Talk:Mortal sin

Whether "Latin" is needed before every instance of "Catholic"
Dear InfernoXV -- Yes, I am well aware of the differences between Eastern and Western teachings on this issue. I think it is good and appropriate to make that distinction, which is why I agree that it makes sense at the start, in the very visible first sentence. But I do think the repeated use of qualifiers "Roman" or "Latin" before every single use of "Catholic" only belabors the point, and makes for ponderous writing. I won't revert what you put back, but I would ask for others to chime in. Regards, Mlouns 14:35, 27 September 2006 (UTC)


 * CIX! Thank you for the kind words. Perhaps this might be a way out - to specify at the very beginning that this concept only apples to the Latin Church, that the Easterns don't use the concept, and having said that, add a little 'for the rest of this section, "Catholic" may be taken to mean "Latin Catholic"'or words to that effect? I do agree, having to state 'Latin' or 'Eastern' is slightly ponderous and makes for infelicitous prose. Ideally, I'd prefer 'Western Church' and 'Eastern Churches' as the basic distinction, but that will be nearly meaningless to anyone but specialists in theology and liturgy, and is apt to confuse the general reader. It's merely the 'Roman Catholic = Catholic' sort of paradigm that I'm not comfortable with. --InfernoXV 18:13, 27 September 2006 (UTC)

Definition of Grave Matter
The obvious literal interpretation seems to be that which could cause or result in death, but this does not match with "A venial sin may be left unconfessed" and my general understanding that confession happens a whole lot more often than death or even acts of neglect that have a large change of resulting in manslaughter, but didnt... so, what does it mean, exactly? Help a non-catholic who wants to understand his future wife's grandparent's religion and culture out please! (added to clarify: Rather than a list of grave matters, I am looking for the line of reasoning or stream of decisions, whatever it may be, that resulted in the list)

70.162.81.229 04:18, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

The article seems to imply that using a contraceptive is as bad a sin as murder. Do the powers that be in the Vatican really believe that? Millbanks (talk) 22:47, 26 April 2008 (UTC)
 * Abortifacient contraception is as grave as murder, because it takes the life of the unborn child. Normal contraception is not quite as bad, but is still mortal sin. Canon Law Junkie §§§ Talk 14:45, 28 February 2011 (UTC)

Grave 'Concern'
I have a "grave concern" with this article., Murder & masturbation are not on the same ,or even close, mortal plane in modern Catholic thought. Neither is ‘missing Mass”. Catholicism is not a slippery walk over the fire pit. I removed the purient content.

I would recommend  reading the  Catholic catechism on line,, as  the subject  is hard to "wikisummarise"

cheers Opuscalgary 02:38, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

Agree with the original poster of this. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, under certain conditions, masturbation may not even be considered as a grave sin. AMStecker (talk) 17:34, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

According to the book Catholics, An Unauthorized, Unapproved, Illustrated Guide by Rick Detorie, mortal sins include/used to include missing mass or a holy day of obligation, eating meat on Fridays and wearing makeup if a boy.--Auric (talk) 00:51, 9 May 2010 (UTC)


 * After speculating and coming to conclusions on how to put the friendly attitude of Vatican II into teaching religious ed directors started to get really bad at their jobs. They sometimes thought of new manners to teach things and emphasized different parts of Catholic teaching and because of this didn't have enough time to spend on sins and other things that should have had that time. It is still a grave matter to masturbate, miss mass, or murder someone. It is just as a kid you had a religious ed director who implemented a bad teaching policy. I think they believed important doctrine would just appear in their student's head without being taught it. They did not give it the time they should have. A teacher should say something many times if they want students to remember many years later. JBGeorge77 (talk) 22:55, 30 April 2012 (UTC)

Dear sneaky vandal:
I have changed incredulity to lack of Catholic belief, cut the silly sex references,ref.ten commandments. Please go elsewhere. thanks Opuscalgary 01:22, 3 March 2007 (UTC)

Mortal Sin band
I noticed theres a aussie band called mortal sin too. Why is there no link to it? i tried to do it myself but couldnt figure it out. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortal_Sin. Portillo 04:47, 5 November 2007 (UTC)

Unclear Disparity
I'm not sure how to interpret the statements together about being baptized and therefore being irrevocably part of Christ's human family and the quote "Immediately after death the souls of those who die in a state of mortal sin descend into hell." What is the outcome of the soul who commits an unrepentant mortal sin yet was baptized in the church?


