Wrong views about Mortal Sin

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You said it may not be mortal sin because of the circumstance. The circumstances cant make instrinsically evil act sucj as masturbation, moral. Although what I think you meant was the circumstance being the penitant didnt have the “knowledge,” that the sin was grave.
 
LittleFlower378 said:
You said it may not be mortal sin because of the circumstance
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Nowhere did I state it was moral; I simply made the observation that it may not, according to the Catechism, be a mortal sin according to circumstances but that circumstances may reduce culpability, hence it is a venial sin.
 
AngelusDomini said:
The Catechism is very human in that it takes into consideration different circumstances people may be in, as such mortal sin isn’t always as clear cut as people may want it to be.

To take the often used example of masturbation: ‘To form an equitable judgment about the subjects’ moral responsibility and to guide pastoral action, one must take into account the affective immaturity, force of acquired habit, conditions of anxiety or other psychological or social factors that lessen, if not even reduce to a minimum, moral culpability.’ CCC, 2352

That doesn’t mean there’s a ‘get out of jail free card’ but it does mean that some sin isn’t always mortal in given circumstances.

Even priests in the confessional may be reluctant to pronounce something as a mortal sin but still advise that it was right to confess and if I’m doubt to refrain from receiving Holy Communion. (On the other hand I was once, worryingly, told that ‘hardly anyone commits mortal sins as you need to be actively rejecting God to do so’).
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Where in this post have I said or implied it is moral?
 
You mean the penitant didnt have the knowledge that makes a sin mortal. Isnt masturbation always gravely immoral?
 
LittleFlower378 said:
You mean the penitant didnt have the knowledge that makes a sin mortal
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If the penitent does not ha e knowledge of something being a grave sin (or even if they do but by “force of habit”, “anxiety” etc. they commit the act they may not be culpable of MORTAL sin. It would then be venial.
 
Let’s take another example (from the Catechism). You have a child who is starving and will die without some food, you know stealing is wrong (a grave sin) but to feed your child you steal food from a store. Mortal sin? Probably not according to CCC 2408.
No I am not comparing masturbation to theft for a starving child but I am giving another example of the leniency of the Catechism. Rarely are things so cut and dried.
 
Ok so you are saying the stealing is venial. Using the word circumstance I think is what is confusing me. Although masturbation is always gravely immoral so its a tough comparison so as to say circumstances can make an act not intrisically evil and not always gravely immoral. We are on the same page, sorry.
 
Some sins are not so straight forward as they seem. There are sins that have other factors, for example, addiction to something or inherent bondage/obstacle, a tendency for one to act in a manner that is often beyond one control. For such situation, a person needs to break the cycle of their sin or overcome the root cause that causes them to fall into such sin again and again, which is perhaps another topic.

Thus St.Paul would say, what a wretch he was, to do the thing he didn’t want to do, and not doing the thing he wanted to do.

God blesd.
 
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LittleFlower378 said:
Masturbation is intrinsically evil and always an objective mortal sin.
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That is not what the catechism says:
2352 By masturbation is to be understood the deliberate stimulation of the genital organs in order to derive sexual pleasure. "Both the Magisterium of the Church, in the course of a constant tradition, and the moral sense of the faithful have been in no doubt and have firmly maintained that masturbation is an intrinsically and gravely disordered action."138 “The deliberate use of the sexual faculty, for whatever reason, outside of marriage is essentially contrary to its purpose.” For here sexual pleasure is sought outside of “the sexual relationship which is demanded by the moral order and in which the total meaning of mutual self-giving and human procreation in the context of true love is achieved.”

To form an equitable judgment about the subjects’ moral responsibility and to guide pastoral action, one must take into account the affective immaturity, force of acquired habit, conditions of anxiety or other psychological or social factors that lessen, if not even reduce to a minimum, moral culpability.
 
The CCC is talking about culpability. Masturbation ia still intrinsically evil and gravely immoral. It always has been and always will be. Its an infallible teaching of the Church.
 
Imagine a parent who related to their child in such a manner, condemning one minute and accepting the next. Would that child grow up healthy? Would that child have a healthy view of love, trust, mercy, justice? Or, perhaps would that child grow not in love, but in scrupulosity and legalism?
 
At the heart of scrupulosity is spiritual pride, the fear of not being perfect and needing to hear constantly that their imagined sins are not real.
 
You’re throwing the word “evil” around a little loosely here in my opinion. The CCC reads “intrinsically and gravely disordered”. I think there is a distinction to be made between something being disordered and something being evil.
 
That may be a nice way of explaining it but without clarity and charity you may confuse the person more and lead them into more sin.
 
Your incorrect application of the terms “intrinsically evil” demonstrates a lacking of technical prowess on the topic.
 
If one doesnt believe masterbation is intrinsically evil, one goes against the Ordinary Universal Magesterium, its just that simple.
 
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