I came into the Church this past November and I had a question about the mortal sins I committed before becoming Catholic.
I was baptised at 15 in the Church of Christ, and they dont have a distinction between mortal and venial sins (aka all sins are equal), until I was becoming Catholic I didnt even know masturbating was a sin, among other things:shrug:
“all sins are equal” (no distinction between mortal and venial) is a pretty standard answer I hear from Protestants. They’ll never be able to show that notion from scripture. Instead they will find
1 Jn 5:
16 If any one sees his brother committing what is not a mortal sin, he will ask, and God * will give him life for those whose sin is not mortal.
There is sin which is mortal; I do not say that one is to pray for that. 17
All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin which is not mortal.
NT:
So my question is, for all the mortal sins that I committed before becoming Catholic, that I didnt know where mortal sins, will I still have to spend time in purgatory for doing them?* I have confessed them all in confession and have done penance*, but will I still be punished for being ignorant of them being sins?
You did it right.
Purgatory depends on your attachments to sin at death. Purgatory is a purifying process for those who die in friendship with God but lack the purity for a straight shot to heaven.
**1472 **To understand this doctrine and practice of the Church, it is necessary to understand that sin has a
double consequence. Grave sin deprives us of communion with God and therefore makes us incapable of eternal life, the privation of which is called the “eternal punishment” of sin.
On the other hand every sin, even venial, entails an unhealthy attachment to creatures, which must be purified either here on earth, or after death in the state called Purgatory. This purification frees one from what is called the “temporal punishment” of sin. These two punishments must not be conceived of as a kind of vengeance inflicted by God from without, but as following from the very nature of sin. A conversion which proceeds from a fervent charity can attain the complete purification of the sinner in such a way that no punishment would remain.
ergo, If that purifying process takes place here, one goes straight to heaven. As you know, if one dies with unconfessed and unrepented mortal sin on their soul, they don’t die in friendship with God. They won’t go to purgatory, they go straight to hell.
**1035 **The teaching of the Church affirms the existence of hell and its eternity. Immediately after death the souls of those who die in a state of mortal sin descend into hell, where they suffer the punishments of hell, “eternal fire.” The chief punishment of hell is eternal separation from God, in whom alone man can possess the life and happiness for which he was created and for which he longs.
