What is the youngest a person can be and commit a mortal sin?

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Just posted this somewhere else too…

Mortal sin = Grave matter + Free will + Knowledge of sinfulness

So I guess there isn’t really an answer to your question. I would say that a properly catechized Catholic child could commit a mortal sin at an earlier age than most others because he would have knowledge of sinfulness of actions earlier. My two cents… 🤷
 
One must rear a child in holiness from the earliest… one cannot know the interior life of the child sufficiently to know…

‘Let us not doubt that baptized babies who die in their infant years will enter into the heavenly Kingdom. We should not, however, believe that all those infants who have begun to speak will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. For the entrance to the Kingdom of Heaven will be closed to many babies because of their parents’ bad rearing. In this city, there lives a certain man who is known to all; three years ago, this man had a son who, if I recall, would then have been about five years old, for whom he had such human love that he did not even try to discipline him.

For this reason, the boy, when someone prevented him from getting his way, used to blaspheme the magnificence of God—and let me emphasize that this is something dangerous.

When, three years ago, a deadly plague fell upon the region where he lived, this young boy succumbed to it and was near death. As eyewitnesses recounted, while the father took the child into his arms, the boy himself saw evil spirits coming for him. The boy began to tremble, to blink his eyes in fear, and to cry out in despair to his father: “Father, save me, protect me.” Simultaneously, as he cried, he turned his face towards his father’s chest, as though wanting to be hidden.

When the father saw his son trembling, in agony he asked him what he had seen. The son answered: “Black creatures came to me and wanted to take me away with them.” No sooner had he finished this phrase, than he immediately blasphemed the name of the Divine Magnificence and, with this blasphemy, expired.

Thus, God, the All-Powerful, in order to show by what sin the boy was given over to these evil servants, allowed him to die with this sin which his father, while the boy was alive, did nothing to prevent. And this boy whom God allowed, by His mercy, to live as a blasphemer, by His righteous judgment was also permitted to blaspheme at his death, so that his careless father might know well his sin. For this father, being indifferent to the soul of his young son, reared for the Gehenna of fire not an insignificant sinner, but a great sinner.’

Pope St. Gregory the Great
 
Shin said:
One must rear a child in holiness from the earliest… one cannot know the interior life of the child sufficiently to know…

‘Let us not doubt that baptized babies who die in their infant years will enter into the heavenly Kingdom. We should not, however, believe that all those infants who have begun to speak will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. For the entrance to the Kingdom of Heaven will be closed to many babies because of their parents’ bad rearing. In this city, there lives a certain man who is known to all; three years ago, this man had a son who, if I recall, would then have been about five years old, for whom he had such human love that he did not even try to discipline him.

For this reason, the boy, when someone prevented him from getting his way, used to blaspheme the magnificence of God—and let me emphasize that this is something dangerous.

When, three years ago, a deadly plague fell upon the region where he lived, this young boy succumbed to it and was near death. As eyewitnesses recounted, while the father took the child into his arms, the boy himself saw evil spirits coming for him. The boy began to tremble, to blink his eyes in fear, and to cry out in despair to his father: “Father, save me, protect me.” Simultaneously, as he cried, he turned his face towards his father’s chest, as though wanting to be hidden.

When the father saw his son trembling, in agony he asked him what he had seen. The son answered: “Black creatures came to me and wanted to take me away with them.” No sooner had he finished this phrase, than he immediately blasphemed the name of the Divine Magnificence and, with this blasphemy, expired.

Thus, God, the All-Powerful, in order to show by what sin the boy was given over to these evil servants, allowed him to die with this sin which his father, while the boy was alive, did nothing to prevent. And this boy whom God allowed, by His mercy, to live as a blasphemer, by His righteous judgment was also permitted to blaspheme at his death, so that his careless father might know well his sin. For this father, being indifferent to the soul of his young son, reared for the Gehenna of fire not an insignificant sinner, but a great sinner.’

Pope St. Gregory the Great
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Let us not doubt that baptized babies who die in their infant years will enter into the heavenly Kingdom. We should not, however, believe that all those infants who have begun to speak will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. For the entrance to the Kingdom of Heaven will be closed to many babies because of their parents’ bad rearing.
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I am sorry, but this is the most ridiculous thing I have ever read. There would be absolutely NO justice or mercy in sending a 5-year-old, who cannot possibly understand the gravity of his actions, to hell for eternity. Just reading this makes me angry! The only thing a child knows is what he/she is taught from his/her parents and they have no access to any other information or any responsibility to seek it out, nor can they understand that what they are doing is wrong. :mad:
 
Age 7 is the catechetical age, or age where an individual becomes aware of what sin actually is, according to the church. Obviously, for some this might happen sooner, and with others it can happen later. The idea is, however, that an individual, once the formation process begins for reception of the Sacraments of Reconciliation and Holy Communion, that the awareness also begins.

