Age of Sin of Commission

[browebmaster]

Hola!!!

Last Monday, I took the test for becoming a student volunteer catechist and this question puzzled me a lot: “At what age can you start commiting sin?”

First, I thought of 0 but we inherit original sin.
Please shed some light into this.

Thanks.

 

[Pug]

Perhaps they were asking you what is the “age of reason” in Church practice. This is typically seven years of age. One is considered an “infant” before that. For reference, you would look in canon law, canon 97.

 

[Joe_Kelley]

Note that Original sin is inherited; not committed.

 

[passus]

Along the lines with what Joe Kelley said, original sin is not the same thing as personal sin, the latter being what we commit when we consciously choose to separate ourselves from God by choosing ourselves over Him.

Hope that helps!

 

[FrDavid96]

Hola!!!

Last Monday, I took the test for becoming a student volunteer catechist and this question puzzled me a lot: “At what age can you start commiting sin?”

First, I thought of 0 but we inherit original sin.
Please shed some light into this.

Thanks.

This is called the “age of reason” in general, it’s considered to be age 7 (and a person who is 7 is presumed to have reason unless something indicates otherwise). When a human being understands the difference between right and wrong and has the ability to “reason” the difference between the two, then one has the capacity to commit a sin. This isn’t merely knowing that some things are right and others are wrong, but the actual mental capacity to “intellectually” know that there is a difference beyond mere consequences. Some non-human beings can indeed know that there are consequences to doing certain things, and that they are “wrong” but don’t have the capacity to see any real distinction between the two. Likewise humans, as we develop, first learn “right and wrong” and then later learn that there are reasons WHY something is either/or.

So, the proper answer is realy “the point at which one has the capacity to reason” or “the age of reason” but the more indirect answer is “approximately age 7”.