Can a person, fighting against their atheism and not Catholic, go to Confession?

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HarveyL said:
Though I’ve been atheist most of my life, I am working for belief, and working very hard at it. I will be enrolling in RCIA for the purpose of converting to the Catholic faith and am working to prepare myself by eliminating my atheism by the time it starts.

Occasionally I feel a strong desire to confess my sins but, as I understand it, I can’t be absolved of them at the current state of my being.

Is that true? Can I go to Confession? I’ve read a lot about Penance and know what to do to make a proper confession.
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I think you’ll find that as part of your RCIA training, you go to confession at some point I can’t remember if it was just after I’d been accepted into the church, or towards the end of the training.

I’d suggest you talk to the parish priest, and tell him about your concerns. After all, if you do go to confession you’d be talking to him, so you may as well get your foot in the door first.
 
One of my friends who was experiencing some of life’s extreme difficulties visited our rectory and asked the “duty priest” if he could give my friend a blessing.

It does not require an examination of conscience or confidentiality. It’s not a sacrament and not subject to rules and regulations. It may be somewhat unusual, but it’s quick and easy and … reassuring.

I have started asking for a blessing from time to time.

And I found that some priests give blessings freely and openly.

One priest was elderly and could no longer drive and if anyone gave him a lift, the driver got a blessing.

Just a neat thing.
 
Yeoman said:
I admit that I was thinking of the Western world, not other areas where things are very rough indeed for Christians. That’s an excellent point.

Still having lived now over half a century and seen plenty of the darker side of life, the illusion of the fruits of the world in our fat land, vs those real ones presented to us when we live with the Church actually does make living as a Catholic easier. It’s easier to pick up your cross and live a natural life, here where we are free to do it, than live a false one in miserable sin, which is what the world offers us around us.

On Confession, an interesting development here for the past several years is that the Confession lines are long every Sunday. I don’t know what’s going on, but that’s been the case for awhile, and applies to all the local parishes. Indeed, I’ve been to one where, on just a regular Sunday, the lines are often like we used to expect only at Easter. Something is happening.
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Look into Our Lady of Good Success. I know if you haven’t heard her called that before it sounds kinda crazy, but it is powerful and inspirational. The Holy Mother prophesied all the turbulence in the Church and the return of the Church in the 1600s to a sister in Equador. All her prophesies have been fulfilled minus one and most or at least a lot of them had to do with the crisis in the Church in the late 20th century (or from 1960-1999 I am assuming!). The promise of the return of the Church, the one that hasn’t been totally fulfilled yet, that would have a lot to do with the longer lines, though I’m afraid you are a lucky one. I’m still one of maybe a dozen or so people that go to confession often but one of hundreds that receive in my parish.

You make some very good points brother, yes once in the state of grace and with Gods blessings life does seem to have a joy, a simplicity, an ease that isn’t there when you are without Him, I guess I was trying to focus on our poor brothers and sisters around the world that suffer so much!
 
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HarveyL:
I will be enrolling in RCIA for the purpose of converting to the Catholic faith and am working to prepare myself by eliminating my atheism by the time it starts.
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I don’t really understand what you mean by “eliminating my atheism”. Either you believe there is a God, in which case you aren’t an atheist. Or you don’t, in which case you are an atheist. There’s no middle ground. By the fact that you’ve enrolled in RCIA and see a benefit in going to Confession, I suggest that you believe in God. If so, your atheism is gone. Job done.
 
Nixbits said:
I don’t really understand what you mean by “eliminating my atheism”. Either you believe there is a God, in which case you aren’t an atheist. Or you don’t, in which case you are an atheist. There’s no middle ground. By the fact that you’ve enrolled in RCIA and see a benefit in going to Confession, I suggest that you believe in God. If so, your atheism is gone. Job done.
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Maybe you haven’t heard the expression, “Lord I believe, help my unbelief”? It’s very impressive that there is no middle ground for you, but it’s not like that for everyone at every moment.
 
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1neophyte:
It’s very impressive that there is no middle ground for you, but it’s not like that for everyone at every moment.
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Do you perceive a middle ground, then? ‘Atheism’ is a view on a single issue. If you believe in God (a God or gods) then you’re a theist. If you don’t believe in God then you are, by definition, an atheist. There’s certainly room for alternative interpretations of what these terms mean. If that’s the case, then it simply requires an explanation of what definition of ‘atheism’ is being used. But it’s not clear where the middle ground between theism and atheism lies.
 
I don’t see doubt as a middle ground between belief and lack of belief. Doubt relates to the degree of certainty with which we hold that belief or lack of belief. There are very few things that we hold to be 100% certain. Most things we believe on the basis of probability.

For example, I do not believe that ghosts exist. I’m pretty sure that my disbelief is true (i.e. it matches reality). But, if pressed, I would admit to some small degree of doubt. It seems just possible that some as-yet unidentified phenomenon could account for genuine occurrences of ‘ghosts’. So, I am firmly a disbeliever, but I have doubts.

If my doubts grew, there might come a time when my doubts tip the balance and I abandon my disbelief and become a believer. But at any time, I either reject the notion that ghosts exist, or I accept it. I don’t see a middle ground, whatever the degree of doubt I might have.
 
Nixbits said:
I don’t see doubt as a middle ground between belief and lack of belief. Doubt relates to the degree of certainty with which we hold that belief or lack of belief. There are very few things that we hold to be 100% certain. Most things we believe on the basis of probability.

For example, I do not believe that ghosts exist. I’m pretty sure that my disbelief is true (i.e. it matches reality). But, if pressed, I would admit to some small degree of doubt. It seems just possible that some as-yet unidentified phenomenon could account for genuine occurrences of ‘ghosts’. So, I am firmly a disbeliever, but I have doubts.

If my doubts grew, there might come a time when my doubts tip the balance and I abandon my disbelief and become a believer. But at any time, I either reject the notion that ghosts exist, or I accept it. I don’t see a middle ground, whatever the degree of doubt I might have.
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So first there’s no middle ground, then all of a sudden there is a balance that can be tipped after doubts move incrementally across…the middle ground? I’m not sure what you’re trying to achieve besides confusion over semantic nonsense, but you’ve rendered a very beautiful and enlightening discussion exhausting and tedious. Well done.
 
I was merely trying to substantiate my viewpoint, as others have done. I’m sorry that you’ve found that exhausting and tedious.
 
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