That is why teaching a child a proper examination of conscience is so important. It still will take years to better perfect this type of self examination, but if the process taught properly the individual will know when he/she commits a mortal sin.
 
prstoessel said:
Age 7 is the catechetical age, or age where an individual becomes aware of what sin actually is, according to the church. Obviously, for some this might happen sooner, and with others it can happen later. The idea is, however, that an individual, once the formation process begins for reception of the Sacraments of Reconciliation and Holy Communion, that the awareness also begins.

That is why teaching a child a proper examination of conscience is so important. It still will take years to better perfect this type of self examination, but if the process taught properly the individual will know when he/she commits a mortal sin.
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I believe that a child may be able to commit a venial sin, but there is NO WAY a 7 year old can understand the gravity of ANYTHING or fully consent to ANYTHING, let alone be able to make a choice to reject God for all eternity. God would never allow this.
 
The age of reason is usually said to be around 7 years old.

So that is prob. ordinarily the earliest. But such does not mean that ordinarily seven year old’s commit mortal sin.

On the flip side…

Some very holy children have had very keen awareness of the life they have in Baptism and make even very heroic acts by the grace of God at a very early age.
 
Being cathechized or not is irrelevant, since kids learn concepts that are well above their grasp in understanding until they are much older. My youngest brother who is 8 is going to be going to “reconciliation” soon :rolleyes: - as if he’d have a clue over mortal sins and venial sins.

I didn’t fully understand or even care for any of that until I was about 19, when life started to get in the way.

In other words, there is no minimum age, depending on the person, and even the disorders they may have, some may never actually commit a mortal sin. Everyone does not process information in the same way, and to know how exactly people reason things, or gauge their understanding is beyond any of us. Which is why we aren’t meant to judge.

I think Pope Gregory the Great needed a clue before he wrote the nonsense he did; a 5-year-old boy blaspheming :rolleyes: Any utterances of the sort would purely be something picked up by the parents, at that age it cannot be blasphemy since it’s just parroting.

I was watching a program on NatGeo the other day on serial killers and how many of them are people who have a different development in the brain in regards to emotion, insofar as that they processed scenarios differently. Where you and me might feel sorry and sickened that someone has to beg for mercy who is about to be killed, some serial killers do not ‘feel’ the same way as we do. For them it’s the same as going and making a cup of tea; no emotion. Tests conducted checking brain activity proved their findings, why is it that these happen? Suggestions include childhood upbringing, or simply being born that way (development of the temporal lobe or something).

We don’t know how culpable people are, or at what age they are.
 
Thoughtfulone said:
I believe that a child may be able to commit a venial sin, but there is NO WAY a 7 year old can understand the gravity of ANYTHING or fully consent to ANYTHING, let alone be able to make a choice to reject God for all eternity. God would never allow this.
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You are very bold to speak of what God would or would not do, friend.

If seven years of age is too young to commit mortal sin, at what age is it possible? Eight? Ten? Keep the following in mind:
  1. The Church teaches with the authority of Christ; if she teaches X regarding faith or morals, then X is true.
  2. Having said that, God is merciful and judges us according to the truth that we possess and how we act on it. Suffice to say that children have a limited understanding of the truth by virtue of being children, but that does not mean a child CANNOT commit a mortal sin.
Peace,
Dante
 
DanteAlighieri said:
You are very bold to speak of what God would or would not do, friend.

If seven years of age is too young to commit mortal sin, at what age is it possible? Eight? Ten? Keep the following in mind:
  1. The Church teaches with the authority of Christ; if she teaches X regarding faith or morals, then X is true.
  2. Having said that, God is merciful and judges us according to the truth that we possess and how we act on it. Suffice to say that children have a limited understanding of the truth by virtue of being children, but that does not mean a child CANNOT commit a mortal sin.
Peace,
Dante
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The only thing here is that the Church hasn’t made any declaration regarding when this age of enlightenment for an individual is, or any process to ascertain culpability. It has simply stated that doing something with full knowledge of the act and consent renders them guilty.

That leaves much room for debate, theoretically you are right, a child can commit a mortal sin. However, I’m not interested in stargazing and constructing scenarios. I’m more interested in the practical nature of things, practically, a “child” does not commit mortal sins. Either something in the way they were brought up may brainwash them so that their culpability is reduced, and when culpability is reduced that is going to affect the severity of the sin, which immediately impacts on it being mortal or not.

