ANSWER:

Mortal sin is a sin that destroys charity in the heart of man by a grave violation of God’s law; it turns man away from God, who is his ultimate end and his beatitude, by preferring an inferior good to Him.

Three conditions must together be met:

1. The object must be a grave matter

2. Committed with full knowledge and

3. Done with full consent of the will.

Venial sin is an act that allows charity to subsist, even though it offends and wounds it.

A simple illustration of the difference between a mortal and venial sin would be to look at the 7^thcommandment which is “Thou Shalt Not Steal.”

Certainly, what belongs to a person should be respected and we should never desire or act on taking what belongs to another person. However, taking a dollar from a person’s purse vs. forging a check from someone’s bank account and taking thousands of dollars illustrates a serious difference.

Thus, to be a mortal sin,

1.Taking a large amount of money constitutes a grave matter.

2. We know it’s a grave matter and 3. we fully consent to steal the money. The conditions are met for a mortal sin to be committed.

The First Letter of John also speaks of these two types of sin:

“If anyone sees his brother commit a sin that is not a deadly sin, he has only to pray, and God will give life to this brother —provided that it is not a deadly sin. There is a sin that leads to death and I am not saying you must pray for that. Every kind of wickedness is sin, but not all sin leads to death.” (1 Jn. 5:16-17)

Follow up: Anyone who deliberately withholds confessing sins in the confessional has not satisfied the Sacrament of Reconciliation. If one has honestly forgotten, gone to confession and then later remembers a sin that they forgot to mention, they are still fully forgiven. When going to confession we should always give the approximate time of our last confession. Obviously if it has been a long time then remembering everything is not possible. When we conclude our confession, it is best to say “For these and all the sins of my past that I cannot remember, I ask for forgiveness.