MORTAL SIN and CONFESSION

[boppaid]

Is your “bigger issue” of the** Church **being “leagalistic” straightened out yet?

I’m not sure I understand what you’re asking. I did mention that the answers given to me that the Church doesn’t say that God is “legalistic” in that manner, so yes, it has been straightened out somewhat. I said “I just do not believe that God is that legalistic. Does the Church?” and the answer was no. If that is the case, then my impression from my upbringing was inaccurate and I feel much better now. See, I was really struggling with this. This is what I was taught. It never made sense to me that God would be this way.Yet, when I questioned other people irl about this, they said “yes, that is church teaching”. My gut told me that, no, it wasn’t. I could not follow a church that taught this. This was, obviously, something I needed to investigate.

I am still investigating my faith. Well, not my faith in Christ. I have a wonderful relationship with Him. I am investing my religion. But this forum has been helping me clarify a lot of issues I struggle with. I am grateful for this forum.

 

[roccoangelo]

Boppaid,

If a man misses man for frivilous reasons one week, but decides a week later that he should confess his mortal sin to the priest and through very bad luck dies in a car accident on his way to the confessional, does the church teach he will go to hell with mortal sin on his soul?

I think that, in the mind of the church, the judgement of the man’s soul would be placed in the hands of God, not the church. The reason being is because even though the man has sinned mortaly, his intention to goto confession shows that he has answered the call to repentence which God placed in his heart, and so the judgment of his soul after the accident wouldn’t be so legalistic or black & white. Only God would have the knowlege and wisdom do judge his soul properly.

Different scenario, same sin. What if he doesn’t feel the need to confess this sin, but in every other aspect of his life he is a good Christian, devout to the Lord in every other way. Would he go to Hell (according to Catholic teaching)?

This second scenario doesn’t make sense to me because if this man was that devout/good of a Catholic Christian I dought that his concience would allow him to commit the above stated sin in the first place, and even if he did, his concience wouldn’t let him get away with it.

Pax Christi,
Rocco