Mortal Sin?

[invadersomeone]

Ok, so I know to sin mortally you have to know its of grave matter. If you did something without knowing that it was grave, but you find out after doing it that it was grave matter, was it mortal sin or venial sin?

Is confession required before receiving the eucharist then, or since I did know know it was grave matter at the time of the sin can I still receive the eucharist and then just make sure I confess it during my next confession?

 

[ConallCernach]

When in doubt, confess. Though you may not have been aware that a sin was mortal, you may be less culpable for the sin (possibly to veniality). However, you should still confess prior to receiving the Eucharist.

Pax

 

[als10062008]

I’m not very good at answering that kind of question. I usually just go with the safe bet and go to confession first.

 

[teachccd]

Ok, so I know to sin mortally you have to know its of grave matter. If you did something without knowing that it was grave, but you find out after doing it that it was grave matter, was it mortal sin or venial sin?

Is confession required before receiving the eucharist then, or since I did know know it was grave matter at the time of the sin can I still receive the eucharist and then just make sure I confess it during my next confession?

If you did something in which you were not aware consisted of grave matter then you could not have sinned mortally. One of the requirements for a sin to be mortal is that you know that the act is grave in nature. If you find out later that does not impute culpability to the previous action. It would from then on, however.

So, if in all honesty you had no idea that what you did was grave matter (and that would mean that you followed your conscience at the time) then you could receive the Eucharist since no mortal sin was committed. I would bring this up in confession so as not to fall again in this act. If you have any doubt and you may have known it was grave then refrain from Communion and get to confession…teachccd

 

[RosaryFan]

Ok, so I know to sin mortally you have to know its of grave matter. If you did something without knowing that it was grave, but you find out after doing it that it was grave matter, was it mortal sin or venial sin?

Is confession required before receiving the eucharist then, or since I did know know it was grave matter at the time of the sin can I still receive the eucharist and then just make sure I confess it during my next confession?

If you didn’t know it was grave matter, then the latter.

 

[Methodi]

Ok, so I know to sin mortally you have to know its of grave matter. If you did something without knowing that it was grave, but you find out after doing it that it was grave matter, was it mortal sin or venial sin?

Is confession required before receiving the eucharist then, or since I did know know it was grave matter at the time of the sin can I still receive the eucharist and then just make sure I confess it during my next confession?

Yes, Ignorance is bliss until You know that something is a sin, or contains grave matter

 

[Letchitsa1]

Ok, so I know to sin mortally you have to know its of grave matter. If you did something without knowing that it was grave, but you find out after doing it that it was grave matter, was it mortal sin or venial sin?

Is confession required before receiving the eucharist then, or since I did know know it was grave matter at the time of the sin can I still receive the eucharist and then just make sure I confess it during my next confession?

For a sin to be mortal it must have all three of the following components:

Grave matter
Knowledge that the act is grave matter
Conscious decision to commit the act anyways

If you do not have all of these conditions, you do not have mortal sin. In some circumstances, you may have all of these circumstances and STILL not have a mortal sin (i.e., the act has become a habit, like an addiction; you were coerced into committing the act, or others).

I will also add here that it is your responsibility to make sure you have a properly-formed conscience. Your parents were responsible for raising you in the faith when they made the promise to do so at your baptism. What they taught you and what you have learned in religious education over the years is hopefully sufficient to give you a well-formed conscience, but once you become an adult, that responsibility shifts entirely to you. If you are wise, you will never stop trying to learn your faith. No matter how much you know, there is always more to learn.

 

[LilyM]

A situation where there is either coercion or strong force of habit or addiction in fact does NOT contain the three elements of mortal sin. It lacks the last element - conscious decision (I’ve more often heard it described as ‘free consent’, which is a better description).

In a case of coercion it is NOT the sinner’s conscious decision to sin, rather it is the decision of the one who coerces them, and the sinner has little or no choice. In a case of habit or addiction, it is to some degree an UNconscious decision, not a conscious one.

 

[Archus]

which is handy as this gives further meaning to the passage in Scripture where Pilate was standing with Jesus about whether or not Pilate should release Jesus. It is in John:

the one who handed me over to you has the greater guilt. (John 19:11)

Pilate was coerced one might say, into crucifying Jesus.

Although I am curious if lingering thoughts of impurity are mortal sin when one is striving for purity. Which is to say; assailed by temptation and if every little ‘hmm maybe’ is considered mortal sin.

 

[llblarosa]

I recently discovered that LDI had a boycott on my Kohl’s charge card because the finance company donates money to Planned Parenthood. I knew this, but I had promised to take my kids shopping there and planned to put the purchases on my charge card. So, I bought the clothes, even though it was against my conscience.

