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Gambling is always a mortal sin?  Really?

Gambling is a mortal sin, but not necessarily mortal for the person who is in ignorance in regards on this subject (so long as his gambling was moderate, that is. Excess in gambling always constitute mortal sin).

Council of Elvira (306), Canon 79: "Christians who play dice for money are to be excluded from receiving communion [excommunication]. If they amend their ways and cease, they may receive communion after one year."

St. Thomas Aquinas: "We read in the Canons of the apostles (Can. xli, xlii): 'A bishop, priest or deacon who is given to drunkenness or gambling, or incites others thereto, must either cease or be deposed; a subdeacon, reader or precentor who does these things must either give them up or be excommunicated; the same applies to the laity.'
Now such punishments are not inflicted save for mortal sins. Therefore drunkenness [and gambling] is a mortal sin." (Summa Theologica, II:II, Q, 150, A, 2. Whether drunkenness is a mortal sin?)


MORE ON GAMBLING

St. Francis de Sales

CHAPTER XXXII. Of Forbidden Amusements.

DICE, cards, and the like games of hazard, are not merely dangerous amusements, like dancing, but they are plainly bad and harmful, and therefore they are forbidden by the civil as by the ecclesiastical law. What harm is there in them? you ask. Such games are unreasonable:—the winner often has neither skill nor industry to boast of, which is contrary to reason. You reply that this is understood by those who play. But though that may prove that you are not wronging anybody, it does not prove that the game is in accordance with reason, as victory ought to be the reward of skill or labour, which it cannot be in mere games of chance. Moreover, though such games may be called a recreation, and are intended as such, they are practically an intense occupation. Is it not an occupation, when a man’s mind is kept on the stretch of close attention, and disturbed by endless anxieties, fears and agitations? Who exercises a more dismal, painful attention than the gambler? No one must speak or laugh,—if you do but cough you will annoy him and his companions. The only pleasure in gambling is to win, and this cannot be a satisfactory pleasure, since it can only be enjoyed at the expense of your antagonist. Once, when he was very ill, S. Louis heard that his brother the Comte d’Anjou and Messire Gautier de Nemours were gambling, and in spite of his weakness the King tottered into the room where they were, and threw dice and money and everything out of the window, in great indignation. And the pure and pious Sara, in her appeal to God, declared that she had never had dealings with gamblers. "I beg, O Lord, that thou loose me from the bond of this reproach, or else take me away from the earth. Thou knowest, O Lord, that I never coveted a husband, and have kept my soul clean from all lust. [17] Never have I joined myself with them that play: neither have I made myself partaker with them that walk in lightness." (Book of Tobias, 3:15-17)

So, now when you KNOW gambling is disapproved by the Church and Catholic civil law, you have no excuse for doing so. Before you could be excused from mortal sin in regards to (moderate) gambling, but not now when you have been presented with Church teaching.

Quote from: Raoul76

I was invited to go to a restaurant today after Mass at CMRI.  I don't go out to eat on Sunday because it keeps people working for unnecessary reasons ( I'll get gas, since gas stations need to be open on Sunday for many legitimate reasons ).  

One friend of mine, who is eighty, told me that in the 40's and 50's, towns were absolutely dead on Sunday.  That was all I needed to hear, since then I haven't gone out to eat on that day.

Result:  I was told I have scruples, that all the priests go to restaurants on Sundays.  It is true that I seem to be the only one there who has this rule.

Do you go to restaurants on Sundays?  Discuss.

I was told it was ok for Catholics to work at places of recreation on Sunday because it allows other Catholics to recreate. Restaurants and places of leisure like parks would be ok. So go and order lunch and socialize.

The rule was meant so that you're not out doing manual labor or becoming a workaholic and working Sundays to make even more profit or treating the day like any other work day.

No, the Sundays should be used for people to search for God, resting from the world, and advancing in virtue. It should not be used to please other men!

LOVE FOR GOD FIRST; SECOND FOR NEIGHBOR!

To deliberately work on Sundays without grave necessity is a mortal sin. Divine Law and Church Law condemns ALL unnecessary work on Sundays. So how do you people make up your own laws that contradicts the divine law that has always been held by all people (except for the last generation at the end of the world)?