If the Church did not THINK there was a difference, they would not use differing terms, for crying out loud.
So some mortal sins are deadlier than others?
Abortion is one of the few matters the Church considers "intrinsically evil". (Rutles4Ever, #214)FWIW, while researching the answer to my question ("How does it necessarily follow that to suffer murder under certain circumstances means to desire murder under those certain circumstances or to say that murder is a virtuous act?", #213 -- still researching, BTW), I stumbled across the following excerpt -- relevant to the collateral exchange quoted above, not to my question -- in JPII's Encyclical, Evangelium vitae, at #62 (emphasis added):Please see #214. (B Knotts, #220)
Sure abortion is intrinsically evil. So is masturbation. (eastsider, #221)
masturbation is not intrinsically evil. The Church teaches that it is a grave disorder. (Rutles4Ever, #229)
Gravely disordered, intrinsically evil ... Is there really a difference? (eastsider, #234)
If the Church did not THINK there was a difference, they would not use differing terms, for crying out loud. (ninenot, #261)
Therefore, by the authority which Christ conferred upon Peter and his Successors, in communion with the Bishops -- who on various occasions have condemned abortion and who in the aforementioned consultation, albeit dispersed throughout the world, have shown unanimous agreement concerning this doctrine -- I declare that direct abortion, that is, abortion willed as an end or as a means, always constitutes a grave moral disorder, since it is the deliberate killing of an innocent human being.