friends? Have you shielded or aided the wicked? Have you neglected the cause of the poor, the innocent, the helpless, and the oppressed?

VI. If you are a Lawyer, Notary, or Clerk. Have you advocated claims which you knew to be unjust, or sustained an unjust defence? How often? Did you thereby obtain an unjust decision? Have you undertaken a prosecution against an innocent person, or urged it on after having discovered his innocence? Have you defended the cause of the guilty by means of fraud, bribes, or dishonest means?

Have you injured the just cause of your client by your treachery, gross ignorance, want of study, or neglect? How often? Have you given treacherous, doubtful, or ill-considered advice? Have you unjustly flattered the hopes of your clients, or otherwise excited useless litigation? Have you stimulated others to revenge? How often?

Have you been guilty of fraud, bribery, or other injustice in your business? Have you procured false testimony, or encouraged to commit perjury? Have you, by any artifice, obtained attestations to false affidavits and other documents, or sworn to them yourself? Have you been guilty of fraud in the drawing up of deeds, wills, contracts, and other instruments? Have you made them contrary to the intention of either party, or introduced ambiguous expressions? Have you falsified any document, or destroyed it, or substituted another in place of the true one? How often have you done any of these things?

Have you made out unjust bills of costs, demanding unlawful or exorbitant fees, or charging for services never rendered? How often?

What injury, and how much, have you caused to any one by any of the above sins? Have you ever repaired it, or made restitution?

VII. If you are a Physician or Surgeon. Have you undertaken the care of persons seriously sick, without sufficient science or experience? Have you treated serious or extraordinary cases with neglect, or applied insignificant remedies? How often, and with what result?

Being ignorant of the nature of the complaint, have you rashly hazarded dangerous remedies, and even with the peril of serious injury or death? Have you made merciless experiments upon the sick, especially those in the hospital, and the poor? How often, and with what result?

Have you failed to consult where you ought; or, in consulting, made choice of those not recommended by their skill? Have you made needless expense by calling in others, or followed their counsel against your own conscience? Have you kept patients lingering in sickness for sake of gain, or multiplied useless visits to their expense? Have you prescribed needless medicines for your own profit, or that of the apothecary? How much injury or injustice have you thus done? How often?

Have you undertaken surgical operations beyond your science or skill? Have you conducted them recklessly, with unnecessary hazard of life or loss of limb? How often? Have you intentionally taken the life of a child in the womb, or at its birth? Have you been guilty of procuring abortion, by your own act or advice, or by furnishing the means? How often?

Have you failed to warn those in danger of death, that they might receive the sacraments? Have you allowed infants to die without baptism, by your wilfulness or neglect? How often?

VIII. If you keep a Hotel or Bar. Have you not charged more to your guests than was just? Have you not adulterated your liquors? To what amount? How often?

Have you not given drink to drunkards, or to those already drunk, or allowed them in your house to drink to excess? How often? Have you not served those whom you knew to be ruining their family by their dissipation?

Have you kept your house open during divine service, or made it a place of dissipation on Sundays?

Have you allowed gambling in your establishment, or tolerated blasphemy, obscenity, and other wicked discourse? Have you permitted loose women to lodge in it, or frequent it? Has it not been a place of scandalous interviews, or other shameful immorality?

Have you allowed in it immoral shows or concerts, drunken festivity and dangerous dances? How often? Is not your business an occasion of sin to your neighbor, of harm to your children, and a hindrance to your own salvation?