What are Catholics Responsible for Knowing

[pdwhit01]

I recently asked a friend, who has been Catholic since birth, if he was going to Mass. He said, “No, I just don’t feel like it today.” I informed him that missing Mass without a valid reason is a grave sin (CCC 2181) and unless confessed it he would be facing eternal death (CCC 1874). He didn’t know that and confirmed it with a priest.

There are three conditions that define Mortal sin: grave matter, full knowledge and deliberate consent. If I hadn’t said anything to my friend, would he have gotten a free pass, and avoided eternal death, since he obviously did not have full knowledge?

This doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. It seems to me that my friend, Catholic since birth, should be responsible for knowing and adhering to the precepts of the Church. If not, why did the Church create them?

Does anyone know what a Catholic is responsible for knowing?

 

[FCS]

We are responsible for forming our consciences (finding out what counts as grave matter). However, I’m not sure how this works if you dont know that you have to form your conscience?

 

[thistle]

CCC 1791 This ignorance can often be imputed to personal responsibility. This is the case when a man “takes little trouble to find out what is true and good, or when conscience is by degrees almost blinded through the habit of committing sin.” In such cases, the person is culpable for the evil he commits.

 

[1Lord1Faith]

Catholics are responsible for teaching each other, from the top down, so to speak…priest to parishioner, parent to child, teacher to student. We are then responsible for what we’ve been taught in so much as we are able to learn it and internalize it. It’s not very complicated.

“Full knowledge” refers to internalizing what we’ve learned rather than simply just ‘passing a test’ on the material.

Your friend must know why missing Mass is a sin, and skip it in spite of knowing. That seems to be far from the case with your friend. So, just informing someone of a Church Precept is not enough to make “full knowledge”.

Generally speaking, in more recent decades, the Church has pulled back on ‘hammering home’ many teachings because people need to understand the teachings not simply memorize them out of obedience or even fear. But, the Church still teaches these things.

 

[Peeps]

JMO, but it seems that the people who would be in grave danger of hell would be those who had the ability and the opportunity to teach other Catholics knowledge and help them to form their consciences–but for some reason, didn’t teach or even try to teach.

The Bible says that teachers incur a stricter judgement (James 3:1). It’s easy to see why.

 

[DMorgan56]

Start with the Baltimore Catechism. I,II,III,and IV.