Are there Unforgivable Sins?

In the news lately there have been abundant statements, positions and hand wringing about decades old sexual relationships between adults and children, especially between Catholic clergy and some children, and Catholic clergy living as though the Good News meant nothing.  Some have referred to it as a crisis of Faith, and I think that's a good description of what has been happening.

Most of the comments indicate they think there is a serious and fundamental flaw in Catholic Teaching, Belief, and Ecclesiology.  It's as if they are saying "Those darn Catholics.  They're irredeemable."


This is of a piece with something that permeates our culture.  I first noticed it a few years ago, when a certain former NFL quarterback made a comeback after a stint in prison for 'dogfighting.'  Many people I encountered, even in my own family, acted as though someone who had been involved in this activity should never be able to get a good job, or maybe any job ever again.

That seems to be the attitude regarding those involved in these recently reported (though mostly long ago) events.  These men are so bad, they can never have a job, any job, ever again.   

This attitude seems to hold that 'dogfighting' is an unforgivable sin.  And the same can be said about child molestation, or sexual activity outside of Marriage, or clergy breaking their vows of celibacy, or not ratting sinners out to the cops.

But what is an unforgivable sin?  Are there sins that God will not forgive?  Is murder unforgivable? or rape? or theft? or perjury, or prostitution.

Jesus says ( Mark 3:29 ):

whoever blasphemes against the holy Spirit* will never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an everlasting sin.” 

This scripture passage is discussed in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (1864):

"Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.”

There are no limits to the mercy of God, but anyone who deliberately refuses to accept his mercy by repenting, rejects the forgiveness of his sins and the salvation offered by the Holy Spirit.

Such hardness of heart can lead to final impenitence and eternal loss.

The failure to repent of our sins can lead to final condemnation.

Every other sin is forgivable.  Jesus came into the world to save us poor sinners, and I say Thanks be to God for that.  Mary Magdalen, commonly thought to have been a prostitute, is heralded as a Saint because she repented.  Levi, the Tax collector, is a Saint, likewise.  The good thief is a Saint.  St Augustine, who shacked up with a woman, and fathered a child with her is a Saint.

Is child molestation or the failure to rat people out to the cops a more serious sin than that committed by St Augustine, Mary Magdalen, St Matthew, or even St Peter?

Is that an unforgivable sin?  I certainly don't think that is the case.

There is however, the need for repentance.  Some wrong doing requires serious penance.

George Weigel addresses historical sanctions for gross misbehavior in the Church at National Review Online closing with:

These decisions by Pius XI may seem antiquated and brutal to those who know only post–Vatican II Catholicism. But severe as they were, they were taken in defense of the Church, its evangelical mission, and the discipline essential to that mission. Such decisive measures, and the motivations that prompted them, should be kept in mind by the relevant authorities in Rome these days, as they consider recent revelations about the betrayals and crimes of Cardinal Theodore McCarrick — and as they weigh the grave and ongoing damage to innocent persons, and to the reputation of the Church and its bishops, that those betrayals and crimes have caused.

Sanctions applied do not suggest that the offense is unforgivable, but that penance is due.   And perhaps that is what is necessary, a greater realization of the consequences of sin.