Degrees of sin

Anonymous asked this question on 8/4/2000:

Most Protestants say a sin is a sin. Do any believe in degrees of sin? Protestants are none. Do all say a sin is a sin ?

mscperu gave this response on 8/4/2000:

Greetings.

I don't know if you are a Catholic.

But anyway the Catechism of the Catholic Church is a complete resume of our Catholic faith.

We distinguish between mortal sin and not-mortal sins.

The death sin is the radical possibility of human liberty to say "no" to God's love and His commandments. It separates from God. If there is no penance and forgiveness from God it means exclusion from Christ's kingdom and eternal death in hell. But nobody may judge an other person only God. A mortal sin requires a very important transgression, clear understanding of it and the free decision to proceed.

Read CCC n. 1861

The sin that's not mortal is a transgression of God's will and love in a small measure or in the previous case if there is no clear understanding and no complete freedom of decision.

Read CCC n.1862

If you don't have a Catechism you may go to

http://www.christusrex.org/www2/kerygma/ccc/searchcat.html

This page has a search facility. You put in a key-word and then you can read all numbers of the Catechism that have this word. There is additionally the possibility to view related material.

Vale

mscperu