School cheating? mortal sin?

[Godgirl22]

My brain and my conscience always get the best of me. i have anxiety and scrupulosity about my faith a lot. i had missed a day of school. in my head i was contemplating if what i was thinking about asking was a good or bad decision. like is it was a mortal sin, because i understand that cheating is bad. while these thoughts were basically fighting each other in my head, i just blurted out the question. when i said it, it felt as if it just kind of blurted out and i didn’t fully have the will and said it. I also felt like i could have stopped them from telling me (about 3 questions that were going to be on the test) the second thing happened where i was given a review, and while in a different class, i turned behind me and asked a person what the answer was, not fully aware what i was doing at the time(cheating). my question is, what do you think i should do? and is it a mortal sin what i did?

 

[adgloriam]

1ºMortal Sin has a subtle definition best given by a priest in person.

2ºCheating on exams is certainly a sin against Truth!

3ºYour need to “cheat” was an effect of the prior sin of “Sloth”: You needed to cheat because you had been lazy before. Start being “Diligent” about your work and you’ll have no need to cheat.

4ºThere is a difference between “mortal sin”, “venial sin” and “capital sin”. Start your research there.

5ºThere is a Virtue opposed to each Sin. What Virtue did you lack that led you into Sin?

 

[adgloriam]

Say the “act of contrition” when you the feel the need to.

 

[Jared2914]

Here’s what I think about the two sins you mentioned. There are three requirements for a sin to be mortal:

• The sin has to involve grave matter
• You need full knowledge that what you did involved grave matter
• You have to deliberately consent to the sin

Since you are asking this question, you obviously don’t have full knowledge that what you did involved grave matter. Furthermore, for both sins you mentioned you just automatically asked for help without thinking. Though careless, you didn’t deliberately consent to the sin. That’s two clear conditions the sins don’t meet, so no matter what you cannot be culpable for mortal sin. I do believe cheating would be grave matter, so to be sure you should follow what adgloriam wrote and see a priest for confession. Better safe than sorry.

 

[Joe_5859]

I would encourage you to speak to a priest if you feel that you are suffering from scrupulosity. Internet forums can often exacerbate rather than alleviate scrupulosity. It would be better to get advice in person. Just ask the priest to advise you next time you go to Confession.

I’ll say a prayer for you.