Are Confessions cut short by priests valid?

[HappyPerson]

Hi everyone. I was hoping that someone could provide me an official answer to a concern of mine. If someone goes to Confession, and due to a confession line, ends up beginning a confession towards the end of the alotted time, and the priest outright tells the person to only mention the “highlights” due to time constraints prior to Mass, and therefore the person leaves without having confessed all mortal sins, not due to personal intentional elimination, but due to the fact that the priest was unable to provide ample time, is that Confession valid? I would imagine that the unconfessed sins must be confessed at a later time, but are the confessed sins forgiven, or do they remain unforgiven on the grounds that not all mortal sins were confessed during that Confession? I would imagine that they are forgiven, on the grounds that the penitent person intended to confess them, but what is the offical rule on that situation? Thanks for your help.

 

[Caesar517]

The confession is still valid, certainly. As for the unmentioned mortal sins, I believe those would be forgiven as well. The sin is to intentionally withhold a mortal sin. I don’t think a time constraint would qualify as such. I think those sins should still be mentioned at the next confession, though.

 

[HappyPerson]

Thank you for you reply, Caesar.

 

[JimG]

The confession would still be valid.

My own thinking is that it takes less than a minute to mention a multitude of mortal sins by name and frequency.

 

[ComputerGeek25]

The confession would still be valid.

My own thinking is that it takes less than a minute to mention a multitude of mortal sins by name and frequency.

I agree. Keep it short, i.e. “I fornicated once, lied a couple of times and stole a loaf of bread.” No need to tell the priest your life story. A sin is a sin. The priest can ask for clarification if need.