Suicidal thoughts and confession

[Lanthanein]

This is JUST a question – no intention of doing anything stupid, so please don’t let this develop into something it isn’t.
Say a person is having a difficult period, feeling away from God, doubting about faith. The person gets suicidal thought too. The person knows that suicide is against the Church teaching and knows that it’s wrong according to that, but due to the stressful situation and doubt abouth faith still consider it for a period. Luckily things get better – the crisis situation is over… But does the “situation” have to be confessed? And if so, what? The suicidal thought? The doubt? Both?

 

[maslibertad]

Both

 

[aucontraire]

Both

A thought is not a sin. It is the way a normal brain works. Most professionals will tell you that there probably isn’t one person who never had a suicidal thought. People have crazy ideas thoughout their lives. Is it a sin? NO!

RELAX

 

[CGDouglas]

aucontraire:

A thought is not a sin

Would thinking lustfully be exempt from sin?

As for the question, if the thought would fall in the category of sin, the seven deadly sins; lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy or/and pride then you should confess.

A mortal sin, as distinct from a venial sin, must meet ’all’ of the following conditions:

its subject must be a grave (or serious) matter;

it must be committed with full knowledge, both of the sin and of the gravity of the offense (though nobody is deemed to be ignorant of the moral law, embedded into the consciences of every human being);

it must be committed with deliberate and complete consent, enough for it to have been a personal decision to commit the sin.
Catechism of the Catholic Church 1858:

Grave matter is specified by the Ten Commandments, corresponding to the answer of Jesus to the rich young man: "Do not kill, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and your mother."132 The gravity of sins is more or less great: murder is graver than theft. One must also take into account who is wronged: violence against parents is in itself graver than violence against a stranger.

A venial sin meets at least*** one ***of the following criteria:
It does not concern a “grave matter”,
It is not committed with full knowledge, or
It is not committed with both deliberate and complete consent.

From looking at it, I don’t think you need to, but you could always ask your priest for advice, hope this helps.

God Bless.

Chris.

 

[aucontraire]

Would thinking lustfully be exempt from sin?

As for the question, if the thought would fall in the category of sin, the seven deadly sins; lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy or/and pride then you should confess.

A mortal sin, as distinct from a venial sin, must meet ’all’ of the following conditions:

its subject must be a grave (or serious) matter;

it must be committed with full knowledge, both of the sin and of the gravity of the offense (though nobody is deemed to be ignorant of the moral law, embedded into the consciences of every human being);

it must be committed with deliberate and complete consent, enough for it to have been a personal decision to commit the sin.

A venial sin meets at least*** one ***of the following criteria:
It does not concern a “grave matter”,
It is not committed with full knowledge, or
It is not committed with both deliberate and complete consent.

From looking at it, I don’t think you need to, but you could always ask your priest for advice, hope this helps.

God Bless.

Chris.

If you have a random thought about suicide, it is not a sin because it is random.

If you pushed the wrong button while searching the internet and a pornographic site popped up and you viewed it for a few seconds, that is not a sin. If you spent the next hour viewing it, that IS a sin.

Random thoughts are not sins.

 

[CGDouglas]

If you have a random thought about suicide, it is not a sin because it is random.

If you pushed the wrong button while searching the internet and a pornographic site popped up and you viewed it for a few seconds, that is not a sin. If you spent the next hour viewing it, that IS a sin.

Random thoughts are not sins.

Random thoughts which aren’t deliberate maybe, but I’m pretty sure deliberately thinking of sexual concepts, in which the outcome is perversion, I would think it is a sin.

And if I understand the OP correctly, it didn’t seem random at all

Lanthanein:

but due to the stressful situation and doubt abouth faith still consider it for a period

God Bless.

Chris.

 

[Christy_Beth]

Sometimes I have the occasional thought of suicide, but without the serious thought of following through with it. The only times that these thoughts bother me is when I’m really depressed. So, I doubt there is really any serious sin involved. If I started planning on how I would do it, or try to follow through, then there would be a very grave sin.

 

[ready]

The hypothetical person you speak of should go to a good priest for spiriual direction and let him help her. For sins to be mortal three specific ( but sometimes difficult to understand) conditions must be met. But her degree of culpability, if she is in any way culpable, would be known to a discerning priest after hearing her background and understanding where she stands psychogically. She should ask him if her thoughts were mortal or venial, perhaps even a result of psychological sickness, so she can understand her faith and herself better. He might not know the definite answer to her question, but he can give her his good priestly insight, which should help.

 

[Lanthanein]

Okay, let me see if I get it right – please correct me when/if being wrong, I really appreciate your help!
The suicidal thought alone might or might not be a sin dependent on the situation in general. If consideration about how to commit suicide comes in to the picture, then it is grave and should be confessed? And the doubts? As long as not leaving the church and trying to keep coming to mass and so on it is ‘okay” (of cause it’s not okay, because it’s a very bad situation to be in, but regarding sins that needs to be confessed, it will be okay not to mention it because it is not the persons intention to get apart from God)?
Sorry for asking so stupid, just finding this particular topic very difficult because it is somehow complicated to determine if all three criteria for mortal sin is there.
Spiritual direction is probably theoretically the best solution…it might just be a very difficult step to take.

 

[ready]

just finding this particular topic very difficult because it is somehow complicated to determine if all three criteria for mortal sin is there.
Spiritual direction is probably theoretically the best solution…it might just be a very difficult step to take.

Yes figuring out whether the three criterea has been simultaneously met can be complicated business when it comes to unwanted thoughts of such a kind. That’s why it’s best you seek out a good priest somewhere who is trained in such things.