Being specific in confession

[thomasf]

If you forget a sin, is it really concealing it? I had 17 years outside the church, and even when I was younger and going to church I didn’t go to confession often. What about stuff I never remember? I have one priest confessor that asks me “Are you sorry for all your sins you ever committed?” during confession. Doesn’t that kinda cover that at least?

 

[Bookcat]

So to be clear here, if I go to confession, forget some sin from my past that is mortal, I am forgiven for all sins at that confession even if I don’t confess them (not on purpose)?

I ask because I was gone from the church for a long time and there was a lot of stuff that happened during that time. Obviously I went to confession when I first came back to the church, and go regularly now. Yet every once in a while something from my past pops up in my memory. Do I still need to confess those sins now, or has all that been covered in the confession(s) I have done since returning? I ask, because I just don’t know. I have been confessing these things as they come along, but the last time I brought up an old sin the priest told me to let it go, and not to bring up those old things anymore. And I’d like to do that, but want to make sure I’m confessing things properly.

If it was mortal (and not pre-baptism if a convert) and not confessed of course.

jimmyakin.com/2006/09/a_reader_writes_1.html

(Now I will note for some readers that --some struggle with scrupulosity and may start wanting to re-confess all sorts of things or confess all sorts of things not needful – they need a regular confessor to guide them.)

 

[Bookcat]

If you forget a sin, is it really concealing it? I had 17 years outside the church, and even when I was younger and going to church I didn’t go to confession often. What about stuff I never remember? I have one priest confessor that asks me “Are you sorry for all your sins you ever committed?” during confession. Doesn’t that kinda cover that at least?

We do a diligent examination of conscience --but sometimes we simply do not remember and will never remember some mortal sin --especially someone who was away for a while.

For stuff one can not remember-- that is a kind of “impossibility”.

How can one confess what one does not remember?

So the person being contrite etc for all mortal sins …and yes one can say something to the effect “and all the sins (at least mortal) of ones life since baptism” --such are “indirectly absolved” along with the rest. Now if say later all of a sudden one remembers a mortal sin that was not confessed directly – one mentions it in the next confession.

We are not Spock

 

[Bookcat]

A forgotten mortal sin in not a sin that was already confessed, even though it may already be forgiven. If you remember an unconfessed mortal sin, mention it next time

…context of course provided it --but wanted to make it clear for the casual reader.

(also of course there can be some exceptions…such as some kinds of scrupulosity the regular confessor may have stop a person from going into the past due to their particular scrupulosity etc --they may say something like --only confess it if one is 1. certain it was mortal and 2. certain it was not confessed as it ought …or memory disorders perhaps etc)

 

[Vico]

If you forget a sin, is it really concealing it? I had 17 years outside the church, and even when I was younger and going to church I didn’t go to confession often. What about stuff I never remember? I have one priest confessor that asks me “Are you sorry for all your sins you ever committed?” during confession. Doesn’t that kinda cover that at least?

If you do not remember then you are not concealing. Concealing is not confessing a remembered serious sin. We are not required to be sorry for all our sins, but that would be the best. But we can be sorry for all those that we remember, and that were previously confessed, (that are serious) and receive absolution. I believe that many people are not sorry for their venial sins.

 

[thomasf]

Thanks everyone for your answers, especially the Jimmy Akin link.