Is it really Mortal Sin if

[BryanW]

You can follow your conscience but it is your responsibility to inform your conscience. Thats why we have a Church

 

[tru_dvotion]

BryanW:

You can follow your conscience but it is your responsibility to inform your conscience. Thats why we have a Church

Exactly. But as I said in my previous post about living a sinful life… that generally does not include following the teaching of the Church.

 

[BryanW]

tru_dvotion:

Exactly. But as I said in my previous post about living a sinful life… that generally does not include following the teaching of the Church.

Appologies, but I don’t understand what you mean by this.

If you really don’t think something is sinfull, even if the Church is telling you otherwise, then thats even worse than ignorance.

Remember the first sin was pride. “I will not serve”

 

[robert_connor]

javelin:

Remember, the question isn’t, “is it sinful if I don’t think it is”. The question is “is it MORTALLY sinful if I don’t think it is”.

Any action that would be mortally sinful, if not mortal because of some circumstance (compulsion to act, for example), will still be sinful, just not mortally sinful.

I don’t think that simply saying “eveyone must know exactly what is mortal and what is not” is realistic, or sufficient. Most people can’t just flip a switch in their heads that says “Ok, I believe this now”. It often takes time, and circumstances can make it take LOTS of time.

Take abortion caused by abortifacient birth control use. There are many Christian people, both Catholics and non-Catholics, who use artificial birth control not knowing that they are aborting children. Abortion is obviously mortally sinful. Yet, these people don’t really know and understand what they are doing. Are they all going to hell? Surely, at judgement time, they will need to account for those sins of omission and ignorance, but destined for Hell? You really think so? If not Hell, then their ignorance must lower their culpability below the level of mortality.

Peace,
javelin

 

[robert_connor]

robert connor:
Javelin,
From what you have written it appears that you think birth control is okay & abortion is the sin…if so I want to inform you both are mortally sinful…all birth control methods do not cause abortion but stop the pregnancy…Just as sinful.
Bob

 

[tru_dvotion]

Appologies, but I don’t understand what you mean by this. If you really don’t think something is sinfull, even if the Church is telling you otherwise, then thats even worse than ignorance. Remember the first sin was pride. “I will not serve”

Let me explain Bryan,

Let’s take a fallen away Catholic. The longer he is away from the Church and the Sacraments, the less he remembers. Meanwhile he soaks up some Protestant teaching and a bit of pop culture. So he has been away from the Church for a decade or two and he no longer can differentiate between what the Church teaches, what Billy Graham says, and what he just heard on the last sit-com. So it isn’t pride, it isn’t I will not serve, it’s just simply I am so mixed up, I do not know if I am coming or going. These are the people I was referring to.

 

[javelin]

robert connor:

Javelin,
From what you have written it appears that you think birth control is okay & abortion is the sin…if so I want to inform you both are mortally sinful…all birth control methods do not cause abortion but stop the pregnancy…Just as sinful.
Bob

Bob,

Your assumption is incorrect; I do not think that birth control is OK while abortion is mortally sinful. I don’t know for a fact, though, if the use of birth control is always mortally sinful.

I use that as an example because there are many Catholics who don’t follow the Church’s teaching on the use of ABC, and don’t confess that sin before a priest. Other than that, they are faithful Catholic Christians. Does their ABC use mean they are all bereft of sanctifying grace and destined for damnation? What about Protestants who use ABC, but otherwise willingly follow and obey all that they believe God is calling them to? Are they all destined for Hell too? That would be a vast majority of American Christendom. If you answered the two questions above differently, then why? What really separates the “cafeteria catholic” who uses ABC from the Protestant who uses ABC (and who also knows some way that the Catholic Church teaches that ABC use is wrong)?

If you ask me, there is no real difference. So, either both are destined for Hell unless they repent, or both will spend considerable time in Purgatory for their sins.

These are serious questions that need sound answers, especially when evangelizing.

What do you think?

Peace,
javelin

 

[katolik]

Mijoy2:

Just gotta something off my chest. Hope it doesn’t offend anyone.

Less then two years ago my life was a mess, admittedly, now.

It wasn’t until I read C.S.Lewis Mere Chrstianity that I became aware my life was directed by my pride.

I love the that man who went to see the Lord in November of 1963.

Since then I have learned a great deal about our beloved Faith and about our beloved Lord and Savior. When I go to Saint Anthony’s Shrine in the city where I work, and I talk with some of the true saints, the Fransican Friars that reside there, i invariaby walk away feeling not only their love and thier understanding, warmth and reassurace. I also feel Jesus and His Mother’s love too.

God**, **as I understand it, IS Love. I don’t know that we convey that as well as He’d wish sometime.

I went from sinning every moment of the day, to loving our Lord with all my heart and soul. Some here would seem to wish to tell me I’m going to burn because I maybe haven’t quite yet come to the point they are at with respect to the devotion they may exhibit.

Maybe I am a theological idiot but I choose to believe (I know that term “choose to believe” has already offended someone here so I aopologize for offending you) that tremendous progress towards love, counts for something in the eyes of our Lord. I simply have to beleive that!

Is it all or nothing? Didn’t Peter express doubt? Did He come here for the saints only, or the sinners, like me too?

Sir there is Divine Mercy but you shouldn’t forget Divine Justice. How could the Lord be unjust? He cannot, a judge has to send to prison a murderer. God has to send one to hell for disobeidience because God is just. Lucifer[begone evil demons!!] was once one of God’s angels, but for disobedience he was thrown into hell

 

[PaulDupre]

scjmb03:

Todd,

Willfully missing Mass on Sunday destroys Charity and separates us from Sanctifying Grace, because we are making the conscious choice not to pray, worship and praise our God publicly with other faithful. The Catholic Church is not a private religion it is a liturgical faith (there is historical evidence of the liturgical nature of the Catholic Church that begins in the Acts of the Apostles) where the joining of the faithful in prayer, worship and praise is necessary. Openly and knowingly refusing to give God his due is intrinsically evil and gravely disordered. If we cannot love God enough to dedicate an hour to an hour and a half once a week (this is less than 1 percent of our week) to God alone plus travel time we are not going to love others enough to give of ourselves selflessly. We cannot give the ultimate in Charity if we cannot give a small amount of time each week (one percent of each week) to Our Lord and Savior who not only died on the Cross for us, but gave us His Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity through the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar. We are given graces through receiving The Body and Blood of Christ each week and in a world where temptation abounds we need to take advantage of all the graces we are given instead of biting the hand that feeds us and turning our back on Jesus. We should be craving to receive the Body and Blood of Christ on a weekly basis if not on a daily basis especially when we know the graces we are given through the Sacrament.

Hurrah for you, Ana! Well said!
Grace to you,
Paul

 

[RBushlow]

javelin:

Here’s a question that I haven’t heard a good answer to yet:

If mortal sin requires full knowledge of the gravity and mortality of the sin, then is something a mortal sin if I don’t honestly believe it is a mortal sin?

Take missing Mass for instance.

If I don’t really believe that missing one Mass is a mortal sin, isn’t it true that I don’t understand the gravity and mortality of the sin, which is a requisite for it being mortal in the first place? A self-fulfilling prophesy?

What do you think?

Peace,
javelin

What if I tell myself that it’s not a sin, will God be fooled?