Is smoking cigarettes a venial sin?

[mamabear3]

The problem i have is that so many people who don’t smoke think they are better than people who do. Missing the fact that we all have bad/unhealthy habits. Smoking in excess is sinful, and addictive. But remember when you are addicted to something you are not engaging with full consent. which means the first times you smoke in exess might possibly be mortal sin, but not considerd mortal after your addicted?

also if someone is smoking around you and they were there first, MOVE. don’t tell them to move it’s rude. being rude ruins charity. I see this happen all the time, I can’t stand it.

 

[Katrinka_Yobotz]

Much depends upon the circumstances. For instance, if someone is allergic to tobacco, or there are children, or someone with asthma, and the smoker continues to smoke in their home, that can be serious. On the other hand, if a person is avoiding harming others, and is taking action and seeking help to be free of the addiction, that’s different.

 

[Shin]

:clapping: Bravo! That might have been the funniest thing I’ve ever read on these forums.

lol.

Oh boy.

I do know of some people who actually do smoke for health reasons. Health reasons as in they actually require the health benefits.

 

[Barb3]

I’ve never thought of smoking as a possible sin, but I HATE to see young people smoking. My sister died a few years ago of lung cancer, and there is NO cigarette on earth worth what she went through. She smoked from the time she was a young teenager till she was diagnoed with the cancer, and when her son called me and told me his Mom had passed away, I actually thanked God.
I live near a couple of high schools and am totally astounded if I drive by and see so many teenagers smoking. I PRAY that for some reason they will stop soon so they won’t have to go through what my sister did.

 

[Kayladay]

Did the person begin smoking cigarettes solely for the purpose of ruining his health/body or those around him?

If the answer is “No” - I personally find it hard to call his habit, even though moderately socially unacceptable, a venial sin.

 

[TedDC]

I don’t understand why it’s not a mortal sin, much less a venial sin. Cigarettes are proven to have several carcinogens, and tar… which is not at all healthy for your lungs. And if smoking while other people are present you are also endangering their lives. Yes, not everyone who smokes will get lung, oral, throat… etc. cancer, but I do believe those substances can trigger those diseases in people who are susceptible.

There are several other threads in this forum which speak of using body parts for activities other than that which God intended is mortally sinful. Didn’t God breathe the breath of life into Adam? Didn’t Jesus breathe the Holy Spirit onto His disciples? That would suggest that our lungs symbolize life. Our lungs are just as important as our heart in our lives. With every breath, we breathe life.

I am not saying I don’t agree with the Church. I stand behind the Church. I just don’t understand the disparity.

Yes, I have the same concern. As you note, one of the reasons stated for the mortal sinfulness of certain sexual activities is that they use body parts in ways not intended by God (natural law). Well, it’s hard to think of a more unnatural way of using ones lungs than inhaling smoke laden with toxic chemicals!

 

[DomusAurea]

JMJ

It seems to me that we often take some sort of moral from the media culture and try to make it stick to the teachings of the church. Right now, it seems, we are very interested in not sinning when it comes to the environment and our health. Those are not unimportant. But by no means are they all-important.

A priest told me something interesting once. He said that perhaps the “best” sins are those that are embarrassing. Smoking (all substance abuses, really) is embarrassing. Eating to much and getting fat is embarrassing. Being a know-it-all is embarrassing. People around the sinner notices. And judges. Not only does sins like that seem almost entirely ugly to the sinner - the sinner gets the chance to offer all that embarrassment up to the Lord. Those sins can be (sort of) self correcting in that way.
There are sins with the opposite effect. Vanity. Pride. Things that, more often than not, will make the sinner more attractive in the eyes of the world. Those are more dangerous I think.

 

[CatholicCrystal]

I smoked for 21 years and I was smoking 4 packs a day when I did quit. I had tried a couple times before I finally did quit. I loved smoking but not what it could do to my body. I prayed that I could quit and not pick up another cigarette. God has always given me the strength to do the things I needed to do. I joined a group and was told that I fit into the category of the 75% of people who did not make it. I made it and it has been 20 years now. Was I a sinner because I was addicted to cigarettes? I don’t believe that God thought me a sinner.

This thing about social smoking I don’t believe. I don’t believe that a person who goes out socially and smokes won’t have a tendency to become addicted to the cigarettes. Unless he is one that is not predisposed to it.

People who are addicts did not know that they would become an addict. I look at people who smoke and think there is no one out there who would chose to smoke fully knowing you can kill yourself by smoking.

