Contraception vs Abortion

[WordisLove]

Innocent Question: I am a new Catholic, since artificial contraception is a mortal sin as is abortion, how is abortion a graver sin? Are there levels of grave sin or simply greater obstacles to something being considered grave due to the knowledge of wrongdoing on the sinner (ie. contraception may not be a grave sin in a certain event due to the sinner not being culpable at the time, whereas the abortion is clear cut right vs. wrong) Sorry for the confusing logic here, do you understand what I am attempting to state here?

 

[Apryl]

Hi, WordIsLove,

I’m amazed that no one has answered this question. Maybe because we don’t know.

I know that I don’t know conclusively how to answer you, but there are some things that are worse than others.

I don’t think that the abortion vs contraception question is really a question of which is worse, though. I think that we just shouldn’t do either.

Sort of like: not doing your homework, smoking in the girl’s lavatory, and driving without a license. All of them are bad things.

I do think you have a valid point about a person KNOWINGLY ending some one else’s life, versus those that have been fooled into thinking that contraception is harmless.

Maybe someone else will help us out on this.

 

[Dan_Grelinger]

There are different levels of seriousness (graveness). The venial/mortal differention is a bit more complex because it not only takes into account the seriousness of the sin, but also the knowledge and the intent of the person performing the act. So trying to relate graveness alone with a sin being mortal or venial will be incomplete and confusing.

Abortion is considered graver than ‘most’ contraception because it involves the ultimate act of violence against a person, resulting in their intentional death. I say ‘most’ contraception because some of what is called contraception is really the intentional ending of human life at a very early stage.

‘Other’ non-abortificient contraception methods are a self-abuse against us, and abuse of our spouses, our community, and therefore displeasing to God, but do not irrevocably destroy a human being.

Perhaps not a good analogy, but if you poke your friend’s eye out with a sharp stick on purpose, it likely was a mortal sin. But not quite as serious a mortal sin as planning and implementing his murder.

 

[dylanschrader]

There are different levels of seriousness (graveness). The venial/mortal differention is a bit more complex because it not only takes into account the seriousness of the sin, but also the knowledge and the intent of the person performing the act. So trying to relate graveness alone with a sin being mortal or venial will be incomplete and confusing.

Abortion is considered graver than ‘most’ contraception because it involves the ultimate act of violence against a person, resulting in their intentional death. I say ‘most’ contraception because some of what is called contraception is really the intentional ending of human life at a very early stage.

‘Other’ non-abortificient contraception methods are a self-abuse against us, and abuse of our spouses, our community, and therefore displeasing to God, but do not irrevocably destroy a human being.

Perhaps not a good analogy, but if you poke your friend’s eye out with a sharp stick on purpose, it likely was a mortal sin. But not quite as serious a mortal sin as planning and implementing his murder.

Exactly. It’s a greater sin because a greater evil was done. The evil committed in both cases is grave, but one is more grave than the other.

 

[JimG]

I would say, yes, there are different levels of gravity among mortal sins in the moral law, just as in the civil law, there are different levels of gravity for various felonies.

Morally, fornication, adultery, and murder are all grave sins. Yet any confessor would, I am sure, not treat murder and fornication as equal in gravity.

 

[WordisLove]

I guess what throws me off a bit is that irregardless, the punishment is hell,(if unrepentant at death) correct? Lets say you have used contraception throughout your life due to societal reasons(the usual reasons), you don’t see anything wrong with it but know they church says it is wrong, you die = you are punished accordingly for a grave sin (hell) On the other hand you have or help an abortion be procured, you feel it was the only “way out” , you feel guilty but feel you did what you had to do, you die unrepentant = you are punished accordingly for a grave sin(hell). Is this where something of the sort of Dante’s stages of hell comes into play?

I would love to see an ongoing conversation on this subject (gravity of certain sins over others and what theories there are as to how the determination is taken.)

