Meaning that Catholicism encourages people to sin, at least in little ways?
Mark 9:42 (ESV) “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.
No I wouldn't call it encourage, no. I would call it perhaps . . . a loophole? It's like an Easter egg. It's like when you study some riddle and you finally figure it out.
Your view is, I've heard it referred to as, "scrupulosity". In Catholic land, that's what your view is called. Scrupulosity.
There's no such thing as scrupulosity when the sin or sins in question are grave matter though, one can not be too concerned about grave sins. One of the problems with folks who suffer from scrupulosity is distraction away from the grave stuff. We can't ever lose a moment's notice from avoiding grave sins of any kind.
There's never any situation where for instance a priest or the pope says, "Oh yeah, that
is a tough spot you're in there, you should go ahead and commit that grave sin, in that case, because of the situation you're in."
But light sins? You might catch a priest or two, even a bishop, confess or admit that if it really comes down to, you're at a crossroads, and you feel pulled in both directions, one toward a grave sin, and the other toward a light sin, you should just go ahead and indulge that light sin. If that's the situation you find yourself in, then yes, avoid the grave sin at all cost, even if it means commit the light sin.
And that was part of my initial point. Catholics do swear a lot, and drink a lot, and smoke a lot and do other light sins a lot. I don't mean 'lapsed' Catholics either, I'm talking about weekly Mass goers. This is why. It's because it's so very important to us to never ever commit a grave sin, that we just acknowledge the Apostolic teaching on the matter of light sins as taught to us by our bishops, and act in what appears to us to be our best interests, in the moment, the here-and-now.
We want to be pure and sinless and perfect, and yet we also acknowledge that our unwillingness to truly commit to ridding ourselves of every light sin, is borne from light sin itself. The desire to dabble in light sins is a light sin itself.
We also know that purgatory is where our light sins will be wiped clean off of us, with cleansing, purifying, purging, fire. We look forward to that, if we can't be rid of light sins now, or yet.
Also remember the temporal punishments of all our light sins, when we remain in full communion with the Church, and we receive the Holy Eucharist, are forgiven us. That's also in the mix, and significant, as to why Catholics do tend to cuss a lot.