Then, at Mass I felt strongly convicted about it. I said an act of contrition about it, but it did not go away. It occurred to me then that this might be a mortal sin for me. Moreover, I woke up early the next a.m. with this sin on my mind and I haven’t been able to free myself of it since then.

Am I being to scrupulous or could this be a mortal sin for me?

Thanks.

 

[foolishmortal]

I wonder about that regarding using my credit card, the bank of which I believe still funds PP. Does the bank benefit that much from transactions? I rarely use that card. I have seen devout Catholics with “rr” in their e-mail address, which stands for Time Warner’s Road Runner internet. I’ve read that if conscientious people, who would not fund PP on purpose, use it, then you can. Still, like “made in China”, I boycott the items unless it’s not much of a seller, it’s being discontinued or it’s in “clearance”. It’s a struggle. fighttpp.org has the enormous boycott list. I’m still concerned about buying those things or going to those studios’ movies (unless it’s a weekday matinee, the box office intake of which is not noticed, or it’s a virtuous movie that should be encouraged, like “The Passion”).

BTW Does getting about 5 hours of sleep make you culpable? What about feeling groggy and like someone is pushing on your eyes throughout the day, even if you feel you are making a decision you know is wrong, but you are rationalizing (like avoiding the sinful part of a movie with a sensual scene or thinking you are not going to appreciate its sinfulness)? What if you feel you’re suffering from male depression and you read that you can get compulsive, as I have collected DVDs, religious material at various times? It’s habitual, but in spurts. I use the stuff usually once and move on. Sometimes I just want relief from my scruples, so I take a risk, but I feel bad afterwards. Does OCD (I’m not like “Monk”, but I do feel better with sanitizer, I can’t stand cooks tasting the food in the pot and putting the spoon back in, and underpants falling on the floor go back in dirty clothes unless I sanitize them with sanitizer) exonerate you enough from mortal sin? Unlike what you read about the scrupulous, I think I see God as giving me mercy, but I likely screw it up in Confession or I have likely exhausted his finite acts of mercy and I’ll probably be damnable upon death for something I did. A part of me is self-hating, I believe. I absorb negativity from others and I’ve always been a passive-aggressive worrier, as some part of my mind is my childhood innocent self that wants a pure , safe surrounding, another likes risk and it talks down to me accusingly for being a wimp, but it’s not voices or split personality. It kind of leaves me mad at “the world” and mad at me for having absorbed some of “the world”. I don’t know if I would feel too dirty, or at least, unworthy, for a healthy religious community, as I can’t stand laid-back ones, but I just feel like I’m drowning in “the world” otherwise. Priests who are as tough on me in confessionals as I am on myself (though I do not seem to improve and yet, I feel my formation in our Catholic grade and high school was weak and so maybe I’m pouring new wine in an old wineskin) also irritate me, as I’d appreciate a reference to a good confessor and not be merely told to get one (laid-back ones really need to refer too).

Any ideas? Thanks!

 

[Joe_Brown]

Personally I don’t like the saying "when in doubt confess’. The reason is because I suffered from bad scruples and was in doubt all the time, so I went to confession many times in a week for things that had already or didn’t need to be confessed.

Pray to God to ask his help on this matter.
You are in my prayers
Pax

 

[Joe_Brown]

To commit a mortal sin you have to have met the 3 conditions

1. Grave Matter
2. deliberate consent
3. full knowledge

Judging be your post, if you didn’t know that it was a mortal sin then you have not met the 3rd condition.

If that is the case, then make sure to still mention it in your next confession, and even ask the priest if it was a mortal sin.

You said you did not know it was a grave matter, so you have not sinned mortally from what I know.

Pax

 

[Peter_Dawson]

Ok, so I know to sin mortally you have to know its of grave matter. If you did something without knowing that it was grave, but you find out after doing it that it was grave matter, was it mortal sin or venial sin?

Is confession required before receiving the eucharist then, or since I did know know it was grave matter at the time of the sin can I still receive the eucharist and then just make sure I confess it during my next confession?

I would say, “No, no mortal sin. Go receive Communion.” But I also like the advice of the person above who says, “When in doubt, confess.”

There are times when we Catholics assume that certain sins – for example, lying – are always a venial sin, but this is never true. I don’t think that it is philosophically possible to say that “sin X is always venial.”

For example, in my trial work someone will tell a lie on the witness stand about the case. As a result of the lie, the lying side wins. An insurance company pays. The insurance company, angry, exercises its “right of subrogation” against the actually completely innocent alleged wrongdoer. The innocent alleged wrongdoer is sued by the powerful insurance company. He loses automatically (because of the lie-supported verdict in the first case) and he and his wife and children lose their home and are driven into the street.

All because of a lie.

THAT kind of lie, if done with an awareness of the possible consequences, is a mortal sin.