I truly believe that God wants us to look on these people who are addicted to anything with compassion and understanding. I know it is hard because I have a hard time with anyone who is addicted to drugs or alchohol. To me they destroy their families and themselves. Do smokers do the same? I don’t know. My sister smokes in our house and I can’t stand it. Have tried to compromise but there is no compromising with her on the cigarettes and where she can or can’t smoke. So is she a sinner? I don’t think so. I think she should think more of us that are living with her and go outside or limit it to one room but who am I to say she is a sinner? So really how can one say you are sinning by smoking?

It’s easy to become addicted, though people with strong willpower can manage to resist it; and it’s usually not a problem for people that smoke only socially, i.e., one or two cigarettes a week.

 

[MikiBee]

I smoked for 21 years and I was smoking 4 packs a day when I did quit. I had tried a couple times before I finally did quit. I loved smoking but not what it could do to my body. I prayed that I could quit and not pick up another cigarette. God has always given me the strength to do the things I needed to do. I joined a group and was told that I fit into the category of the 75% of people who did not make it. I made it and it has been 20 years now. Was I a sinner because I was addicted to cigarettes? I don’t believe that God thought me a sinner.

This thing about social smoking I don’t believe. I don’t believe that a person who goes out socially and smokes won’t have a tendency to become addicted to the cigarettes. Unless he is one that is not predisposed to it.

People who are addicts did not know that they would become an addict. I look at people who smoke and think there is no one out there who would chose to smoke fully knowing you can kill yourself by smoking.

I truly believe that God wants us to look on these people who are addicted to anything with compassion and understanding. I know it is hard because I have a hard time with anyone who is addicted to drugs or alchohol. To me they destroy their families and themselves. Do smokers do the same? I don’t know. My sister smokes in our house and I can’t stand it. Have tried to compromise but there is no compromising with her on the cigarettes and where she can or can’t smoke. So is she a sinner? I don’t think so. I think she should think more of us that are living with her and go outside or limit it to one room but who am I to say she is a sinner? So really how can one say you are sinning by smoking?

Well, the Church doesn’t say smoking is a sin, so it is not. I think there are just a lot of people who wonder why it isn’t. I don’t believe addiction is a sin per se. I just wonder where the line is drawn. Most intelligent people know the dangers of cigarette smoke whether they admit to it or not, or whether they want to agree with it or not. The evidence is there. If you know something could be potentially life threatening, potentially addicting-- when does it become sinful when you partake of that?

Smokers will always argue that everything we do has the potential of danger… driving a car, living in the city, eating anything that’s not nutritious… etc. However, there’s nothing about a cigarette that is healthy no matter what the tobacco industry would like to sell you on that. Directly inhaling pollutants into your lungs really serves no purpose other than personal enjoyment. People get a buzz from smoking, or they calm down, or it’s just a habit. But again-- you are using a body part intended for sustaining your LIFE for your enjoyment. Not only that, but the activity is actually harmful! That doesn’t seem any different than a few other sins that are deemed mortal. In fact, it seems worse. Again, I wonder why the disparity? My guess is because there was probably a Pope or two that smoked.

 

[TedDC]

Yes, I have the same concern. As you note, one of the reasons stated for the mortal sinfulness of certain sexual activities is that they use body parts in ways not intended by God (natural law). Well, it’s hard to think of a more unnatural way of using ones lungs than inhaling smoke laden with toxic chemicals!

One point I should have mentioned, based on what I’ve learned elsewhere on this forum, is that we should probably be discussing smoking as a possible “grave matter” rather than “mortal sin”, because mortal sin requires certain conditions such as knowledge and consent which may or not be present in every case.

 

[TedDC]

I smoked for 21 years and I was smoking 4 packs a day when I did quit. I had tried a couple times before I finally did quit. I loved smoking but not what it could do to my body. I prayed that I could quit and not pick up another cigarette. God has always given me the strength to do the things I needed to do. I joined a group and was told that I fit into the category of the 75% of people who did not make it. I made it and it has been 20 years now. Was I a sinner because I was addicted to cigarettes? I don’t believe that God thought me a sinner.

This thing about social smoking I don’t believe. I don’t believe that a person who goes out socially and smokes won’t have a tendency to become addicted to the cigarettes. Unless he is one that is not predisposed to it.

People who are addicts did not know that they would become an addict. I look at people who smoke and think there is no one out there who would chose to smoke fully knowing you can kill yourself by smoking.

