Editing Concupiscence (section)

==Catholic teaching==
The [[Catechism of the Catholic Church]] (CCC) teaches that Adam and Eve were constituted in an original "state of holiness and justice" (CCC 375, 376 398), free from concupiscence (CCC 377). The preternatural state enjoyed by Adam and Eve afforded endowments with many prerogatives which, while pertaining to the natural order, were not due to human nature as such. Principal among these were a high degree of infused knowledge, bodily immortality and freedom from pain, and immunity from evil impulses or inclinations. In other words, the lower or animal nature in man was perfectly subject to the control of reason and the will subject to God. Besides this, the Catholic Church teaches that our first parents were also endowed with sanctifying grace by which they were elevated to the supernatural order.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14519a.htm|title=CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: The Garden of Eden|publisher=Newadvent.org|access-date=27 October 2014}}</ref>  By sinning, however, Adam lost this original "state", not only for himself but for all human beings (CCC 416).

According to Catholic theology, man has not lost his natural faculties: by the sin of Adam he has been deprived only of the divine gifts to which his nature had no strict right: the complete mastery of his passions, exemption from death, sanctifying grace, and the [[Beatific vision|vision of God]] in the next life. God the Father, whose gifts were not due to the human race, had the right to bestow them on such conditions as He wished and to make their conservation depend on the fidelity of the head of the family. A prince can confer a hereditary dignity on condition that the recipient remains loyal and that, in case of his rebelling, this dignity shall be taken from him and in consequence from his descendants. It is not, however, intelligible that the prince, on account of a fault committed by a father, should order the hands and feet of all the descendants of the guilty man to be cut off immediately after their birth.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11312a.htm|title=CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Original Sin|publisher=Newadvent.org|access-date=27 October 2014}}</ref>

As a result of original sin, according to Catholics, human nature has not been totally corrupted (as opposed to the teachings of [[Martin Luther|Luther]] and [[John Calvin|Calvin]]); rather, human nature has only been weakened and wounded, subject to ignorance, suffering, the domination of death, and the inclination to sin and evil (CCC 405, 418). This inclination toward sin and evil is called "concupiscence" (CCC 405, 418). [[Baptism]], the Catechism teaches, erases original sin and turns a man back towards God. The inclination toward sin and evil persists, however, and he must continue to struggle against concupiscence (CCC 2520).

Today, the Catholic Church's teaching on original sin focuses more on its results than on its origins. As Cardinal Ratzinger had intimated in 1981,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://novusordowatch.org/cardinal-ratzinger-denies-original-sin/|title="Cardinal" Ratzinger denies Original Sin|website=Novus Ordo Watch|language=en-US|access-date=2017-04-24}}</ref>{{unreliable source|date=January 2024}} and as [[Pope Benedict XVI]] clarified in 2008: "How did it happen? This remains obscure.... Evil remains mysterious. It is presented as such in great images, as it is in chapter 3 of Genesis, with that scene of the two trees, of the serpent, of sinful man: a great image that makes us guess but cannot explain what is itself illogical."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/audiences/2008/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20081203.html|title=General Audience of 3 December 2008: Saint Paul (15). The Apostle's teaching on the relation between Adam and Christ {{!}} BENEDICT XVI|website=w2.vatican.va|access-date=2017-04-24}}</ref>