Mortal Sin---What is "Full Knowledge"?

[chevalier]

A deliberate and free choice of evil would require the person to know it’s evil. I’m not sure if knowing that the church considers it evil but not getting the idea oneself and not feeling it’s evil in one’s conscience, can qualify for deliberate and free choice of evil. Maybe if you know it’s evil but you still decide to commit it because it profits you? But this way we could say that stealing bread to feed your hungry children were a mortal sin. It is some evil. Perhaps evil as in something bad and harmful that happens, rather than actively performing an evil act. But who really knows that?

There are various degrees of knowing something is wrong. Someone can know it’s discouraged and not considered proper, but not that it’s actually a sin. Or may think that it’s venial or grave but not yet mortal.

There’s also the problem of full free consent. Is struggling with temptation and failing to overcome it already full consent? Is giving it up but returning to it and then somehow finding the strength to leave it behind also full free consent? Concerning pornography, if you believe (auto-suggestion or even auto-deception for what else?) you’re only looking on girls for their beauty and the artistic values of the pictures, while downright reject any sort of movies, couple photos, and generally any “action”, and you end up doubting your intentions in the end or discovering you are feeling something vaguely close to physical excitement? It’s still a matter in which a (-n objectively) mortal sin can be committed, but does this suffice for a personal mortal sin or not? That’s why I believe it’s always good to tell the priest about one’s intentions. Even if it sometimes becomes a detailed story rather than a concise “I sinned against Commandment X”.

There’s also a problem - at least in my eyes - with the objective matter. It’s supposed to be against a Commandment. But aren’t all sins against a Commandment? How much closeness to the literal Commandment is required and what level of removedness still makes a mortal sin matter (If you get roaring drunk and beat your wife and children it’s no less than grave and it might be mortal, but what if you drink a lake of booze and your stomach can’t hold it but your head still works fine? Or if you plot and go to the court and lie to get your enemy sentenced to jail, it will be most probably be mortal, but what if you repeat a true rumour which, however, puts a person in bad light - possibly a distorted picture)? I don’t know. I don’t know if the priest knows. God only knows.

I’m a law student, possibly a future defence lawyer, so there’s a lot of room for mitigating circumstances in my logic and I might be too generous in presuming them. That’s why it tends to be better to tell the priest the whole story sometimes, along with all one’s doubts (along with doubts about doubts and the fact that one still does or did the thing) instead of taking guesses. It’s probably wise to mention all potential aggravating circumstances, as well, and ask the priest if they apply.

 

[Journeyman]

Thanks for all your replies. However, I think I am even more confused !!!

Let’s go back to CCC 1860 which says “Unintentional ignorance can diminish or even remove the imputability of a grave offense. But no one is deemed to be ignorant of the principles of the moral law, which are written in the conscience of every man.” Can someone decipher what these means?

One other thought. Let’s suppose a priest, in a homily, talks about artificial birth control. He says it is a mortal sin. Can the people in the congregation decide to disagree with him, go home and use ABC, and be off the hook for a mortal sin?

Sorry to be picky about this subject, but most Catholics do not go to reconciliation at all. When the Church says that only MORTAL sins need to be confessed, and many Catholics think only murder and adultery are mortal sins, then it is no wonder that there is no line for reconciliation on Saturdays! Well, based on some of the above responses, if a Catholic doesn’t think it is a grave sin, then it can’t be a grave sin! No wonder few Catholics read the CCC—they can just plead ignorance!

 

[rayne89]

fix:

I would think if one is a Catholic full knowledge is knowing that the Church teaches something should not be done is full knowledge. A prime example is ABC. Many claim that most Catholics who use it are not sinning because they do not have full knowledge. I disagree. They know the Church teaches against it. That is full knowledge.

Also, Catholics are under a serious obligation to learn the faith. That means they cannot just slide along and do very little to form their conscience and claim they did not know things like ABC were sinful.

I really don’t think they know. My generation (I’m 32) never learned any of the churches teaches, at least not in the area I grew up in. I had no idea about the real presence in the Eucharist, let alone teachings on birthcontrol. By the time I had reached my teens I had this vague understanding that the church “frowned upon” birthcontrol (by reading an article somewhere). But had know idea it was considered a sin. There are people at my former parish that I’m sure don’t know because when I mentioned we used NFP they had no idea what that even was. Unless one is proactive in their faith and does their own study and reading the average person in the pew at least of the younger generations has no clue. You certainly don’t hear about it in the homilies and my husband wasn’t taught it in his RCIA class.

 

[Pug]

Journeyman:

No wonder few Catholics read the CCC—they can just plead ignorance!

Not quite. Catholics have a duty to nurture their faith and form their conscience. If a Catholic should say, “If I read the CCC, then I might find out that X is wrong, so I think I will skip reading it,” they are heading for trouble, and it can become serious enough to be mortal.

If a priest says to the congregation that ABC is wrong, then a Catholic has some problem in just ignoring that (unless they are like me, and don’t know the acronym - I went nuts for a few weeks wondering what it stood for when I first came to this board). They would then have good reason to suspect it is wrong, and would be remiss if they failed to check it out. Many Catholics know that they are supposed to follow the teachings of the Church.

I must admit, however, that it is easy to sail along for years and years as a Catholic, and not hear much about ABC one way or another. I find that amazing, considering how relevant it is to many parishioners. I think currently the Church is recovering from a period of a nasty lack of catechesis.