Josh Boge Research paper Religion 280 My paper is on reconciliation, which is the sacrament of confessing our sins to a priest in the Catholic Church and doing penance such as saying prayers or doing a good deed to make amends for your sin. I will discuss in this paper the history of reconciliation and how it got to the point we are at today, how the sacrament is administered today, and mortal and venial sins and what needs to be done as far as penance for forgiveness for these sins. Early Theologians dealt with the question of could sins be forgiven and how would they be forgiven. This was a crucial question during the Roman Empire when Christians were being persecuted for their religion and not worshipping the pagan gods. Diocletian, Nero, …show more content…
Venial sin is a lesser sin that can be forgiven as stated above by going to church or by receiving the Eucharist. Mortal sin is much greater sin that can effect getting into heaven and must be confessed to a priest to receive absolution or forgiveness for the sin. Some venial sins are still confessed in order to lessen time in purgatory after death. Three areas must be met to consider something a mortal sin. One is that it must be something serious such as abortion, murder, using the lords name in vain, suicide, and deliberately not attending mass (What is mortal sin?). It must be serious but the sinner must also have premeditation or thought beforehand before committing the sin (What is mortal sin?). Finally, the sin cannot be an accident, the person must have freely chosen to commit the sin (What is mortal sin?). These three criteria must be met in order for it to be considered a mortal sin. It is claimed to sin against God in terms of a Mortal sin will cause separation from God forever if we die without confessing and having the sins absolved (Is it possible for someone with mortal sin on his soul to die and go to heaven). For a mortal sin to be forgiven they must have perfect contrition, confess the sin, and make a promise to never commit the sin again (What is mortal sin?). There are two types of contrition or sorrow for what you did. You can either be sorry for what you did because you truly believe it to be wrong or you are truly sorry for hurting God known as perfect contrition (Perfect and Imperfect Contrition). The other form of contrition or being sorry for our sins is imperfect contrition, which is being sorry because you fear going to hell or what God will do to you (Perfect and Imperfect Contrition). Both contrition’s are acceptable for the forgiveness of a mortal sin but perfect contrition is seen as more sorrowful or a better reason for being sorry since your are intrinsically sorry and really love God