Full Knowledge Question

[tinytherese]

I know that it was addressed in another thread in the past, but let's say that someone commits a grave sin that they know the Church teaches against, but they don't know why the Church teaches this. Since they don't know the full why behind why it is a sin would that be considered committing a grave sin with partial or full knowledge?

[Thy Geekdom Come]

[quote name='tinytherese' date='19 March 2010 - 05:13 PM' timestamp='1269033201' post='2075917']
I know that it was addressed in another thread in the past, but let's say that someone commits a grave sin that they know the Church teaches against, but they don't know why the Church teaches this. Since they don't know the full why behind why it is a sin would that be considered committing a grave sin with partial or full knowledge?
[/quote]
Faith requires consent of the will regardless of whether we understand. I don't see how knowledge of what the Church teaches without knowledge of why would keep anyone from being obliged to obey. Given that, I don't see how one could argue that a person needs to know why something is immoral for them to be culpable, since they are supposed to obey regardless.

[Theologian in Training]

Jeremiah 31:31-33 "The days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers the day I took them by the hand to lead them forth from the land of Egypt; for they broke my covenant and I had to show myself their master, says the LORD.But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD. I will place my law within them, and write it upon their hearts; I will be their God, and they shall be my people."

Upon our very hearts are engraved the covenant we made with God, so that deep down, whether we agree or disagree, our conscience knows what is sinful and what is not. In fact, when someone comes to me for confession after years, and they tell me they don't know what to say, or they don't even know what a sin is. I tell them to tell me what weighs most heavily upon their conscience. They can do so without any problem, whether they had knowledge or not that it was a sin. See, you have to understand that the Church is only defining what is sinful, not creating what is sinful, but, merely acknowledging the truth of the sin itself. Sin exists without us naming it, or even believing it to be one, however, with the help of the Church, we can also shape and develop a properly formed conscience.

[Thy Geekdom Come]

Fr. Brian is now and will always be more pastoral and eloquent than I.