Mortal sin
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Mortal sin, according to the beliefs of the Catholic Church (and some Protestant denominations) is a sin that, unless confessed and absolved (or at least sacramental confession is willed if not available), condemns a person's soul to Hell after death. These sins are considered "mortal" because they constitute a rupture in a person's link to God's saving grace: the person's soul becomes "dead", not merely weakened. The phrase is used in I John 5.16 -17: "If you see your brother or sister committing what is not a mortal sin, you will ask, and God will give life to such a one - to those whose sin is not mortal. There is sin that is mortal; I do not say you should pray about that. All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that is not mortal." (NRSV)
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[edit] Roman Catholicism
In Roman Catholic moral theology, a mortal sin, as distinct from a venial sin, must meet all of the following conditions:
- its subject must be a grave (or serious) matter;
- it must be committed with full knowledge, both of the sin and of the gravity of the offense (though nobody is deemed to be ignorant of the moral law, embedded into the conscience of every human being);
- it must be committed with deliberate and complete consent, enough for it to have been a personal decision to commit the sin.
The Catechism defines grave matter as "violations of what Jesus told to the man who asked him what the most important commandments were, namely, "do not kill", "do not steal", "do not commit adultery", "do not bear false witness", "do not defraud" and "honour your father and your mother".[1]All of these, however, are subject both to the conditions above and to mitigating circumstances (like mental illness, psychological disturbances, insanity, retardation, young age, affective immaturity, or developmental disorders) of the individual situation. The Church itself does not provide a precise list of sins, subdivided into the mortal and venial categories. Rather, it is generally considered a matter for a well-formed conscience to decide after a comprehensive, prayer-filled, deliberate examination of conscience. These sins must be specifically confessed and named, giving details about the context of each sin: what sin, why, against what or whom, the number and type of occurrences, and any other factors that may exacerbate or lessen one's responsibility and culpability that the person confessing remembers. It also should not be said that certain of these mortal sins, like purposely missing Mass on Sunday, is considered equal in gravity to more grave ones, like first-degree murder: Roman Catholic belief holds that mortal sins can vary somewhat in their seriousness, and thus canon law only criminalizes some of the more serious mortal sins. However, for any sins that lack the above mitigating factors and meet the three criteria listed, the "mortal" effect remains present. Some mortal sins cause automatic excommunication by the very act itself, i.e., a politician who votes to pass a pro-abortion law, a priest who divulges what someone confessed to him, or a Catholic who apostasises, are all excommunicated from the Catholic Church under canon law.
The eternal punishment due to the sinner is not the same as that resulting from excommunication or penalties like it, which result when a Catholic commits certain mortal sins that are so serious that the Church through law has made them crimes, like abortion or heresy. Because commission of these offenses are so serious, the Church forbids the excommunicated from receiving any sacrament (not just the Eucharist) and also severely restricts the person's participation in other Church liturgical acts and offices. However, even if excommunicated, a Catholic who has not been juridically absolved is still, due to the irrevocable nature of baptism, a member of the Church in the sense that they are still considered members of Catholic Church, albeit their communion with the Christ and the Church is gravely impaired. Some of these crimes are so serious that they merit not imposed, but automatic, excommunication from the Catholic Church. For this or any related formal penalty to be imposed, one must be aware not only of the seriousness of the offense as a mortal sin,[citation needed] but also of the penalty that is incurred,[citation needed] though this is sometimes more apparent in certain contexts.
Mortal sins are not to be confused with the deadly sins. The latter are not sins but rather categories of sin or vice, corresponding to weaknesses in human nature. Mortal sins may also be called "grave", "eternal", "grievous" or "serious" sins.
The Roman Catholic teaching on mortal sin was called into question by some within the Church in the late 20th century after the Second Vatican Council. In response to these doubts, Pope John Paul II reaffirmed the basic teaching in his encyclical Veritatis Splendor. It is maintained in the current Catechism of the Catholic Church, which says in section 1035, "Immediately after death the souls of those who die in a state of mortal sin descend into hell."
[edit] Eastern Churches in the Catholic Church
The Eastern Catholic Churches, which derive their theology and spirituality from some of the same sources as the Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox, use the Latin Catholic distinction between mortal and venial sin, though they are not named mortal and venial. Similarly to the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox, the Eastern Catholic Churches do make a distinction between sins that are serious enough to bar one from receiving Communion (and must be confessed before receiving once again) and those which are not sufficiently serious to do so.
[edit] Eastern Orthodox
Although liberal Christians in the Eastern Orthodox churches do not accept the following, there are devout Orthodox Christians who do accept the teaching about mortal sins, summarized by saint Ignatius Brianchaninov in his book "A word on death". In this book, the chapter entitled "Mortal sin" starts with the following passage:
"It has been said earlier that mortal sin of an Orthodox Christian, not being cured by repentance, submits him to eternal suffering; it has also been said that the unbelievers, Muslims, and other non-orthodox, even here are the possession of hell, and are deprived of any hope of salvation, being deprived of Christ, the only means of salvation. Mortal sins for Christians are the next: heresy, schism, blasphemy, apostasy, witchery, despair, suicide, fornication, adultery, unnatural carnal sins*, incest, drunkenness, sacrilege, murder, theft, robbery, and every cruel and brutal injury. Only one of this sins - suicide - cannot be healed by repentance, and every one of them slays the soul and makes the soul incapable of eternal bliss, until he/she cleans himself/herself with due repentance. If a man falls but once in any of these sins, he dies by soul: For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one, he is guilty of all. For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law. (James 2:10,11)"
- * Under "unnatural carnal sins" the next is implied: homosexuality, bestiality, masturbation, and any unnatural intercourse between married people (such as using contraceptives, consummated oral or consummated anal intercourse, etc.) as is explained in the book "Ascetical Trials", also written by Saint Ignatius Brianchaninov.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Catholic Encyclopedia entry on Sin
- Catechism of the Catholic Church from the official website of the Vatican