I truly believe that God wants us to look on these people who are addicted to anything with compassion and understanding. I know it is hard because I have a hard time with anyone who is addicted to drugs or alchohol. To me they destroy their families and themselves. Do smokers do the same? I don’t know. My sister smokes in our house and I can’t stand it. Have tried to compromise but there is no compromising with her on the cigarettes and where she can or can’t smoke. So is she a sinner? I don’t think so. I think she should think more of us that are living with her and go outside or limit it to one room but who am I to say she is a sinner? So really how can one say you are sinning by smoking?

Yes, my understanding is that Church teachings take into account the nature of addictions, and recognize that a person may have great difficulty in quitting. That’s why I wanted to point out that I’d probably misused the term “mortal sin”, because the addiction reduces a person’s culpability for the behavior.

My thought would be that an addict’s responsibility, once he/she acknowledges that the activity is harmful, is to make a sincere effort to stop. Failures in those efforts would not be regarded as sinful, because the person is trying to do the right thing.

 

[markomalley]

Here is what the Catechism has to say about tobacco use:

**2290 **

First of all, I think that this is something that needs to be relegated to a level of concern that it deserves. Consider the following:

Matt 15:10-20 And having called together the multitudes unto him, he said to them: Hear and understand. Not that which goes into the mouth defiles a man: but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man. Then came his disciples, and said to him: Do you know that the Pharisees, when they heard this word, were scandalized? But he answering, said: Every plant which my heavenly Father has not planted, shall be rooted up. Let them alone: they are blind, and leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both fall into the pit. And Peter answering, said to him: Expound to us this parable. But he said: Are you also yet without understanding? Do you not understand, that whatsoever enters into the mouth, goes into the belly, and is cast out into the privy? But the things which proceed out of the mouth, come forth from the heart, and those things defile a man. For from the heart come forth evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false testimonies, blasphemies. These are the things that defile a man. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man.
​

If you look, the word “tobacco” is used exactly one time in the CCC. And that time is in the context of an example to illustrate temperance. You will also note that the CCC only identifies as a grave sin those who, through intemperance, endanger their own and others’ **safety **(not health) while traveling (although I wouldn’t say that traveling by air, sea, or land is a necessary condition). So, a close reading of the CCC might indicate that if you smoke around an open gas can, flick a butt into the passenger compartment of a neighboring vehicle, or drive with a vehicle so polluted with tar and nicotine that you can’t see out the window, that could potentially be gravely sinful. But I don’t see any other application being a risk to safety as opposed to health… (in Greek, the words are the same, but not in the Latin, English, German, or Italian)

The real issue comes into excess. Temperance has a number of contrary sins: gluttony, drunkenness, lust. We need to embrace temperance in order to avoid those sins.

This is where the Scripture passage quoted above comes into play. Does our use of tobacco precede any of those sins? Evil thoughts, murders, fornications, adulteries, lies, blasphemies? Frankly, it might, if you are so physically and psychologically addicted that you lose control with the absence of the substance. But is the sin then that of the tobacco or the loss of the virtue of temperance?

Just another POV…take it or leave it…

 

[Rascalking]

Smoking is just gross. I mean, if you do so, odds are you will be returning your body to God in a condition that he may not like. Not only that, but your giving it to him much earlier.

Yes, I’m sure that everyone knows someone who smoked until they where 88 with no ill effects. But come on. They don’t call them coffin sticks for nothing.

Gross, gross, gross.

And I’m not a prude-I do enjoy cigars!

 

[long215]

Isn’t tobacco a plant? Did God invent tobacco?
Didn’t He say his creation was good? Additives that tobacco companies put in cigarettes certainly are questionable. God gave us the gift of tobacco. I give Him the benefit of the doubt that tobacco is somehow beneficial to us, God’s very good creation. Man may have botched this gift, but I think we should seek the good that tobacco can benefit mankind.
Smoking is bad for you; tobacco (by God’s standards) is good. What a paradox!

 

[MikiBee]

Isn’t tobacco a plant? Did God invent tobacco?
Didn’t He say his creation was good? Additives that tobacco companies put in cigarettes certainly are questionable. God gave us the gift of tobacco. I give Him the benefit of the doubt that tobacco is somehow beneficial to us, God’s very good creation. Man may have botched this gift, but I think we should seek the good that tobacco can benefit mankind.
Smoking is bad for you; tobacco (by God’s standards) is good. What a paradox!

Really? God also gave us arsenic. Should we go ahead and eat some because God made it and it’s natural? What about poisonous wild mushrooms? Should we pick those and cook some up for dinner because God made them? There are hundreds of poisonous plants.

I understand your point… there is probably a good reason these plants exist, perhaps they help the environment in some way, or perhaps they provide food for another species of animal that is not harmed by their toxins. God’s creation in and of itself is not bad, and perhaps those plants wouldn’t have poisoned us before the fall of Adam and Eve.

