What are Mortal Sins In the Catholic Church & Where Can I Find a Mortal Sins List?
It’s not easy to find a comprehensive mortal sins list. They’re usually scattered about in various sources. Although we make no claim that this list is complete, it is quite comprehensive.
We do know that some of the most frequently confessed sins are sins against purity. Most practicing Catholics know when they’ve committed such sins and also know to go to confession. However, it can be hard to discern if some sins are grave enough to be considered mortal sins.
***For any specific questions about your situation, please speak to a traditional priest. ***
Is There a List of Mortal Sins Anywhere?
Whether a sin is mortal or not depends on a variety of factors, which we will address below. However, we found I found this pretty good list of grave sins, which can be mortal sins, depending on the circumstances.
If you have a better list (s) of grave/mortal sins, please share.
What is a Sin?
Sin is an offence against God.
According to Catholic teaching, sin is said to be either venial or mortal.
“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
*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.
Catechism of the Catholic Church, #1857
In simple terms, you have to know that what you’re doing is wrong. Otherwise it might be grave, but not necessarily mortal.
Well now that we’ve provided you with a Catholic Mortals Sins list below, you can no longer please lack of knowledge.
Yikes.
Manual for Conquering Deadly Sin
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Grave/Mortal Sins List
If you can think of any other sins that are not included below, we welcome your input. Our goal is to create a list in one place.
- Involvement in cult practices like masonry, Wicca, wizardry
- Leaving the Catholic faith for another religion or practice
- Receiving Holy Communion in a state of mortal sin without confession
- Receiving confirmation or marriage in a state of mortal sin
- Firm hatred of God and his teaching
- Buying or selling of blessed or consecrated objects
- Using God’s name as a purposeful curse
- Seriously wishing death or harm upon another person
- Serious slander about another person
- Swearing false oaths
- Perjury or lying under oath
- Willful failure to fast and abstain on Ash Wednesday/Good Friday
- Missing mass intentionally on Sunday or Holy Days
- Willfully working at a task for more than a few hours on Sunday regularly
- Serious failure to care for your aging parents
- Wishing evil or death upon your parents or grandparents
- Failure to baptize your children and raise them in the faith
- Murder, manslaughter, or homicide
- Having an abortion
- Using artificial birth control which causes spontaneous abortion
- Endangering another while driving drunk
- Abusing and selling illegal drugs
- Having oneself sterilized
- Adultery
- Fornication
- Self-abuse
- Prostituting one’s body for money
- In-vitro fertilization
- Human cloning
- Co-habitation before marriage
- Stealing a large amount of money
- Detraction or serious gossip
- Internet pornography
- Willfully lusting after another person
The Four Sins That Cry Out to Heaven
This is a traditional list of sins that cry out to heaven. Needless to say, they are very grave and most likely mortal.
- Wilful murder, which is a voluntary and unjust taking away another’s life.
- The sin of Sodom, or carnal sin against nature, which is a voluntary shedding of the seed of nature, out of the due use of marriage, or lust with a different sex.
- Oppressing of the poor, which is a cruel, tyrannical, and unjust dealing with inferiors.
- To defraud working men of their wages, which is to lessen, or detain it from them.
The Traditional Seven Deadly Sins
Below are the traditional list of seven deadly sins.
- Gluttony
- Sloth
- Lust
- Pride
- Wrath
- Envy
- Greed
And Finally, the ORIGINAL List of Mortal Sins – The CATHOLIC Ten Commandments .
FIRST COMMANDMENT: I AM THE LORD THY GOD: THOU SHALT NOT HAVE STRANGE GODS BEFORE ME.
SECOND COMMANDMENT: THOU SHALL NOT TAKE THE NAME OF THE LORD THY GOD IN VAIN.
THIRD COMMANDMENT: KEEP THE SABBATH HOLY.
FOURTH COMMANDMENT: HONOUR THY FATHER AND THY MOTHER.
“He does not say, love them,
because to this nature draws them even against their own will, and it were superfluous to lay down a law on such subjects. But what does he say? Provoke not your children to wrath,
as many do by disinheriting them, and disowning them, and treating them overbearingly, not as free, but as slaves. This is why he says, Provoke not your children to wrath.
Then, which is the chief thing of all, he shows how they will be led to obedience, referring the whole source of it to the head and chief authority.”
FIFTH COMMANDMENTTHOU SHALT NOT KILL.
SIXTH COMMANDMENT: THOU SHALT NOT COMMIT ADULTERY.
SEVENTH COMMANDMENT: THOU SHALT NOT STEAL.
EIGHTH COMMANDMENT: THOU SHALT NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS AGAINST THY NEIGHOUR.
