Any one know what this means?

[js_cat3391]

I asked this in another forum and they told me to post it here.
forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=774114

books.google.com/books?id=jGOwt7y0kTgC&pg=PA225#v=onepage&q&f=false

I came across this (link above) and was wondering if anyone new what “prejudicial to a third person”, meant?

“Let your confession be plain, entire, and prudent; neither obscuring your faults nor concealing any thing wilfully, nor saying what would be prejudicial to a third person”

It is lumped in with mortal sins like omitting or obscuring your faults - causes of sacrilege, so it would seem prejudicial words would be cause of sacrilege?

I always mention other people in my confessions and no priest ever told me about this.
I never heard this before.

What was the author trying to prevent by writing this?

Would it be a mortal sin, if I said something that would be prejudicial, but asks the priest to start helping me learn what being prejudicial meant, because there are some situations that I just don’t know what to say, because I don’t know how to apply this rule?

 

[Daizies]

Well, prejudicial means: “harmful to someone or something; detrimental.” My guess is that the author is saying that you should not discuss the sins of other people on confession - like not using someone else’s behaviour to justify your own sins.

 

[CatholicRaven]

Well, prejudicial means: “harmful to someone or something; detrimental.” My guess is that the author is saying that you should not discuss the sins of other people on confession - like not using someone else’s behaviour to justify your own sins.

This was exactly my thought.

 

[js_cat3391]

Well, prejudicial means: “harmful to someone or something; detrimental.” My guess is that the author is saying that you should not discuss the sins of other people on confession - like not using someone else’s behaviour to justify your own sins.

That is what I don’t get.
To be harmful the priest would need to know this person.?

If you were using someone else’s behavior to justify your own sin, that would be like blaming people for your sins. It does not say that.?

It says prejudicial…it must be if the priest knows the person.?

 

[CatholicRaven]

It doesn’t matter if the priest knows them or not (especially since you cannot really be sure that he doesn’t know them in some way–from an online message board, for example). However, if you are aware that the priest does know them, then you may need to be a little more careful about how you word things so that you don’t identify someone unnecessarily, even if you don’t use their name (and you should not need to use names).

If you aren’t trying to blame others for your own sins, and you aren’t gossiping in the confessional, you should generally be okay.

 

[Suslar]

As said above, prejudicial to a third person also means not making someone else look bad or painting an unfavorable image of them. Doesn’t matter if the priest knows them or not. An example would be to say, “My spouse is always doing X, Y, and Z.” Maybe the priest doesn’t know your husband, but you’ve painted him to be a really rotten guy - that’s not right! It’s a sin against your husband in that case. But I believe the real point is that your confession is about you - not any other 3rd party. Try to leave them out of things and focus on your own behaviors

 

[js_cat3391]

ok thanks.