Afraid of going to confession

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pwlj_christ87

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i need some help, i want to go to confession to confess a sin that i committed a long time ago but i am afraid of going to the confession because of the nature of the sin (it has to do with plan b the product that kills semen if it got through during sex) i know this sort of sin carries excommunication and i really dont want that to happen
 
well i am afraid of being excommunicated, or am i already? this was at least 4 years ago and i have been to confession numerous times since then, and recivved the holy eucharist almost weekly for 3 months now, it came up to my mind just the other day, and in another post was told to confession sins that were forgotten, although i dont know ifi t was a mortal sin because i did not willfully consent to go against god, i was ignoratn in this area back then
 
If you honestly did not know that birth control is a sin, then it was not a mortal sin, since it does not fill the requirement of full knowledge. Also, providing you actually forgot that you had used birth control, your receiving of the Eucharist was all good, since the sin was non-existent in the first place and, even if there was a sin, you did honestly forget about it in confession and it was forgiven with all the rest. I don’t think you need to mention it in confession, but if you want to, a priest is better suited to helping you figure out how much culpability you had in the sinfulness of birth control use, if any, than a forum is.
 
pwlj_christ87 said:
well i am afraid of being excommunicated, or am i already? this was at least 4 years ago and i have been to confession numerous times since then, and recivved the holy eucharist almost weekly for 3 months now, it came up to my mind just the other day, and in another post was told to confession sins that were forgotten, although i dont know ifi t was a mortal sin because i did not willfully consent to go against god, i was ignoratn in this area back then
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Not entirely sure if contraceptive use is an excommunicable offence or if you are in fact excommunicated. Regardless, it is a grave sin and it will ease your soul to confess it. It is a common enough sin that the priest will not be shocked or anything. and any excommunication attached can almost certainly be lifted right there and then by the priest in the confessional - priests are usually given the faculty to do so.
 
pwlj_christ87 said:
i know this sort of sin carries excommunication and i really dont want that to happen
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You’re worried over nothing. That’s why you go to confession. You won’t be excommunicated. Just the opposite.
If you knew my rap sheet of sins, you would run the other way screaming in horror.
 
pwlj_christ87 said:
well i am afraid of being excommunicated, or am i already? this was at least 4 years ago and i have been to confession numerous times since then, and recivved the holy eucharist almost weekly for 3 months now, it came up to my mind just the other day, and in another post was told to confession sins that were forgotten, although i dont know ifi t was a mortal sin because i did not willfully consent to go against god, i was ignoratn in this area back then
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Through personal effort effort lack of knowledge or understanding may be overcome. So we may be culpable due to not making a reasonable effort to know. But there is also invincible (unintentional) ignorance where despite trying we are unable to know.

CCC #1860

Unintentional ignorance can diminish or even remove the imputability of a grave offense.

But no one is deemed to be ignorant of the principles of the moral law, which are written in the conscience of every man.

The promptings of feelings and passions can also diminish the voluntary and free character of the offense, as can external pressures or pathological disorders. Sin committed through malice, by deliberate choice of evil, is the gravest.

Please read this, to be excommunicated one has to know that abortion is an ex-communicable offense:

ewtn.com/expert/answers/abortio2.htm

Latin Church Canon Law (CIC)

Can. 1323 The following are not subject to a penalty when they have violated a law or precept:

1/ a person who has not yet completed the sixteenth year of age;

2/ a person who without negligence was ignorant that he or she violated a law or precept; inadvertence and error are equivalent to ignorance;

3/ a person who acted due to physical force or a chance occurrence which the person could not foresee or, if foreseen, avoid;

4/ a person who acted coerced by grave fear, even if only relatively grave, or due to necessity or grave inconvenience unless the act is intrinsically evil or tends to the harm of souls;

5/ a person who acted with due moderation against an unjust aggressor for the sake of legitimate self defense or defense of another;

6/ a person who lacked the use of reason, without prejudice to the prescripts of cann. ⇒ 1324, §1, n. 2 and ⇒ 1325;

7/ a person who without negligence thought that one of the circumstances mentioned in nn. 4 or 5 was present.
 
That is not exocummunicatable at all!

just go to confession, and if you didn’t know your ok by ignorance

go to confession, if your afraid of the parish priest go to another parish 😛

get it off your shoulders, God will forgive you for anything as long as you are truly sorry!
 
