You don’t have to “know it’s a mortal sin” per se - otherwise, only theologians would be able to commit sin. You just have to be aware of a fear inside you, of getting caught.
I don’t think that this is quite accurate. I think that to commit a mortal sin you at least have to possess a basic degree of moral formation. Certainly every man has the natural law written in his heart, but without proper moral formation the “whisperings” of one’s conscience can be very faint and often confusing. Force of habit in sin (e.g. sins of the flesh that one falls into in early adolescence) combined with poor/absent catechesis and moral formation can dramatically reduce one’s culpability. Given the horrible state of catechesis and moral knowledge among Catholics today, I think it is perfectly reasonable to say that many Catholics engaged in sinful behaviors today don’t really have the slightest clue that what they are doing is wrong.
If they don’t have the slightest clue that it’s wrong, then they won’t experience any fear of getting caught.
Which is made evident by the experience of fear of getting caught
Even those who aren’t consciously aware of God can have a sense of universal principles of right and wrong.
Right - so, if someone experiences the fear of getting caught, but then excuses himself by saying “I had never heard the word “mortal sin” before, so it must not have been a sin, for me,” or else if he says, “I didn’t find that particular action in the list of sins on my Examination of Conscience,” he is deceiving himself, to his own hurt.
I still don’t think that a simple “fear of getting caught” fulfills the “full knowledge” and “deliberate consent” criteria stated by the Catechism. Can you provide an authoritative source that states this?
Yes, I know - which is why they need to listen to that still small voice of the fear of God, or the fear of Mom (whichever one is operational, in their particular case), rather than, or in addition to what they “know” (or don’t know) about mortal sin.
You still haven’t answered my question. I am curious to know where in Church teaching you can find an equivalence between “being afraid of getting caught” and “having full knowledge and deliberate consent necessary to commit a mortal sin.” I have read the majority of the Catechism and a large sampling of writings of various Doctors and Popes and have never come across this particular formulation.
It’s a way of knowing. It’s a test of conscience. “Did I commit a sin when I did this?”
Yes, I am quite aware of your position. What I am asking for is some evidence (other than your own opinion) that it is true. I do not dispute that when you do something that you know (or think, or suspect) might be wrong, you are committing a sin and prudence would dictate that you go to confession for it. What I am arguing is that simple “fear of being caught” does not necessarily mean that one’s knowledge and consent rise to the level of a mortal sin that would need to be confessed upon pain of going to Hell.
What I am saying is, that your body knows - your conscience knows - that what you were doing was wrong.
In this case, the Church is saying that there are factors (such as affective immaturity, force of acquired habit, and conditions of anxiety) that would lessen or even reduce culpability to a minimum. If culpability is “reduced to a minimum” that would mean that one did clearly not commit a mortal sin even though any teenager would obviously be “afraid of getting caught” in the act of masturbation.
Yes, but even in this case, there was a first time for doing it, in which the teenager was not yet subject to the forces of acquired habit, or etc., and had the opportunity to know or sense that he was doing something bad. Right?
But if he had no idea that there was anything the matter with it, he wouldn’t be afraid of getting caught - if he believed that it is normal and natural, then he would not experience any fear. And only in this case could we say that after a number of years, he would have acquired a bad habit, after which he finds out that it’s a sin, but at that point, he would have lessened culpability because when he first started doing it (before it became a habit) he didn’t know it was wrong, and it was only after it became a habit that he found out that it was wrong.
Thats a question best asked in the confessional. Tell the Priest everything about the situation. I know there are times I have confessed a sin thinking it was a mortal sin and the Priest asked me a few questions and said it wasnt. I am sure the same can be said of some going the other way. But the great thing about being a Catholic is the fact that we have the confessional. Confess all of your sins whether venial and mortal and regardless you will come out that door restored in the good Grace of GOD!
This I will agree with. Holding sins back because you think they might not be mortal is not a good recipe for salvation (or mental health for that matter).
The point that I am trying to emphasize is that it is not required that we have a Doctoral Degree in moral philosophy in order to become capable of committing mortal sin. That you don’t know every single possible consequence of what you are doing in no way excuses you, if you knew that it was wrong (even if you couldn’t explain why or how you knew that), and then went ahead and did it anyway.
I don’t believe that the Church places First Reconciliation so early with the expectation that third graders will be confessing mortal sins. Because the distinction between venial and mortal can be a fine one, typically children are told to confess ALL of their sins in confession.
