Was this a mortal sin?

[Zenkai]

Part of a conversation with my mom was similar to this:
Mom: “What do you have planned for Saturday?”

Me: “I’m going to the Cathedral.”

Mom: “Why?”

Me: “Because.”

Mom: " For Mass?"

Me: “Why do you want to know?”*

I want to go to the Cathedral to go to Confession, but I didn’t want to tell my mom.

By the way, my mom is Protestant (Baptist) and I am 20 years old, but my parent’s still support me.

 

[underacloud]

Was what a mortal sin? I see no sin at all…depending on how the conversation progressed from there.

 

[MarshallJackson]

Yeah… I’m having some trouble identifying any sin in this conversation. Maybe some awkwardness, no offense, but no sin lol. Can you clarify for us?

 

[Zenkai]

I thought that hiding something from a parent might be a mortal sin.

 

[MarshallJackson]

I think it’s a matter of how you look at it.

What I’m having trouble understanding is why you didn’t want to tell her.

On one hand I guess “hiding” something from your parents would be considered disrespecting them, and honoring your mother and father is one of the ten commandments.

 

[underacloud]

I thought that hiding something from a parent might be a mortal sin.

That’s why I wondered about how the conversation progressed.

If you ask for privacy from your parents, and they allow that, you do not sin. If you lie to your parents, or refuse a reasonable request to explain something, there is sin.

But in any case, mortal sin needs to be something serious. Hiding your reasons for going to church out of either embarrassment or a desire to avoid an awkward conversation would not typically be considered very serious in my opinion, but only your confessor could clarify this for you. But again, I don’t see any sin in what you’ve described so far.

 

[powerofk]

I thought that hiding something from a parent might be a mortal sin.

Yeah, well, if hiding something from parents is a mortal sin, then it’s a mortal sin almost everyone has committed. Seriously. And it’s because of the line “better to ask forgiveness than ask permission”.

But, in all honesty, if you ask a priest if something is a mortal sin in confession, often times he will say something along the line of “it wasn’t this time, but next time, it will be.” In other words, if you don’t really understand the seriousness of your own sin, it’s not a mortal sin.

In order for a sin to be a mortal sin, it has to be something that is a serious matter, you have to have FULL KNOWLEDGE of the sin being a serious matter, and it must be done COMPLETELY willfully. As such, it’s something that is very wrong; you know it is very wrong (and why it is wrong); and you did it anyway without being forced, being coerced into it, being addicted to a given sin, having an intellectual disability or a mental illness which prevents full control of the will, or being in a situation where the only choices are sinful choices (which is why lying to protect innocent Jews in WWII, though sinful, was not a mortal sin - the other choice was the betrayal of an innocent person to definite slavery and possible death, which is an even more serious sin), etc. Really, only God and the sinner know if the sin committed was mortal or not, which is why in confession, the priest becomes Jesus Himself when he absolves you (as he does when saying the words of consecration during the Eucharistic prayer). It is not the priest who absolves you of your sins, it is Jesus Himself.

 

[ready]

I don’t believe the matter is grave in this case; I can’t see a mortal sin in this situation. I believe that you committed only venial sin (at least the sin of lying)… and I strongly believe this. God bless you.