Thanks

P.S. Please pray for my agnostic wife and I, with whom I speak about on matters such as this, that she may be receptive. Thank you

 

[I_A]

I guess what throws me off a bit is that irregardless, the punishment is hell,(if unrepentant at death) correct? Lets say you have used contraception throughout your life due to societal reasons(the usual reasons), you don’t see anything wrong with it but know they church says it is wrong, you die = you are punished accordingly for a grave sin (hell) On the other hand you have or help an abortion be procured, you feel it was the only “way out” , you feel guilty but feel you did what you had to do, you die unrepentant = you are punished accordingly for a grave sin(hell). Is this where something of the sort of Dante’s stages of hell comes into play?

I would love to see an ongoing conversation on this subject (gravity of certain sins over others and what theories there are as to how the determination is taken.)

You forget God is infinitively merciful too.

You’re confusing grave sin with mortal sin. You wind up in hell when you sever your relationship with God through mortal sin. Mortal sin takes three requirements:

• Grave Matter
• Full Knowledge
• Deliberate Consent

CCC 1857:

For a sin to be mortal, three conditions must together be met: “Mortal sin is sin whose object is grave matter and which is also committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent.”[131]

In the first case with contracepting if the church says its wrong but the society, your parents, your elders tell you you’re obligated to, then it seems to me that you didn’t contracept with full knowledge that it was wrong since so many people you grew up to looking for moral advice told you it was your moral imperative to contracept. (Now there would be sin in refusing to listen to the church, but once again if you merely go once a week for an hour cause that was how you were brought up, and your parents told you, you don’t have to listen to them all the time, etc, just how much does the person know he should listen to the church?)

In that second case with the abortion one could argue that the person didn’t have free consent because her parents or boyfriend was telling her, “have an abortion or else.”

Now I’m not a priest or whatever. I just know its not a good idea to condemn everyone to hell because we’re not the one who judges it, God is.

 

[Dan_Grelinger]

In the first case with contracepting if the church says its wrong but the society, your parents, your elders tell you you’re obligated to, then it seems to me that you didn’t contracept with full knowledge that it was wrong since so many people you grew up to looking for moral advice told you it was your moral imperative to contracept.

 

[vern_humphrey]

Innocent Question: I am a new Catholic, since artificial contraception is a mortal sin as is abortion, how is abortion a graver sin? Are there levels of grave sin or simply greater obstacles to something being considered grave due to the knowledge of wrongdoing on the sinner (ie. contraception may not be a grave sin in a certain event due to the sinner not being culpable at the time, whereas the abortion is clear cut right vs. wrong) Sorry for the confusing logic here, do you understand what I am attempting to state here?

To answer your fundamental question, yes, there are different degrees of sin. Basically, the Church recognizes venal and mortal sins. Venal sins are wrong, but do not in themselves condemn you. You can die with a venal sin on your soul (even with a lot of them) and go to Heaven.

Mortal sins do condemn you – and one who dies with a mortal sin on his soul is condemned to hell.

Within sins there are degrees of seriousness. For example, it is wrong to lie. But it is more wrong to lie in a serious matter than in a trivial one.

Now, if you look around you, you see this principle at work even outside of the Church. The law doesn’t consider jaywalking to be as serious as mass murder, for example. We don’t execute people or imprison them for life for letting the parking meter expire.

 

[WordisLove]

Good answers, thank you. I guess I am confusing mortal and grave sins. I guess we never know fully whether or not we have committed a mortal sin???, just whether or not there was a grave matter that was committed. We feel remorsed and confess the sin which could or not be mortal? I am sorry for my misunderstanding. As a new Catholic, the intellectual weight of the church teachings are bearing down onto me at once. I recieve so many different viewpoints from RCIA instructors, priests, laypeople, etc… Most have said you have to look into your heart and use your conscience to decide whether or not this action (contraception) is justified. It is between you and God. This confuses me because, no matter what I am sitting there thinking, “should I do this”, " am I solely feeling guilty because I am unsure" I want to be a good Catholic, and I find my stumbling block to be contraception. I will continue to work and pray for guidance. Thank you.

 

[Dan_Grelinger]

Very good questions. I will rely on others to clean up my answers if they are not accurate or the best.

I guess I am confusing mortal and grave sins.

“Grave sin” is probably a confusing term. Mortal Sin. Grave Matter.

