Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: conan@wish-bone.berkeley.edu (David Cruz-Uribe) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Mortal Sins?? Message-ID: Date: 13 Nov 89 17:04:04 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: Math Dept., UC Berkeley Lines: 33 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu [Joe Buehler listed mortal sins: mortal: murder; blasphemy; theft of large sums of money; perjury Barry Olson asked >Skipping mass for even a week was considered mortal also. >Has this changed? --clh] Careful here! Even in the days of "juridical" (i.e. law-oriented) theology, the nature of the sin depended on the intent underlying the action. Thus if you skipped mass because you over-slept or were just lazy, your actions would not be classified as a mortal sin. If, however, you skipped it _willfully_, that is your intent was to not go for some definite reason which involved the rejection of the Church's teaching, then it would be classifed as a grave or _mortal_ sin. However, this (in the long history of the Church) represented only one phase in Catholic moral theology. Currently, the Church still requires its members to go to mass weekly. Consistent failure to do so should be examined to see what it says about your relationship with God--it is still a question of intent. However, missing mass once is not something which needs to be fretted over. (My confessor would probably chide me for being overly scrupulous if I brought it up.) These distinctions are easy to blur over if there is too much emphasis on the "rules" and not enough on the "relationsip". Pastoral practice has often wavered towards one extreme or the other. Your question reflects one such time. I hope this helps. Yours in Christ, David Cruz-Uribe, SFO