 * They go to hell. (of course) --Auric (talk) 02:37, 3 April 2010 (UTC)
 * Unless baptised after the sin was committed. Baptism takes away all sins committed up to that point, even if you're not repentent. Canon Law Junkie §§§ Talk 14:47, 28 February 2011 (UTC)

"New" mortal sins
The link to the article is to something about "new deadly sins," not mortal sins. Also, that article itself is inaccurate; the Cardinal didn't add any "new" sins, he was just giving examples. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Deambrosejr (talk • contribs) 02:58, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

Removed material not appropriate for this article
This information needs to be placed in a more appropriate location than here.Awotter (talk) 19:32, 14 November 2008 (UTC)

Gianfranco Girotti expounded seven types of sins:[2]

This list is not intended to replace or add to the definition of mortal sin. The list was created with the intent of reminding Catholics of the social nature of many sins, or specifically, how seemingly small offenses (such as pollution) hurt other humans, making the acts sinful. For example, "accumulating excessive wealth" is not a new sin, but a manifestations of the sin of greed. Including specific offenses in the list aims to make Catholics aware of the severity of the offense.
 * Environmental pollution
 * Genetic manipulation of humans
 * Accumulating excessive wealth
 * Inflicting poverty
 * Drug trafficking and consumption
 * Morally debatable experiments
 * Violation of fundamental rights of human nature

Murderous famine?
"Acceptance by human society of murderous famines without trying to fix it".


 * What is a "murderous famine"? And what does "fix it" mean?  Is every Catholic in the world obliged to go to Ethiopia and other places and "fix" the famine affecting hundreds of thousands of people?  --   Jack of Oz   [Talk]  01:55, 9 January 2013 (UTC)


 * And shouldn't it be "fix them"? I suspect this is vandalism, but can anyone confirm this?  --   Jack of Oz   [Talk]  01:56, 9 January 2013 (UTC)


 * Maybe they meant the Holodomor?-- Auric    talk  11:43, 28 May 2014 (UTC)

I think what's meant is when the government creates a famine and then its people don't try and fix it; in other words "adulation of another's grave faults". 86.40.141.55 (talk) 23:47, 1 June 2014 (UTC)

Internal link for "Masturbation"
I noticed the mortal sin "masturbation" does not have a link to it. Should we place it there? I know it defeats the purpose of the article (well, at least to Christians), but WP:UNCENSORED doesn't seem to prohibit this. Thoughts? Please do mention me as you reply to this.  Blue sphere  11:05, 8 December 2016 (UTC)

"homosexual actions"
Not wishing to start a flame war, but looking at three references to sins involving "homosexual practices", all of which cite http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p3s2c2a6.htm which is ostensibly concerned with adultery although it does include a condemnation of homosexuality, for example "2396 Among the sins gravely contrary to chastity are masturbation, fornication, pornography, and homosexual practices." Should we assume that because the current view of the Vatican calls it "gravely contradictory" in a footnote to its thoughts about extra-marital sex there is a watertight case for including homosexual actions in the mortal sin list? Considering that "The term "mortal sin" is thought to be derived from the New Testament of the Bible" it would be more convincing to include references from the New Testament to be sure that homosexual actions are incontravertably included in this list of mortal sins. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Tomxcoady (talk • contribs) 10:19, 21 February 2017 (UTC)