What is mortal sin?

[leschornmom]

I was just reading a thread on another forum. In it, the guy is talking about confession and he talks about how he was confessing only his mortal sins at first. I guess now he wants to confess the small stuff. I thought mortal sin was like murder. What is the catholic meaning of mortal sin?

 

[Jermosh]

Murder can be a mortal sin, but not always. There are 3 things that need to be present for a Mortal Sin to occur.

1. The act must be of a Grave matter meaning it must or might lead to a serios consequence. Example would be lieing. If you lie on this forum that you are actually 22 and are 55, its not a grave matter simply becuase it harms noone. Now if you lied on the witness stand that you saw this person kill this person, this has a serios consequence.
2. The act must be done willingly and of full personal consent. This means the person has to be of sound mind and willingly wants to perform the grave act. But someone who is under a addiction may not be culpible, same as someone who is handicaped. Also if you are forced to do a Grave act you are not culpible, such as a mobster says he will kill your family if you do not lie on the Witness stand.
3. You must know its a Sin. If your ignorant of a certain act that it is of Grave matter, then your not culpible. This can be a tricky area though.

Again you must have all 3 to be a Mortal sin, any combination is just a venial sin. But all sins should be taken to confession though anyways as a good habit.

 

[leschornmom]

Thank you so much!