List of mortal sins, with examples

The Church has no single official list of mortal sins, but it does name many acts as grave matter, and they follow the Ten Commandments (CCC 1858). Below they're grouped by commandment, with the Catechism paragraph where it speaks plainly. Keep one thing in mind as you read: a list can only name grave matter. A sin is mortal only when it is also committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent (CCC 1857).

Is there an official list of mortal sins?

No. Scripture gives lists of serious sins, for example in Galatians 5:19-21 and 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, and the Catechism says grave matter is "specified by the Ten Commandments" (CCC 1858). But no document sets out every mortal sin in one place. What follows is a guide to acts the Church teaches are grave matter, drawn mostly from the Catechism, not a complete catalog.

Read this first: grave matter is only one of three conditions

A sin is mortal when three things are true at once: the matter is grave, you know it is seriously wrong, and you choose it freely (CCC 1857). Everything on this page is about the first condition only.

The other two matter just as much. Ignorance, fear, pressure, strong emotion and deeply rooted habit can lessen your responsibility, sometimes a great deal (CCC 1735). And the Catechism adds a line worth remembering: we can judge that an act is gravely wrong in itself, but we must leave the judgment of persons to the justice and mercy of God (CCC 1861). Read this list to examine your own conscience, not to sentence yourself or anyone else. The three conditions are explained in full in what is a mortal sin.

Mortal sins against God (commandments 1 to 3)

1. You shall have no other gods before me

• Rejecting the faith. Deliberately abandoning the Christian faith (apostasy), or obstinately denying a truth the Church teaches must be believed (heresy) (CCC 2089; Code of Canon Law, can. 1364).
• The occult. Magic or sorcery, trying to gain power over others through hidden forces (CCC 2117).
• Sacrilege. Treating sacred things with contempt, and especially receiving Communion while knowingly in mortal sin (CCC 2120, 1385).

2. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain

• Blasphemy. Words of hatred, reproach or defiance against God, which the Catechism calls "in itself a grave sin" (CCC 2148). Saying "God" or "Jesus" out of careless habit is a fault to work on, but it isn't the same thing.
• Perjury. Swearing a false oath, or promising under oath what you don't intend to keep, which the Catechism calls "a grave lack of respect" for God (CCC 2150, 2152).

3. Remember to keep holy the Lord's day

• Missing Mass on purpose. Deliberately skipping Mass on a Sunday or holy day of obligation without a serious reason (CCC 2181). Illness or caring for a small child excuses you. Holy days differ by country; in the United States there are six, though most dioceses move the Ascension to Sunday. More in is missing Mass a mortal sin.

Mortal sins against your neighbor (commandments 4 to 10)

4. Honor your father and your mother

• Serious neglect of family. Abandoning a child, a spouse or an aging parent in real need, or seriously failing in the care you owe them (CCC 2218, 2228; 1 Timothy 5:8). Ordinary impatience at home is usually far lighter.

5. You shall not kill

• Murder. The direct and intentional killing of an innocent person (CCC 2268).
• Abortion, including formal cooperation in one (CCC 2270-2272), and euthanasia (CCC 2277). If abortion is part of your story, please know that priests hear this confession often and with great gentleness. It is forgiven like every other sin.
• Deliberate hatred that wishes someone grave harm (CCC 2303), and anger that becomes a deliberate desire to kill or seriously wound (CCC 2302).
• Drugs used for anything other than strictly medical reasons (CCC 2291), and drunkenness or reckless driving that endangers your own life or others' (CCC 2290).
• Scandal. Deliberately leading someone else into grave sin (CCC 2284).

6 and 9. Adultery and coveting your neighbor's spouse

• Sex outside marriage: fornication (CCC 2353) and adultery (CCC 2380, 2400).
• Pornography, whether making, selling or watching it (CCC 2354), and masturbation (CCC 2352). The Catechism lists these, with homosexual acts, among the sins gravely contrary to chastity (CCC 2396). Attraction itself is not a sin, and the Church asks that people with same-sex attraction be met with respect, compassion and sensitivity (CCC 2358).
• Contraception within marriage, which the Church teaches is wrong in itself (CCC 2370) and "gravely opposed to marital chastity" (Vademecum for Confessors, 1997, 2.4). Spacing births by natural methods, for good reasons, is morally different (CCC 2368, 2370).
• Lust welcomed in the heart, deliberately dwelling on desire for someone (Matthew 5:28). A thought that simply comes and is turned away is a temptation, not a sin.

The Catechism itself names habit, immaturity and anxiety as factors that can lessen guilt here (CCC 2352). If porn or masturbation has become something you can't seem to stop, that can involve real compulsion. A counselor or a support group can help alongside Confession; see how to quit porn as a Catholic.

7 and 10. Stealing and coveting goods

• Theft and fraud of something of real value: stealing, cheating customers or employers, unjust wages, keeping what you know isn't yours (CCC 2408-2409). When the harm is serious, this is grave matter (CCC 1858). Taking something small is usually lighter matter.
• Envy that wishes grave harm on another person (CCC 2539).

8. You shall not bear false witness

• Serious lies. A lie becomes grave when it does serious harm to justice or charity (CCC 2484).
• False witness in court or another public setting (CCC 2476), and destroying someone's reputation by spreading lies or exposing their faults without need (CCC 2477, 2479). How serious this is depends on how much harm it does.

If you see your own sins on this list

Take a breath. Reading a list like this can be hard, especially if a few lines hit home. Every sin here can be forgiven, and God wants to forgive it more than you want to be forgiven.

Tell God you're sorry now, in your own words or with an Act of Contrition. Sorrow that comes from love of God, with the intention of confessing, already obtains forgiveness even of mortal sin (CCC 1452). Then go to Confession at your next chance, and until you've confessed, hold off on receiving Communion (CCC 1457).

In Confession, name each mortal sin plainly and say roughly how often. "I missed Mass on purpose about five times" is enough. No backstory, no graphic detail.

Using the list for an examination of conscience

Go slowly, and stop only where something is true for you. If you aren't sure whether you fully understood or freely chose something, say exactly that to the priest: "I'm not sure whether this was mortal." He'll help. If lists like this tend to fill you with dread rather than clarity, set it aside and read about scrupulosity instead. Confess what clearly stands out, and trust the priest with the rest.