I guess we never know fully whether or not we have committed a mortal sin???, just whether or not there was a grave matter that was committed.

I think its the other way around. Mortal sinning depends on knowing what is a grave matter. If we don’t know what is a grave matter, we don’t know mortal sin. However, when we do know grave matter, then knowing mortal sin is easy. As easy as knowing that we chose it over being good.

I recieve so many different viewpoints from RCIA instructors, priests, laypeople, etc… Most have said you have to look into your heart and use your conscience to decide whether or not this action (contraception) is justified. It is between you and God. This confuses me because, no matter what I am sitting there thinking, “should I do this”, " am I solely feeling guilty because I am unsure" I want to be a good Catholic, and I find my stumbling block to be contraception. I will continue to work and pray for guidance. Thank you.

It is not easy. I believe that is why God gave us a natural inclination to want to learn and to seek truth.

What is true about our conscience is that a good one seeks to be totally unselfish, and seeks the counsel of good. A poorly formed conscience seeks what ‘I can get away with’, and rejects the counsel of good. Those that say it is conscience alone, are wrong. The Catholic Church has never taught it is conscience alone. Only that a properly formed conscience is primary. And the definition of well formed is one that is in search of what is good by God’s definition, not our own, and is a searcher of truth, not closed to it.

On the matter of your wife, have you heard about Pascal’s Wager? It is of natural interest to Agnostics who may not have accepted that their decision on the existence of God matters. My biggest challenge when dealing with agnostics is getting them out of their comfort with their position.

Dan

 

[holly_potter]

On the matter of your wife, have you heard about Pascal’s Wager? It is of natural interest to Agnostics who may not have accepted that their decision on the existence of God matters. My biggest challenge when dealing with agnostics is getting them out of their comfort with their position.

Dan

You can give it a try, but my when my philosophy teacher brought it up in a class full of athiests (excepting me ) it was met with derision. Also, while it may be a good starting point for building a more true faith in God, I wouldn’t be satisfied with convincing a spouse that God exists merely on a “wager”. Definitely keep kindly teaching her

 

[Dan_Grelinger]

Originally Posted by Dan Grelinger

On the matter of your wife, have you heard about Pascal’s Wager? It is of natural interest to Agnostics who may not have accepted that their decision on the existence of God matters. My biggest challenge when dealing with agnostics is getting them out of their comfort with their position.

Dan

You can give it a try, but my when my philosophy teacher brought it up in a class full of athiests (excepting me ) it was met with derision. Also, while it may be a good starting point for building a more true faith in God, I wouldn’t be satisfied with convincing a spouse that God exists merely on a “wager”. Definitely keep kindly teaching her

Holly, I agree that Pascal’s wager is not very effective with atheists. However, the woman in question was described as an agnostic. Atheism and agnostism are very different positions. The Agnostic dodges the question. The atheists hit it dead on.

I can’t claim much real success yet, but my method of dealing with an atheist is to work to ‘convert’ them to an agnostic. For a ‘reasonable’ atheist (and believe me, they all claim to be reasonable!) it is not too difficult to show them that they have more faith than you or I. I start off by complimenting them on their great faith, a faith so much greater than I could ever have. This of course is met with incredulism, because they claim their position is NOT one of faith. However, to the extent that they cannot prove that there is no God, and that they still ‘believe’ (not know) it to be true, is by its very nature, ‘belief’ without scientific proof, AKA ‘faith’. Since they cannot prove God’s non-existent, their supposition that God does not exist demonstrates great faith on their part. I could never believe as they do because in reality, what they believe is a ridiculous conclusion, therefore their position requires much more faith than mine does. It just happens to be misplaced.

Dan

 

[Malcolm_McLean]

Innocent Question: I am a new Catholic, since artificial contraception is a mortal sin as is abortion, how is abortion a graver sin?

The unrepentant abortionist and the unrepentant contracepting couple will all end up in the same end state, and you might as well have done the abortion.

The difference comes if they repent. The contracepting couple will probably quite quickly forget that they ever used contraception, or if they remember it will only be as a little detail. The abortive woman won’t as easily forget the abortion.