I immediately think of feral children, children who were brought up by animals. Some children have been abandoned and reared by animals, that some of them cannot be taught to live like humans anymore, some could never be taught how to speak, because their brains were already engrained with something else during their childhood.
 
DanteAlighieri said:
You are very bold to speak of what God would or would not do, friend.

If seven years of age is too young to commit mortal sin, at what age is it possible? Eight? Ten? Keep the following in mind:
  1. The Church teaches with the authority of Christ; if she teaches X regarding faith or morals, then X is true.
  2. Having said that, God is merciful and judges us according to the truth that we possess and how we act on it. Suffice to say that children have a limited understanding of the truth by virtue of being children, but that does not mean a child CANNOT commit a mortal sin.
Peace,
Dante
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This isn’t a teaching of the Church, this is the ranting of Gregory the Great who was obviously trying to make some sort of point and probably misunderstood the whole situation. IF this situation happened at ALL, it was probably more of a situation of God showing the father where this boy was headed if the father continued to do such a disservice to him. perhaps God even allowed the father to believe that the boy went to hell so as to ensure that he would take better care with his other children.

Either way, if this was actually a teaching of the Church and the Church wanted to claim infallibility on the matter, I’m afraid that this would be enough for me to determine once and for all that the Church was not in fact infallible and I would probably have to leave Catholicism entirely. I cannot ascribe to a religion that would teach that a 5 year old child is in hell. There is NO WAY that God would allow this and there is no logic or fairness or justice to it. You have to draw the line somewhere.
 
Thoughtfulone said:
You have to draw the line somewhere.
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So basically in your religion where you determine what is right and wrong, and whether the religion is from God or not, rather than God, what age is it possible for anyone to go to Hell in?
There is NO WAY that God would allow this and there is no logic or fairness or justice to it.
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Actually, there’s plenty of logic and justice in it. But this is for people open to such things.
 
The age of reason is usually said to be around 7 years old.

Hence the the Catholic Church…(in the Roman rite…the one I know) …has first confession around 7 years old.

So that is prob. ordinarily the earliest.

But such does not mean that ordinarily seven year old’s commit mortal sin.

For mortal sin requires grave matter, full knowledge and deliberate consent…so I imagine venial sins are the popular matter for early confessions.

On the flip side…

Some very holy children have had very keen awareness of the life they have in Baptism and make even very heroic acts by the grace of God at a very early age.
 
Shin said:
So basically in your religion where you determine what is right and wrong, and whether the religion is from God or not, rather than God, what age is it possible for anyone to go to Hell in?

Actually, there’s plenty of logic and justice in it. But this is for people open to such things.
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Put it this way: In a scenario where there is a church teaches that 5 year old children go to hell, I will either 1.) Lose faith in the goodness of God, or 2.) lose faith in that church. I will lose faith in the church first, because I choose above all else to believe thay God is good and just and would never let a child burn in hell.
 
The age of reason is usually said to be around 7 years old.

Hence the the Catholic Church…(in the Roman rite…the one I know) …has first confession around 7 years old.

So that is prob. ordinarily the earliest.

But such does not mean that ordinarily seven year old’s commit mortal sin.

For mortal sin requires grave matter, full knowledge and deliberate consent…so I imagine venial sins are the popular matter for early confessions.

On the flip side…

Some very holy children have had very keen awareness of the life they have in Baptism and make even very heroic acts by the grace of God at a very early age.
 
That would depend on the person. In the old days, we used to call it “The age of reason”.

It is at whatever age a person can know that what they are doing is a sin, and knowingly decide to do it anyway.

Generally, it would fall between about 7-9 years of age.
 
Thoughtfulone said:
I choose above all else to believe thay God is good and just and would never let a child burn in hell.
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And why is it wrong for a child to go to Hell? Explain it to me, what makes a child more special than an adult, if you wish?
 
So some of you people believe that there are 7 year olds in hell?
 
Thoughtfulone said:
Put it this way: In a scenario where there is a church teaches that 5 year old children go to hell, I will either 1.) Lose faith in the goodness of God, or 2.) lose faith in that church. I will lose faith in the church first, because I choose above all else to believe thay God is good and just and would never let a child burn in hell.
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The Church has never declared anyone specifically in hell, not even a blasphemous little boy who was sick with bubonic plague.

One of the symptoms of bubonic plague is hallucinations.

I would think that possibly this little boy suffered from a type of mental illness, like Tourettes, that would lessen his culpability…not increase it.
 
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