What is blasphemy

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rosejmj

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I never understood blasphemy. Is cursing at God or telling him you hate him considered blasphemy? What if someone just does it out or anger and doesn’t mean it completely? Is it a mortal sin?
Is saying God’s name in vain blashemous or a mortal if it is not done out of habit and more out of anger? Is it a mortal sin?

Sorry I was just wondering
 
Well, I could give you my opinion, but far better to rely on perhaps the best dogmatic theologian of the 20th century, the late Fr. John Hardon, S.J. from his Modern Catholic Dictionary.
BLASPHEMY. Speaking against God in a contemptuous, scornful, or abusive manner. Included under blasphemy are offenses committed by thought, word, or action. Serious contemptuous ridicule of the saints, sacred objects, or of persons consecrated to God is also blasphemous because God is indirectly attacked. Blasphemy is a grave violation of charity toward God. Its gravity may be judged by the capital punishment in the Old Testament, severe penalties of the Church, and in many cases also of the State for blasphemous speech or conduct. In order for a person to sin gravely in this manner, he must use blasphemous expressions and realize the contemptuous meaning of what he says or does. (Etym. Latin blasphemia , blasphemy; from Greek blasphēmein , to speak ill of.)
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http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/para/2148.htm

2148 Blasphemy is directly opposed to the second commandment. It consists in uttering against God - inwardly or outwardly - words of hatred, reproach, or defiance; in speaking ill of God; in failing in respect toward him in one’s speech; in misusing God’s name. St. James condemns those “who blaspheme that honorable name [of Jesus] by which you are called.” The prohibition of blasphemy extends to language against Christ’s Church, the saints, and sacred things. It is also blasphemous to make use of God’s name to cover up criminal practices, to reduce peoples to servitude, to torture persons or put them to death. The misuse of God’s name to commit a crime can provoke others to repudiate religion.

Blasphemy is contrary to the respect due God and his holy name. It is in itself a grave sin.
 
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