 

[cor]

Innocent Question: I am a new Catholic, since artificial contraception is a mortal sin as is abortion, how is abortion a graver sin?

One is graver than the other but I am unaware of any official Church teaching stating that abortion is graver. There are probably moral theologians who opine about the matter though.

Are there levels of grave sin or simply greater obstacles to something being considered grave due to the knowledge of wrongdoing on the sinner (ie. contraception may not be a grave sin in a certain event due to the sinner not being culpable at the time, whereas the abortion is clear cut right vs. wrong) Sorry for the confusing logic here, do you understand what I am attempting to state here?

I do understand.

There are indeed objective levels of grave sin. For example murdering one’s spouse is a graver sin than murdering a stranger even though both are grave sins. Here’s two additional examples that the Catechism of the Catholic Church gives:

2356 Rape is the forcible violation of the sexual intimacy of another person. It does injury to justice and charity. Rape deeply wounds the respect, freedom, and physical and moral integrity to which every person has a right. It causes grave damage that can mark the victim for life. It is always an intrinsically evil act. **Graver still is the rape of children committed by parents **(incest) or those responsible for the education of the children entrusted to them.

1858 Grave matter is specified by the Ten Commandments, corresponding to the answer of Jesus to the rich young man: “Do not kill, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and your mother.” The gravity of sins is more or less great: murder is graver than theft. One must also take into account who is wronged: violence against parents is in itself graver than violence against a stranger.

scborromeo.org/ccc/para/1858.htm
scborromeo.org/ccc/para/2356.htm

 

[Grace_Angel]

Innocent Question: I am a new Catholic, since artificial contraception is a mortal sin as is abortion, how is abortion a graver sin? Are there levels of grave sin or simply greater obstacles to something being considered grave due to the knowledge of wrongdoing on the sinner (ie. contraception may not be a grave sin in a certain event due to the sinner not being culpable at the time, whereas the abortion is clear cut right vs. wrong) Sorry for the confusing logic here, do you understand what I am attempting to state here?

Abortion actually kills another human being that God yes said YES to. It is a conception. 'Thou shalt not kill" (5th commandment.
Contraception says NO God I will not allow my body or give my body so that you can create another in the image and likenes of your son Jesus.
There is a death in both of them, but abortion is actually agreeing to the death of another. Whilst contraception, stops the beginning of another. As I said both are a NO to God, but one of them involves already another created human, who has now a right to his/her own life.
Hope this helps.
Grace Angel.

 

[Greg27]

Both are classed as ‘grave sins’ primarily because they frustrate the key aims of marriage, which are to unite two people as one in love and to fruitfully procreate. However, abortion is seen as a graver sin because it deliberately ends a life which has come into being as a result of the process of sexual intercourse (in whatever circumstances it arose from), and the Church sees each conception of a new life as God willing a new human being into existence.

The Church also teaches that human life is sacred and holy, no matter in what circumstances it arises. This is because humans are made in God’s image and likeness and their destiny is to have intimate communion with God through grace. Destroying this possibility is seen theologically as a very grave evil, for whatever reason, because it de-sacralises human life and goes gravely against God’s will, which is fruitful and healthy life for humanity in its various forms.

Therefore in Canon Law a procured abortion warrants a major excommunication (if the person is a Catholic) latae sententinae (by reason of the offence) while contraception is seen as a mortal sin which doesn’t warrant major excommunication but rather simply urgent recourse to the sacrament of reconciliation with the normal penance, as with other bad sins. It is useful to note this type of excommunication only also occurs with apostacy, schism, heresy, assaulting a bishop or the pontiff, or murder, torture and kidnap.

However, while these are the official church’s teaching, in each individual case this would be treated carefully in a pastoral manner depending on the circumstances on which people sought abortions or used contraception, and the appropriate support given. Even excommunication is meant to be medicinal in character (as is reconciliation) which is designed to bring even the worse sinners back into God’s healing love and mercy as soon as possible, but the gravity of the offence is seen in how it is generally proclaimed as greviously wrong by all levels of the Church in one voice as in a choir, while with other matters this may not be the case. But clearly abortion is seen as much graver than contraception, as murder is seen as much graver than criminal assault, though strictly speaking both are grave sins.