But the truth remains… cigarette smoke is known to cause cancers, emphysema, heart disease, vascular disease, reduced fertility due to blood flow problems, it aggravates asthma, can cause low-birth weight and premature births if a woman smokes while pregnant, among many other health problems. Second hand smoke has also been attributed to SIDS. We KNOW this. It’s not just a ploy to make smokers feel bad.

And with this knowledge, it astounds me that smoking isn’t even considered a venial sin, when it seems like it is pretty grave matter, most people know this information before they take their first cigarette, and willfully choose to do so anyway and therefore sounds like it “should be” a mortal sin with those conditions met.

Like I said, whatever the Church says on the matter goes. I accept that. I’m not arguing with the Church, I’m just trying to understand why some sins are mortal when they don’t directly endanger your life or the lives of others, but smoking is not.

 

[BigRedpg51]

In the summertime I enjoy smoking a pipe. I usually find a nice tree and sit out under it while I have a smoke on my pipe, saying my rosary or reading a good spiritual book. However, I cannot ignore the fact that smoking does have unhealthy effects upon the body sometimes; therefore, this is what I do. I make the sign of the cross over my pipe – before I light it – asking God to spare me from physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual harm – and to accept this smoke as incense rising up to Heaven carrying my love and prayers to Him for His glory.

I feel that, in this way, what is looked upon as bad…can be turned into something that glorifies God.

I try not to abuse this smoking privilege, however. I just smoke one or two pipefuls a day, generally.

I hope that this gives some of you fellow smokers a new approach to think about…if you feel that you must continue to smoke.

God bless!
John

 

[EphelDuath]

But the truth remains… cigarette smoke is known to cause cancers, emphysema, heart disease, vascular disease, reduced fertility due to blood flow problems, it aggravates asthma, can cause low-birth weight and premature births if a woman smokes while pregnant, among many other health problems. Second hand smoke has also been attributed to SIDS. We KNOW this. It’s not just a ploy to make smokers feel bad.

And with this knowledge, it astounds me that smoking isn’t even considered a venial sin, when it seems like it is pretty grave matter, most people know this information before they take their first cigarette, and willfully choose to do so anyway and therefore sounds like it “should be” a mortal sin with those conditions met.

Cake is known to cause obesity, tooth cavities, cellutitis, multiple sclerosis, congestive heart failure, and high blood pressure among other health problems. We KNOW this. It’s not just a ploy to make cake-eaters feel bad.

And with this knowledge, it astounds me that eating cake isn’t even considered a venial sin, when it seems like it is a pretty grave matter. Most people know this information before they take their first bite of cake, and willfully choose to do so anyway and therefore sounds like it “should be” a mortal sin with those conditions met.

 

[Holly3278]

It may not be venial or mortal, even in moderation-but it’s not a good idea, regardless.

The biggest problem is that smoking cigarettes is rarely done “in moderation”. It usually leads to addiction, which, tragically, can lead to grave HEALTH problems, and maybe grave sin.

Free country, of course, but please don’t smoke!

I agree that it is not a good idea. But for someone who has been addicted to cigarettes for a long time, this question is important to me. I have been trying to quit for a long time now but so far I have been unsuccessful.

 

[TedDC]

Cake is known to cause obesity, tooth cavities, cellutitis, multiple sclerosis, congestive heart failure, and high blood pressure among other health problems. We KNOW this. It’s not just a ploy to make cake-eaters feel bad.

And with this knowledge, it astounds me that eating cake isn’t even considered a venial sin, when it seems like it is a pretty grave matter. Most people know this information before they take their first bite of cake, and willfully choose to do so anyway and therefore sounds like it “should be” a mortal sin with those conditions met.

The strongest case for smoking being a “grave matter” is the fact that it’s clearly a misuse of a bodily function: respiration. Since misuse of the sexual function is cited as a reason for the Church’s prohibition of certain sexual practices - even when those practices don’t harm the body - then surely smoking, which is clearly a misuse and is proven to damage health - should be treated just as seriously.

 

[EphelDuath]

The strongest case for smoking being a “grave matter” is the fact that it’s clearly a misuse of a bodily function: respiration. Since misuse of the sexual function is cited as a reason for the Church’s prohibition of certain sexual practices - even when those practices don’t harm the body - then surely smoking, which is clearly a misuse and is proven to damage health - should be treated just as seriously.

Ah, well that’s a whole nother matter in itself. Given the human lung’s capacity to inhale smoke, I wouldn’t call it a misuse until it gets past the point of moderation.