NINTH COMMANDMENT: THOU SHALT NOT COVET THY NEIGHOUR’S WIFE.
TENTH COMMANDMENT: THOU SHALT NOT COVET THY NEIGHOUR’S GOODS.
What should you do if you think you might have committed a mortal sin?
- Pray an act of contrition.
- Get thee to a confessional as soon as possible!
- If it is impossible to get to a confessional, pray an act of perfect contrition until you can get to a confessor.
Books to Inspire Us to Live Holy Lives
***Use Coupon Code BSA for 15% off selected TAN Books titles
- The Sinner’s Guide on Tan Books
- The Sinner’s Guide Online
- The Imitation of Christ
- Manual for Conquering Deadly Sin
- Cultivating Virtue: Self-Mastery with the Saints (Can’t recommend this enough)
See Also
You might also like this Prayer To Redeem Lost Time
The list of mortal sins evidently are many. The one area I believe is not preached today by priests. The fact that the Holy Eucharist must not be received if the the person is not in the state of grace.
The lines to receive Communion are long. The lines for reconciliation are short. I am 83 years old.
It seems that Archdioceses are more concerned in how any parishioners receive the Holy Eucharist
than go to confession. That has become the forgotten Sacrament.
It does seem that way. I have an opinion that under the list of mortal sins, which could all be summed up as 4 ( idolatry, murder, lust, & stealing) when fornication is listed in red lettering it usually means a definition. This one goes straight to an add of Coventry ? If I understood it correctly. Now don’t you think that this is a form of theft?
I don’t understand. How is it a form of theft?
It does seem that way. I have an opinion that under the list of mortal sins, which could all be summed up as 4 ( idolatry, murder, lust, & stealing) when fornication is listed in red lettering it usually means a definition. This one goes straight to an add of Coventry ? If I understood it correctly. Now don’t you think that this is a form of theft?
Update: the add was for Coventry eyes & my computer said the site was not safe!
Well your computer is wrong. 🙂
It’s obviously an ad. Ads are not bad. Ads are how lots of people find out about things. If you are struggling with pornography, you might find an ad like this interesting. Covenant eyes does some great work with offering filtering software for those who struggle with online pornography.
Websites contain ads, because it is one way users can help to support sites that they like. Sites have expenses. No one is forced to buy anything through an ad and no one is forced to click on an ad.
Have a blessed day!
Some of this is a little extra. We gotta adapt to a changing world
We have to a adapt to an increasingly secular world? God doesn’t change.
I agree
I was brought up Catholic (and even had clergy in the family.) A number of years ago (when I was much younger) I was married in the Catholic Church and after a couple of years we decided to divorce. Later I met another woman who was a devout Catholic and we began to talk about marriage but because I was divorced this woman had obvious concerns that we could not be married in the Catholic church. I told her I would look into the possibility of annulling the first marriage; which I did, but I read that there were strict requirements for the church to grant an annulment. I went through the initial interview process and was told that it would be possible to go further in the process. First, there was a $225.00 processing fee for all of the forms that I had to complete (which included a great deal of information regarding my finances.) Next, I was required to attend four counseling sessions with a priest/psychotherapist which each cost $200.00. Then another round of interviews with the representative of the archdiocese and more paperwork which cost $150.00. I was then told that my case would be presented to the tribunal which would decide if the annulment would be granted. Eventually I was notified that the annulment was granted, and I was to remit another $150.00 for the certificate processing. I was also told that a donation to the church would be required and the amount was determined based on my financial information. My required donation was $1800.00. The annulment was subsequently granted – for a grand total of $3125.00. Is extortion a mortal or venial sin?
Wow. Leaves a bad taste in the mouth. But I suppose they have expenses (canon lawyers, administrative staff, etc, to investigate and process an annulment).
Extortion?!? It sounds like the price you pay for making a wrong decision in the first place. Troubles in life stem from bad decisions we make. The church didn’t tell you to leave your wife….
An Examination of Conscience booklet by Father Robert Altier is a great resource that lists all mortal sins under the Ten Commandments. It can also be accessed online here. https://www.catholicparents.org/faith/examination-conscience/
Thank you!
What about downloading from the internet? I’m think especially of stuff (copyrighted or not) that the powers that be are scrubbing from the internet because it would be inconvenient for them to have us know about?
I think its wrong to scrape a site and upload it to your own. Of course, it’s okay to post excerpts and link to the article under fair use.
Is oral sex a moral sin?
If you mean outside the marriage bed, definitely. If you mean within the sacrament of marriage, I have seen some say yes and some say no. I would check with a Traditional priest.