At a personal level I’ve felt it spiritually; a close friend of mine decided to terminate her pregnancy and I felt terrible pain and grief in my heart for a long while afterwards. Even if you are not involved in such a matter personally, you can feel its negative effects rippling through the connections between everything in the cosmos, between the creator and creature, between humankind and the universe. It is a terribly desolate and awful feeling of pain and sorrow, one that one has to pray earnestly it will be forgiven and covered over in charity and mercy for the person who has done it.

 

[cor]

Therefore in Canon Law a procured abortion warrants a major excommunication (if the person is a Catholic) latae sententinae (by reason of the offence) while contraception is seen as a mortal sin which doesn’t warrant major excommunication but rather simply urgent recourse to the sacrament of reconciliation with the normal penance, as with other bad sins. It is useful to note this type of excommunication only also occurs with apostacy, schism, heresy, assaulting a bishop or the pontiff, or murder, torture and kidnap.

Murder generally speaking does not incur automatic excommunication. Murder of the Roman Pontiff and abortion does. Yet murder is not less grave than abortion; so your evidence is lacking.

intratext.com/IXT/ENG0017/_P55.HTM

Can. 1397 One who commits murder, or who by force or by fraud abducts, imprisons, mutilates or gravely wounds a person, is to be punished, according to the gravity of the offence, with the deprivations and prohibitions mentioned in can. 1336. In the case of the murder of one of those persons mentioned in can. 1370, the offender is punished with the penalties there prescribed.

Can. 1398 A person who actually procures an abortion incurs a latae sententiae excommunication.

 

[Dan_Grelinger]

Yet murder is not less grave than abortion; so your evidence is lacking.

What is the evidence that non-abortion murder is less grave than abortion? The church seems to treat abortion as the ‘graver’ of the two actions.

I can only ponder the reasons, but perhaps some are below.

Non-abortion murder almost always has circumstances around it that contribute to somewhat reducing culpability. Of course, these circumstances do not remove culpability, and do not justify a murder. In first-world societies, the highest proportion of those murdered are taking real risks with their life. Dealing or purchasing drugs, participating in illegal acts, or acting in other immoral ways. Murder victims beyond the age of reason are always sinners. These murders are also committed against individuals to which the murderer has no responsibility except as that of ‘neighbor’. Most murders have evidence of immediate passions involved, i.e. they are split second decisions driven by emotions, and by defintion, not first degree premeditated murder.

The murder of abortion is always against a perfectly innocent (save original sin) human being, there can be no reasonable argument with that. The act of procuring an abortion is also committed by the mother of the victim, precisely when the victim has been placed by God most in her care. There is no one so dependent upon another person as an unborn child residing within their mother. The mother, charged by God with the ultimate responsibility with protecting her child, performs the ultimate betrayal of the victim. I would venture to suggest that the betrayal of an unborn child by their mother is graver than Judas’s betrayal of Jesus. One final thought, the act is always premeditated. It takes a plan to procure an abortion. A place must be found, the plan must be shared with others, and risks are consciencely considered, and accepted.

Dan

 

[Evan]

The unrepentant abortionist and the unrepentant contracepting couple will all end up in the same end state, and you might as well have done the abortion…

I believe there are different levels of Hell, just as there are different levels of Heaven.

In heaven, we are all in the presence of God, we all enjoy the beatific vision, but some do not have the ability the enjoy it as much as others (such as those who have studied art can enjoy certain works more).

In Hell, your experience of the loss of God and of the punishment there would be a function of how obviously you separated your self from God. If Hilter went to Hell unrepentant, he would have the death of many Catholics and Jews on his soul, but if my grandmother went to Hell (which I highly doubt) she would be there for some hateful action that effected her and her relationship with God but did not have a great effect on the entire world.

I’m not sure how to back all this up, but I’ve read some about levels of happiness in heaven, so assume the converse is true in Hell. If anyone is aware of any sources for my speculation. Please post.