Struggling with Catholic vs Protestant Doctrine

[Poglife2171]

I am currently in RCIA after meeting the love of my life and through the scripture “love your wives like Christ loved church, he gave himself up for her” I have come to see some of the fruit that the Catholic church is the one true church.

When I was a kid I was bullied often by Catholic kids saying i was going to hell for not going to church or because I ate a hamburger in the cafeteria during lent on friday. It left many scars in my mind of just being damned and hopeless. I came back to Christianity through a non denominational church, but as I read the bible for myself the church tended to take scripture out of context for many sermons and tithing messages.

As I have begun RCIA I am starting to see the fruit of the Catholic church and the good Catholic s in my life whom I didn’t know were Catholic.
Long story short there is still a lot of people in my life and online pointing out the mortal sins that I didn’t know I was commiting. I have strived to do better but there is so much I don’t understand the doctrines at all over protestant doctrines though I am trying. Am I more Culpable for these sins if I am struggling to understand and accept the teachings and the people they come from?

 

[Willing_Spirit]

I think you would be less culpable for sins committed without true understanding. Mortal sin requires a sin of grave matter to be committed with full knowledge and consent. Without the understanding that something is wrong, you can’t really choose to do wrong, so there is no consent.

However, if you believe in the true Church and its authority granted by Jesus to Peter, then you ought to trust and obey even what you don’t yet see the reasoning for, so you may be more culpable in not doing this.

As a cradle Catholic, I don’t know much about RCIA, but I do know the Church has been struggling with catechizing. Not everyone with the responsibility to teach is the best theologian/apologist. You can always ask questions, and consult the catechism. This website, and sometimes its forums, is a great resource too.

 

[rdj88]

In short, you aren’t culpable for sins you didn’t even know you were committing. It’s common for people to call grave sins “mortal sins” which is unfortunate and very misleading. You cannot commit mortal sin by accident, and no act is objectively a mortal sin. Some acts are grave matters, but in such a case it’s only a mortal sin if you commit the grave act totally freely and with full knowledge of the sinfulness of it.

I only returned to the Catholic Church a few months ago after being away most of my life, and I’ve experienced so much of what you’re referring to - Catholics who are either misinformed or downright uncharitable, and who may even make you second guess being Catholic if it attracts such individuals. But my experience has proven that these people, while vocal, are in the minority. I’ve also learned that it’s always much better to look to either the Catechism itself or to clergy for answers to your questions. There are a lot of Catholic laymen spreading harmful misinformation online; treat it like anything else and don’t believe everything you hear. If something sounds un-Christian to you, it very likely is.

 

[fhansen]

Humans tend to lean towards legalism while Scripture tells us that in any case God judges by the heart, which He knows far better than we do, and the Church’s teachings are more balanced, understanding that there’s a principle behind the concept of deadly or mortal sin which means that we can separate ourselves from God by actions which oppose and destroy love in us, based in part on 1 John 5:17. The wages of sin will always be death. But God loves man enormously, unfathomably, and desires that we will embrace good over evil, love over hate and selfishness, light over darkness, and gives us the grace to achieve that as we’re willing. From the catechism:

1037 God predestines no one to go to hell; for this, a willful turning away from God (a mortal sin) is necessary, and persistence in it until the end. In the Eucharistic liturgy and in the daily prayers of her faithful, the Church implores the mercy of God, who does not want "any to perish, but all to come to repentance"

1855 Mortal sin destroys charity [love] in the heart of man by a grave violation of God’s law; it turns man away from God, who is his ultimate end and his beatitude, by preferring an inferior good to him.
Venial sin allows charity to subsist, even though it offends and wounds it.

 

[1ke]

When I was a kid I was bullied often by Catholic kids saying i was going to hell for not going to church or because I ate a hamburger in the cafeteria during lent on friday.

Well that is pretty terrible. I hope those kids grew up to be better adults than they were children.

I will say, that’s pretty unusual behavior for Catholic children.

Long story short there is still a lot of people in my life and online pointing out the mortal sins that I didn’t know I was commiting.

Well you have to know something is wrong when you do it in order for it to be a sin.

So while someone might be teaching you about the moral law, I would hope no one is accusing you of “sinning”.

Am I more Culpable for these sins if I am struggling to understand and accept the teachings and the people they come from?

I’d encourage you to talk to your )Catholic) pastor about your concerns.

 

[annad347]

Is that the struggle understanding the type of sin you’re committing, cause I struggle with that too.

