Always listen to your confessor?

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SuperMonkeyMan

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Always listen to your confessor?
So I’m struggling with doubt about mortal sin and listening to my priests’ advice regarding an ethical problem at work.

Basically, we got a contract to translate let’s say 100 pages for 100,000 dollars. When we got the data we didn’t notice right away (my oversight), but the files only had about 33 pages.
I told my team leader and he told our boss, who eventually said “Don’t mention it to the client, let them figure it out because it’s a pain to have to redraft all the paper work at this point.”

Initially I went along with this, thinking the client would surely realize. However, I don’t know if they were just waiting for the whole project to conclude before even looking at the files or what, but they’ve not said a word.

Now I’m started to get worried because it’s a mortal sin to assist someone in committing a mortal sin, and to my mind, we were getting paid about 67,000 dollars too much and not saying anything.

As a lower level employee my role in this is mainly coordinating stuff. I tell the secretary “hey it’s done, send the bill.” I send a progress report to the client saying how many pages and what percent we finished.

I told my boss that for religious reasons I couldn’t send the client a progress report using their messed up numbers saying “we did 100 pages” when we really only did 33 paces. He said he understood. He said he was busy so I have to create the report, but he will send it to the client.

So I told my priest last week at confession this whole situation. I told him I had to prepare this report and order the secretary to send the bill, when I know the amount is wrong. He asked me some questions and finally said “It’s a doubtful case. You can do what your boss tells you without worrying.” Which made me relieved.
A priest in Persona Christi told me I didn’t have to worry, and I know we are supposed to cultivate obedience to our confessor. On the other hand, I fear I wasn’t detailed about the case enough.

But today was the day to send the stuff and I began feeling guilty. I asked another priest via email, explaining the report saying “we translated X number of words” and the bill. First he said to tell them the truth because it may be a trap for them to sue us. Then when I told him the only way to tell them at this point would be to go behind my boss’ back, privately contact them, and tell them we’re ripping them off (which would get me fired/us sued), he changed his advice to “You’ve done your best. You told your boss your displeasure with his decision, but if he’s determined to do it his way, let him and let the company face the consequences.”

So two priests have basically told me I haven’t mortally sinned, but I still feel guilty like I want to run to the confessional… I mean, I did have to prepare that report (though, even if I didn’t, my boss could’ve done it in about 10 minutes)…
 
In your past thread on Jan 20 you stated that you have scrupulosity.

We recommend that scrupulous people not post threads like this because it is unlikely to help their condition and any responses you get might just make your condition worse.

Please continue to speak to your priest and follow what he says. In addition, you should probably be going to the same priest consistently so he can best help you with your scruples.
 
In your past thread on Jan 20 you stated that you have scrupulosity.

We recommend that scrupulous people not post threads like this because it is unlikely to help their condition and any responses you get might just make your condition worse.

Please continue to speak to your priest and follow what he says. In addition, you should probably be going to the same priest consistently so he can best help you with your scruples.
Thanks for this.

I was just about to give a detailed response. If this is the case I will hold off.

I also agree you need to stick with one Priest.

God Bless
 
Here’s another priest saying you shouldn’t worry about this. You were given good advice by both of the priests you talked to. You also shouldn’t shop for opinions, from priests or from strangers on the internet. That’s just going to feed your compulsions. It’s called reassurance seeking, and it happens with anxious thought patterns. No answer is ever going to be good enough for very long, and you’re going to keep searching.

Stop posting these threads, listen to your priest.

-Fr ACEGC
 
The forum is “self moderating” which means that all users are permitted and encouraged to help moderate, either by flagging or by posting an appropriate response as here.

I am not the official forum moderator; they can be contacted at @camoderator if you need them, but we get similar threads to yours from scrupulous people just about every day on the forum, and we all know the drill.
 
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So two priests have basically told me I haven’t mortally sinned, but I still feel guilty
They are right, but that still leaves you uncomfortable. You are unhappy because you see an apparent injustice and you can’t do anything about it.

I say “apparent injustice” because I am not convinced that the client doesn’t know what’s going on. Perhaps the client is doing it as a favor, is returning a favor, has rounded up, is compensating for underpayment on another contract, will come up with more pages, or has another valid reason. Your boss may know this and not wish to explain it to all the workers.

Rest assured, if there is a sin, it is not your sin. If there is a problem, you do not have to make it your problem. You have done well to bring it to the attention of the team leader and the boss.

Continue to do your job well. Trust your team leader and the boss to do their jobs. Be at peace.

And yes, always listen to your confessor. God bless.
 
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