Religion: When Is a Cig a Sin?

If cigarettes really are cancer-breeding coffin nails, is it a sin to smoke them? Last week, in Notre Dame’s Ave Maria magazine, a top-ranking canon-law expert, the Very Rev. Francis J. Connell, dean of the School of Sacred Theology at Washington’s Catholic University, sifted ashtrays in a search for moral wrong. Nonsmoker Connell’s canonical conclusion: it takes a lot of puffing to make a cig a sin—generally three packs a day.

Theologian Connell started from a different point than Pope Pius XII who last month condemned smoking by members of religious orders as self-indulgence (TIME, Sept. 30). Arguing that because he is God’s property, an individual has no right to endanger himself foolishly, Connell nevertheless admits that dangerous acts can sometimes be justified by the “principle of double effect” (both good and evil resulting from the same act, with the good more weighty). Scientists, he notes, have given preponderant evidence that excessive cigarette smoking greatly increases the probability of lung cancer, while moderate smoking increases the likelihood only slightly. Common sense shows that a slight danger may be risked, even if the only good that results is pleasure or relaxation (e.g., horseback riding is permissible, although there is a remote possibility that the rider may be thrown and killed). Therefore, moderate cigarette smoking is not sinful, unless for special reasons a doctor forbids it, while immoderate smoking is a sin.

It is probably only a venial sin for healthy smokers, explains Father Connell, because evidence of danger is not yet conclusive. But if the immoderate smoker is not healthy, or if science succeeds in providing conclusive proof of danger, then the sin becomes more serious. Taking into consideration that some smokers do not inhale, and that some grind out each weed after a few drags (but without bringing filter tips into his calculations), Father Connell leniently set the sinful borderline for excessive smoking at three packs a day.

In Milan’s weekly Epoca, Jesuit Theologian Armando Guidetti explored related subjects. On reverse gluttony: “The person who to keep a slim figure damages her health by eating too little is guilty of mortal sin.” On competitive gluttony: “It is a sin to take part in a competition where the winner is the one who eats or drinks most.” On drinking: “‘Perfect drunkenness’ is definitely listed among mortal sins. ‘Imperfect drunkenness,’ which leads only to a befuddling of the mind, is generally only a venial sin.”