All I can say is RUN to confession. Jesus is there. He is full of love and mercy. Your sin is not unforgivable. The fact that your conscience is bugging you shows your love for our Lord. Find a priest, tell him everything!
Let us know how it goes.
 
Go to confession.

The devil is a liar who tries desperately to keep us in fear and despair. He hates when people go to confession and are absolved of their sins. Don’t allow the evil one to trick you and keep you from receiving the Lord’s forgiveness.

I can say with a fair degree of certainty that most priests have heard people confess the type of sin you have committed. (Unfortunately it’s that common. 😦 ) So know that you aren’t going to “shock” them. Your confessor will probably be very happy to know you have finally come to receive God’s mercy.

Ask yourself, what is worse? Living in fear and refusing to go to confession and risking dying in a state of mortal sin OR going to confession and being forgiven by the Lord who so desperately wants to forgive and heal you and leaving the confessional knowing God’s love and mercy? It’s a no brainer.

Go to confession. Please.
 
Just go to confession. You’re agonizing here over something that really can’t be resolved for you by us. I don’t know if taking a morning after pill is an excommunicable offense, and since I’m pushing sixty and had an emergency hysterectomy nearly twenty years ago, the question is moot for me personally. Explain to the priest what your thinking was at the time.

Also, remember this: Excommunication is supposed to be “medicinal.” In other words, the thinking is to shock the person into recognizing that his behavior was so sinful he has to do something formal about it to get back to a state of grace. In other words, the purpose of excommunication is not to damn someone to hell for all eternity, it’s to get them to the point of contrition and a restored relationship with God. If in fact what you did was excommunicable, the priest will know what to do or what format has to be followed or who to apply to in order to bring you back to a state of grace. In other words, if you’ll pardon the pun, there’s an app for that! There is no sin that is so great that the Mercy of God will not forgive it, provided we are willing to confess and amend our lives.

Another thing you might want to think about, and take courage from, is the fact that the Church, in the United States, anyways, has something called “Project Rachel,” for women who have had actual abortions. From what I understand, that project uses catechesis, grief counseling, and the Sacrament of Reconciliation among other things. Now, if the Church actually wanted to kick such people out and never accept them back, they wouldn’t have such a program, would they? That wouldn’t make any sense whatsoever.

NOPE! The Church is not a museum for saints, it’s a hospital for sinners, and we’re all at different places in that hospital: Some of us are in the ambulatory care clinic with flu symptoms (venial sins.) Some of us are in the ICU (mortal sins.) I don’t know which actual canonized saint said that about the church being a hospital for sinners, but it certainly made sense to me. If the analogy helps you, use it. You’re going to confession for your poor and painful soul-sickness, and Jesus, through the ministry of the priest, is right there in person as your own personal Physician.

I will remember you in my prayers tonight. But just go. Jesus and the Church want you back. Stop torturing yourself, the enemy uses that trick to keep you away. Don’t let the enemy get away with it!
 
pwlj_christ87 said:
well i am afraid of being excommunicated, or am i already? this was at least 4 years ago and i have been to confession numerous times since then, and recivved the holy eucharist almost weekly for 3 months now, it came up to my mind just the other day, and in another post was told to confession sins that were forgotten, although i dont know ifi t was a mortal sin because i did not willfully consent to go against god, i was ignoratn in this area back then
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Procuring a completed abortion is a latae sententiae (automatic) excommunicable offense under Latin Canon Law. However, with that being said, I’m not at all sure if the situation you describe would cause you to fall under that penalty, especially since you indicate you were ignorant of even the sinfulness of your actions at the time, let alone this particular Canon law. It would be best, in my opinion, to go to your local priest, confess this sin to him, and ask him about the details concerning possible excommunication relating to it.

But please do NOT worry - he will NOT excommunicate you. First of all, if you did qualify for the penalty of excommunication because of an abortion, you would have incurred it at the time of the sin, automatically. Second of all, no bishop (I doubt an ordinary priest would be delegated the authority to excommunicate someone…) would ever excommunicate a repentant sinner!! The entire point of excommunication is to show the sinner the serious errors of their ways and cause them to turn from them (which you definitely seem to have done!). You therefore have nothing to fear 🙂
 
thank you everyone i am going to go to confession today most likely
 
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