The Catholic Church teaches that this is indeed the case. However, I have found that there is a great deal of ambiguity regarding just what that implies. For example, mortal sin can only be committed with “full knowledge and full consent of the will.” That’s rather general termanology and may be interpreted very broadly. Does anyone ever have full knowledge of anything? That seems to be a matter of opinion. Theologians and visionaries have said many, many things about hell and salvation, some apparently contradictory. Many saints have talked about the “fewness of the saved” and “hellfire and brimstone” visions, like the Fatima children. But St. Alphonsus Ligouri said that "God pardons all who pray with humility. One of the happier saint was Julian of Norwich, who had a vision in which Christ told her how “all will be well, and all manner of things will be well.” Some of the earlier theologians, like Origen and St. Gregory of Nyssa taught of a final restitution of all things and, while some of this was later condemned, some recent theologians have been talking about the possibility of hope that all will find salvation. So, you see, the teachings here are complicated.
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Good post.
I agree the teachings are somewhat complicated. I can relate to the OPs’ sense of frustration. The teachings on the hows and whos of hell are extremely ambiguous of the Church. This fact causes me concern and causes me to question my faith.
If the teachings of the Church are infallibly guided by the Holy Spirit, why is it that when one attempts with all his mind and heart to discern what the Church teaches in this regard he walks away with ambiguity on such a difficult matter?
Whenever one posts a question in this regard (hell), he is often met with answers pertaining to himself. But this is not where most peoples sense of dispair is. The sense of dispair is often for loved ones of which he has very little control.
If we look at the basic definition of Mortal Sin, I believe it can be argued that the definitions most often prescribed border on foolishness.
Moral Sin = grave matter, full knowledge and full consent.
The only way I can reconcile this definition is the following:
A Mortal Sin is a sin committed where the subject commits the sin knowing full well he/she has seperated him/herself from God with a full sense of willingness and full sense of knowing the ramification.
For those who would argue against my definition please let me attempt to clarify:
The vast majority of Catholics and virtually all non-Catholics commit sins of grave matter nearly daily, certainly weekly. Missing Mass, masturbation, contraception others. Of the Catholics I think it is fair to say that most are aware that the Church teaches these sins are of grave matter. However (and this is the point), they still commit the sins.
Therefore can we say the sins are likely mortal? I’d say we can most definitively (almost without exception) say that they cannot be. If we say that many people are in “mortal sin” because of committing these sins of grave matter, we must also say that these people are all in full belief they are going to hell if they do n ot repent. This is an absurd assumption given the popular believed description of hell.
i.e. If one was found in a situation where they immediatley had to choose a lifestyle change and repentance or walk through burning flames until thier skin was melted, regrown and repeated throughout eternity (Augustine) who outside a madman would not change?
But few do! Hence they are not in full knowledge and do not have full consent. Thereful argueably no sin is mortal.
Orr most people are hellbound. We cannot have it both ways, it is intellectually irresponsible.
