Replies

When you look around society today, it doesn’t look good. Even in the Church, people are committing abortion and contraception. They are sleeping together outside of marriage, using porn, and doing a host of other things that can endanger their souls. It can be tempting to conclude that most Catholics in America today are going to go to hell....

While it is true that many of them are committing sins that have grave matter, between poor catechesis in Church, society’s constant assault on Church teaching, and the various factors that diminish the voluntary and free character of a sin, quite a number of them likely do not have all three conditions fulfilled. Also, even when all three conditions are fulfilled and a sin is mortal, that does not mean a person will be damned. It means that they would be damned if they died right now without repenting, but God is patient and gives us time to repent, and many people do before they die.

Apart from the whole "meets all three conditions" thing, that's the answer I was expecting Akin to give.