 

[Poglife2171]

In the protestant church if it wasn’t outlined in the bible it was advised to use good judgment before committing an act, there are somethings that the Catholic church has defined as sinful such as the specific detail gone into intimate relationships, as well as the different obligations for church an holy days that a new member of the church is left head scratching as to what everyone is talking about.

 

[annad347]

Yea me too, sometimes. They also told me to talk to my RCIA teacher.

Sometimes I leave her with her head scratching…but she usually comes through the following week

 

[Aquinas11]

In the protestant church if it wasn’t outlined in the bible it was advised to use good judgment before committing an act

and is that principle itself in the Bible? that if something isn’t in the Bible use good judgment?

Long story short there is still a lot of people in my life and online pointing out the mortal sins that I didn’t know I was commiting

I’d quote them Jesus in Matthew : don’t be worried about the spec in your neighbors eye while ignoring the plank in your own

 

[Nilly]

. I have strived to do better but there is so much I don’t understand the doctrines at all over protestant doctrines

Yes it’s difficult to hold to 2 religions as true.

 

[Poglife2171]

It’s not about hold two to be true at the same time, it’s is about the difficulty of rewiring a brain for a very different theology. It is like training a bird dog to forget its teaching and be a guard dog. I’m not trying to hold onto protestant theology but rather trying to understand Catholic theology over my preconceived views.

 

[whatistrue]

Catholics don’t believe that other people have

Citation needed…

 

[stpurl]

Please explain this. It is not Catholic teaching. Have you read the Catechism of the Catholic Church recently? Protestant Christians by definition have the Holy Spirit having received Him in Baptism. Perhaps you meant that you believed that somehow the Holy Spirit would guide all people to the Catholic religion as it has the fullness of faith? That is the case; the Holy Spirit does guide us all, but you fail to take into account free will of both the person seeking truth, and the free will of those who take actions which have negative impacts on truth-seekers. A lot of people who might have been drawn to the Catholic Church at some point in their lives might have been ‘driven away’ by the behavior of some Catholics, by misinformation about Catholics, by their own feelings, by ‘pressure’, etc. etc. God doesn’t FORCE us to accept Him.

 

[steve-b]

I am currently in RCIA …

…people in my life and online pointing out the mortal sins that I didn’t know I was commiting. I have strived to do better but there is so much I don’t understand the doctrines at all over protestant doctrines

As Peter taught Re: one’s faith, we must add 7 attributes to our faith without stopping…or we will fall

2 Pet 1:
5 “For this very reason make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. 8 For if these things are yours and abound, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 For whoever lacks these things is blind and shortsighted and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. 10 Therefore, brethren, be the more zealous to confirm your call and election, for if you do this you will never fall; 11 so there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

Note: the 2nd attribute is knowledge. Right up there at the top in list of priorities.

Therefore, a key phrase we see in scripture, and it goes to our responsibilities, said in different ways,

"Once one comes to the knowledge of truth" then…

Such as, We know what degree sin is… mortal vs venial.

where is that distinction of sin in scripture?

1 Jn 5:16-17

What’s John talking about?

If a sin is so bad that when one dies in that sin, they are condemned, they won’t go to heaven, THAT is a mortal sin. if it is not mortal, then we call that venial sin.

What sins would qualify as mortal?

For space here’s 1 example

Ephesians 5:3-5 Scripture says this about fornication (links are operational Ephesians 5:3-5 lists deadly sins. Those sins that keep one from heaven.

unpacking the sins described,

English translations of scripture aren’t always giving the specific meaning of the word used. E.G,The first sin mentioned, Immorality in that passage, (the Greek word for that from the Greek study bible, is πορνεία = porneia = fornication, ) … Verse 5 says, “Be sure of this, that no fornicator(in the Greek) πόρνος or impure man, or one who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. As in, Does that sound like a little venial sin or a whopping mortal sin that sends one to hell if one dies in that sin?

How does one get rid of mortal sins on their soul?

The sacrament of reconciliation/confession HERE

 

[thistle]

Long story short there is still a lot of people in my life and online pointing out the mortal sins that I didn’t know I was commiting.

You cannot commit mortal sins by accident or being unaware. If you did not know what you were doing was a sin of grave matter then you have not committed a mortal sin.

 

[Dan_Defender]

Do not focus on the past, but in the present. What matters is now you are learning and understanding and can grow in faith and good works.