A confession question....

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Windmill

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If a person goes to confession and makes his best effort to confess all his sins, but while the priest is assigning his penance or offerring the prayer of absolution, he remembers another sin and chooses to remain silent since the ritual is proceeding, is that a valid confession?

Sometimes this happens to me, and I’ve gotten conflicting advice on what to do.
 
for me anyway i dont tend to confess all the things i have to confess in one sitting- so if i remember somehting i would like to confess i save it til next time- i keep a word doc with all the things on it. Anyway is that good advice windmill?
 
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Windmill:
If a person goes to confession and makes his best effort to confess all his sins, but while the priest is assigning his penance or offerring the prayer of absolution, he remembers another sin and chooses to remain silent since the ritual is proceeding, is that a valid confession?

Sometimes this happens to me, and I’ve gotten conflicting advice on what to do.
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I believe that if you truely forgot to confess a sin, you are absolved of that sin.

A similar thing happened at a previous confession. In my case, the priest was rushing through confession duing Lent and I was not able to get all my sins out. Although I was going to confess the sin, I felt that I did nothing wrong and took the absolution to mean that that that sin was forgiven too.

However, when I went to confession yesterday (I am trying to go at least once per month now), I did mention the sin and was forgiven.

I have heard that it is alright to mention past sins, but I am not 100% sure on that.

PF
 
You are absolved of your sins. If you have a mortal sin that you forgot to confess, it would be to your advantage to mention it at your next confession. Just talk to your confessor as you have asked us in this format, and he will be able to ease your obviously troubled conscience. Remember, God knows all your sins, and the priest is in the persona of Christ. So you have been forgiven! Peace to you!
 
If it’s not a mortal sin, it doesn’t need to be mentioned to be forgiven, anyway. So no prob. If it is mortal, then recognize that you were doing the best you could to place all before God and not intentionally withholding. You might still want to toss it in after the absolution, just mentioning that you remembered it only while he was speaking. If that isn’t possible, then mention it next time just to get it off your chest.
 
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Titus:
for me anyway i dont tend to confess all the things i have to confess in one sitting- so if i remember somehting i would like to confess i save it til next time- i keep a word doc with all the things on it. Anyway is that good advice windmill?
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If you have mortal sins that you know of and you hold them back during confession, it is not a good confession. Just a heads up.

If you think you need to be in the confessional for a really long time, it’s a good idea to make a special appointment.
 
No need to worry about not mentioning all the sins before the absolution…

If you have not confessed a mortal sin then it’s definately best to do that…but otherwise I would not worry myself in this situation…the Saints have always told us not to be too fussy
 
You are absolved of all sins, even those you forgot, if you confessed in good faith and true sorrow.

I recommend confessing the “oops, I just remembered …” sins in your next confession. But rest assured, they are remitted.
 
While we should prepare ahead of time in order to make a good confession, I have always felt and believed that what really matters is the contrition that is in our hearts. While it is better, and we must, confess all our known sins, if we forget one, somehow, a good Act of Contrition; (being truly sorry for our sin and expressed to the priest with our lips,) will express to God our desire to be in communion with him again.

Even so, I always bring up forgotten sins at susequent confessions.
 
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Windmill:
If a person goes to confession and makes his best effort to confess all his sins, but while the priest is assigning his penance or offerring the prayer of absolution, he remembers another sin and chooses to remain silent since the ritual is proceeding, is that a valid confession?
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Yes, it would be a valid confession. The person is not trying to hide the sin from the priest. He would have confessed it had he remembered before the ritual began.
Sometimes this happens to me, and I’ve gotten conflicting advice on what to do.
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If you have doubts just ask a priest what you should do in such a situation and then from that moment on do as he tells you should the situation come up again. If the priest happens to give you incorrect advice, then it would be his fault, not yours.
 
I really struggle with the business of forgetting mortal sins. If the three conditions for serious or mortal sin are met how could anyone forget unless they have not been to confession for a long long time and/or have a multitude of mortal sins on their list. If I know I have committed a mortal sin I can’t wait to get to confession. The risk taken with regard to ones immortal soul is immense. Perhaps we are talking about sins with serious gravity, but one or both of the other two conditions are not met, then I could understand how one might forget. In such a case one would not be culpable anyway. I hope this is not a hijack of the thread. :confused:
 
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DeaconChris:
While we should prepare ahead of time in order to make a good confession, I have always felt and believed that what really matters is the contrition that is in our hearts. While it is better, and we must, confess all our known sins, if we forget one, somehow, a good Act of Contrition; (being truly sorry for our sin and expressed to the priest with our lips,) will express to God our desire to be in communion with him again. Even so, I always bring up forgotten sins at susequent confessions.
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The obligation is to confess all our known mortal sins. There is no obligation to confess venial sins, although depending on our particular weaknesses or habits that mess up our relationship with God and our fellow human beings it might be pruident to do so. Venial sin is forgiven in the rites of repentance at Mass, when we receive communion etc. and of course in the sacrament of penance if one feels more comfortable with the reassurance and guidance available there.
 
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rwoehmke:
I really struggle with the business of forgetting mortal sins. If the three conditions for serious or mortal sin are met how could anyone forget unless they have not been to confession for a long long time and/or have a multitude of mortal sins on their list. If I know I have committed a mortal sin I can’t wait to get to confession. The risk taken with regard to ones immortal soul is immense. Perhaps we are talking about sins with serious gravity, but one or both of the other two conditions are not met, then I could understand how one might forget. In such a case one would not be culpable anyway. I hope this is not a hijack of the thread. :confused:
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Well, first off, IF a person HASN’T been to confession in a longgggggg time, and IF in the preparation by examining of one’s conscience one is sssoooooooo relieved and yet sssooooooo nervous, then a couple of mortal sins could easily slip a person’s mind, even with a mountain of prayers to the Holy Spirit for clarity and the ability to remember. So, the person is in that world of bliss of being forgiven of mortal sin for a bit, and then something, somewhere, triggers a memory, a musing, a thought…and OH MY GOODNESS, I FORGOT THAT ONE!!! Of course, the devil would like it very much if this person was guilted beyond all reason, hopefully never to set foot in a confessional again. The simple answer is that if one has honestly forgotten a mortal sin, then it’s forgiven, but should be mentioned next confession.

Second, people who have been away from the Church on their little sabbaticals to other denominations or their own bed of a Sunday, have not been to confession in quite awhile, maybe years or even decades. When the moment of grace falls upon those people, the need to act can be greater than the prep time.

Third, some people commit more mortal sins than those of us who might not have been living quite so large, so to speak. Those sins are mortal sins, and meet the three criteria. I mean, in the criteria of the three points (serious matter, full complicity, full knowledge), should rock stars, actors, etc., be let off due to extreme drug and alcohol consumption? So, those people just might, if they converted, as they put their lives in order over time, stumble across something that was clearly to their mind or in fact mortal and yet got skipped on the first shot back.
 
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