Catholics: What is the Difference Between a Mortal and Venial Sin?

[vulcanlogician]

Like, I tried Googling it, but the answers were ALL over the place. I'm just curious if there is some exhaustive "Church approved" list of acts that are deemed "mortal sins" because I can't seem to find one.

Or is it just an ambiguous distinction? (As in "serious immoral/irreligious acts" are mortal sins and "minor mistakes" are venial.) How does this distinction work? I read the Wikipedia article on mortal sin and it seems like the latter is the case. But that seems weird given how (otherwise) Catholics seem to be quite regimented and systematic with their doctrines.

Can any Catholics shed some light on the subject?

 

[vulcanlogician]

BTW, I was raised Catholic and I STILL have no clue as to the exact criteria which might separate the two.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

Like, I tried Googling it, but the answers were ALL over the place. I'm just curious if there is some exhaustive "Church approved" list of acts that are deemed "mortal sins" because I can't seem to find one.

Or is it just an ambiguous distinction? (As in "serious immoral/irreligious acts" are mortal sins and "minor mistakes" are venial.) How does this distinction work? I read the Wikipedia article on mortal sin and it seems like the latter is the case. But that seems weird given how (otherwise) Catholics seem to be quite regimented and systematic with their doctrines.

Can any Catholics shed some light on the subject?

Not a Catholic, but spent years investigating the Catholic Church.

Three factors make up a mortal sin. For a sin to be mortal, it must:

- concern a grave matter,
- be committed with full knowledge (i.e. the sinner realized the sin they were committing), and
- be committed with deliberate consent (i.e. the sinner intended to sin).

... and IIRC, most sources I read tied "grave matter" to the Ten Commandments.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

Not a Catholic, but spent years investigating the Catholic Church.

Three factors make up a mortal sin. For a sin to be mortal, it must:

- concern a grave matter,
- be committed with full knowledge (i.e. the sinner realized the sin they were committing), and
- be committed with deliberate consent (i.e. the sinner intended to sin).

... and IIRC, most sources I read tied "grave matter" to the Ten Commandments.

Hey - my memory was generally correct!
@vulcanlogician - Here's the relevant stuff from the Catechism:

1857 For a sin to be mortal, three conditions must together be met: "Mortal sin is sin whose object is grave matter and which is also committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent."131

1858 Grave matter is specified by the Ten Commandments, corresponding to the answer of Jesus to the rich young man: "Do not kill, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and your mother."132 The gravity of sins is more or less great: murder is graver than theft. One must also take into account who is wronged: violence against parents is in itself graver than violence against a stranger.

1859 Mortal sin requires full knowledge and complete consent. It presupposes knowledge of the sinful character of the act, of its opposition to God's law. It also implies a consent sufficiently deliberate to be a personal choice. Feigned ignorance and hardness of heart133 do not diminish, but rather increase, the voluntary character of a sin.

1860 Unintentional ignorance can diminish or even remove the imputability of a grave offense. But no one is deemed to be ignorant of the principles of the moral law, which are written in the conscience of every man. the promptings of feelings and passions can also diminish the voluntary and free character of the offense, as can external pressures or pathological disorders. Sin committed through malice, by deliberate choice of evil, is the gravest.

[...]

1862 One commits venial sin when, in a less serious matter, he does not observe the standard prescribed by the moral law, or when he disobeys the moral law in a grave matter, but without full knowledge or without complete consent.

Catechism of the Catholic Church - IntraText