| 1874 To choose deliberately - that is, both knowing it and willing it - something gravely contrary to the divine law and to the ultimate end of man is to commit a mortal sin. This destroys in us the charity without which eternal beatitude is impossible. Unrepented, it brings eternal death. |
| 1875 Venial sin constitutes a moral disorder that is reparable by charity, which it allows to subsist in us. |
| 1876 The repetition of sins - even venial ones - engenders vices, among which are the capital sins. |
| 1877 The vocation of humanity is to show forth the image of God and to be transformed into the image of the Father's only Son. This vocation takes a personal form since each of us is called to enter into the divine beatitude; it also concerns the human community as a whole. |