Whether scandal is a sin?

❌ Objection 1 : It would seem that scandal is not a sin. For sins do not occur from necessity, since all sin is voluntary, as stated above (FS, Question [74], Articles [1],2). Now it is written (Mt. 18:7): "It must needs be that scandals come." Therefore scandal is not a sin.

❌ Objection 2 : Further, no sin arises from a sense of dutifulness, because "a good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit" (Mt. 7:18). But scandal may come from a sense of dutifulness, for Our Lord said to Peter (Mt. 16:23): "Thou art a scandal unto Me," in reference to which words Jerome says that "the Apostle's error was due to his sense of dutifulness, and such is never inspired by the devil." Therefore scandal is not always a sin.

❌ Objection 3 : Further, scandal denotes a stumbling. But he that stumbles does not always fall. Therefore scandal, which is a spiritual fall, can be without sin.