“Abusing and selling illegal drugs”
Should this be written to be more like “harmful” instead of “illegal”? Even that change is still confusing, because many legal and beneficial drugs are harmful if abused, or taken in wrong quantities.
I saw here that masturbation and porn is a mortal sin
What if it’s your strange addiction
Your real struggle
And you regret a lot… Cry and pray for forgiveness, beat your self a lot after doing it
Are you saying God won’t hear such prayer of a contrite sinner who has been struggling with this for years without the person going for confession….. I find it a bit off…. We all have equal access to him… He is our father and he hears us when we call on him… So why not one go confess to a priest… When you can directly talk to God….. It quiet shameful always going for confession and saying the same thing all the time
You should NEVER be ashamed to go to confession. Confession is a blessing and don’t worry; priests are used to hearing these types of confession.
For some, it is a real addiction, which can affect culpbability, but only a priest can confirm that. The important thing is that when you fall, you rise again. If you truly repent, God will help you through this, because he loves you with an everlasting love.
The tradition of going to confession is in the bible. “whatever sins you forgive on Earth are forgiven in heaven, and whatever sins you hold bound are held bound.”
In this way, the priest is Jesus’ representative.
As far as saying the same thing? I think that many times myself. But, then a revelation hit me. Strive to not do the same sinning again…..change. I found it is possible through the grace of God.
What if someone has o real struggle with porn n masturbation and maybe after the whole act the person starts regretting,crying and praying for God’s forgiveness with a contrite heart… Are you saying God won’t forgive the person because he/she didn’t go for confession
You absolute have to go confession as soon as you can. But in the meanwhile, make an act of perfect contrition. Also, please ask a trustworthy, traditional priest this question. God bless!
The tradition of going to confession is in the bible. “whatever sins you forgive on Earth are forgiven in heaven, and whatever sins you hold bound are held bound.”
In this way, the priest is Jesus’ representative.
As far as saying the same thing? I think that many times myself. But, then a revelation hit me. Strive to not do the same sinning again…..change. I found it is possible through the grace of God.
You need deliverance from a spirit of lust perversion my friend. Check too to see if you have generational spirits curses that need to be broken.
Total BS. Sexual attraction is a built-in human condtion. Lust is the invention of prudish moralists. Respect women, seek always to do the right thing. Be an adult. Educate yourself. Have values. See bullshit for what it is. There are no such things as curses, sin and evil spirits. There’s just you, your libido and your conscience. Life isn’t complicated unless you make it so with the tall tales and bad advice of others addicted to nonsense or incapable of rational thinking. Life is only as hard as you make it. Begin by avoiding and scorning the illusionary reasoning of others addicted to poisonous rationalizations and preposterous ideas, and always strive to do the right thing. If you sometimes fail, take the consequences and move on with the intention of doing better in the future. Stupid is a stupid does. It’s as simple as that.
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Please pray for me brothers and sisters and ask Jesus to have Mercy on me, I have lived as a presumptuous recidivist my entire life and have committed thousands of mortal sins of all different types so many I cannot remember. I was away from the Church for six years too. Please offer up your crosses and sufferings and prayers asking Jesus to grant me perfect contrition for my heart is hard and my conscience dead. Thank you!
Hi brothers and sisters, I am requesting fervent and persistent prayers and sacrifices/sufferings offered on my behalf for my salvation and asking Jesus to be Merciful to me and through Mary to grant me perfect and universal contrition for my sins.
A little about me, I have lived as a Catholic in Name Only my entire life. I have lived completely selfishly and sinfully and presumptuously and now I am afraid of going to hell. For six years I did not even leave my house except to do minor errands but played video games, committed daily sins of the flesh, didn’t work nor pray, and slept all day.
I have led a life of complete selfishness and Jesus told Bl. Anne Catherine Emerich that even the most selfish sinner could be saved if there were enough people praying and offering sacrifices for him/her.
Please consider doing this for me and please ask other people to do likewise if they’d be willing; I need all the prayers and help I can get!
I have committed thousands of mortal sins living as an obstinate recidivist and can count on one hand the good I’ve done.
Please offer prayers unceasingly and offer your sufferings and crosses and penances for me at least for the next year or two for my salvation and to help me make reparation for my sins, I would be eternally grateful!
Thank you so much!
Casey Thomas McKee (your brother in Christ)
P.S.- Below is a link to an article written by a priest for the Rosary Confraternity that discusses the idea of helping to make reparation for another’s sins. I hope you will read through it and consider doing this for me; I would be eternally grateful if you did!
https://rosarycenter.org/blog/reparation-for-sin