Confess to christ or priest

[Damo73]

If i was to die today and had not confessed a mortal sin to a Catholic priest, however i had confessed to christ and had repented would i go to Hell.

 

[jemfinch]

As long as your repentence involved a resolution to go to confession as soon as possible.

And don’t forget that when you’re confessing in front of a priest, you’re confessing to Christ. The priest is simply in persona Christi.

Jeremy

 

[NotWorthy]

If i was to die today and had not confessed a mortal sin to a Catholic priest, however i had confessed to christ and had repented would i go to Hell.

Why would you choose not to go to a priest?

Don’t you like to hear the words, “I absolve you in the name of Jesus Christ”?

Don’t you love to feel the weight of the world come off your shoulders as you confess your sins to someone?

Don’t you love to hear the reassuring advice from someone who has helped people with the same problems as you have for so many years?

The Sacrament of Penance is one of the greatest gifts Jesus left with His Church. Few things leave me feeling so free from the chains of sin as Confession!

 

[TheGarg]

If i was to die today and had not confessed a mortal sin to a Catholic priest, however i had confessed to christ and had repented would i go to Hell.

this is a quesiton of Judgement that is reserved for Christ alone…just another shining example of people sayin “Lord, Lord” but now doing as he commanded.

why on earth would Christ give the apostles the abilty to Forgive Sins, and not want us to use it??? why do protastants or anyone who “believes in Jesus” have a hard time submitting to His authority, and His way…*

this is the most rediculous debate ever.

no offense to you Damo73, my rant is an accumilation of personal agenda’s directing faith.

peace be to you that is Gospel by the way ]*

 

[alexaustralia]

I just placed this in another post

St. Cyprian, Letters, 18:1 (c. 250 AD)

“Since, however, I see that there is not yet any opportunity of coming to you, …should, without waiting for my presence, before any presbyter who might be present, or if a presbyter should not be found and death begins to be imminent, before even a deacon, be able to make confession of their sin, that, with the imposition of hands upon them for repentance,…”

 

[thistle]

Why would you choose not to go to a priest?

Because he’s a Protestant!

 

[NotWorthy]

no offense to you Damo73, my rant is an accumilation of personal agenda’s directing faith.

peace be to you that is Gospel by the way ]

Please make sure that we are welcome to Damo. He’s new to the forum and this would be a great time to show him how charitable Catholics are. We all love a lively debate, or we wouldn’t be here, but we can show him that we are Christians, even in our debates.

Welcome, again, Damo!

 

[VociMike]

First of all, it is confessing to Christ in either instance.

As to your hypothetical, did you not confess to a priest because there was none available, or was there one available but you refused to confess to him? Major difference!

 

[Tantum_ergo]

Welcome, damo!
First, IF you are a Catholic, then certainly you would be confessing, first to Christ in your heart when you realize your sin, and secondly to the priest to whom in apostolic succession Christ gave the ‘power to loose and bind sins’ here on earth. This gift which He gave to the world in the sacrament of confession is truly wonderful. It is a great grace.

If you are NOT Catholic, and you are conscious of grave sin, and confess to Christ, you most certainly MAY be forgiven. He is a God of mercy. But one must remember that while other churches possess some PART of God’s salvific grace, the Catholic church possesses it ALL. Why settle for part when all is offered? If you have come to the point where you are beginning to examine the Catholic faith and are wondering whether it could be all true, that is a sign of His great grace in you. Please continue to ask your questions, and don’t forget to take advantage of this site’s wonderful LIBRARY which gives many answers, as well as the Catechism of the Catholic church (which can be found online even).

God bless you!

 

[Flopfoot]

If someone repents their sin but isn’t able to go to reconciliation before dying then God might forgive them anyway (and hence they might not go to hell).

 

[Br.Rich_SFO]

If i was to die today and had not confessed a mortal sin to a Catholic priest, however i had confessed to christ and had repented would i go to Hell.

If you expressed sorrow and repentence for offending God and harming any orhers and were dertrnined to seek Sacramental Confession as soon as possible. But died before being able to do so your sins might not be held against you. But why take a chance? Become Catholic, have access to Confession, use it often, and hear the words with your own ears “Your sins are forgiven, go in peace”

 

[Malcolm_McLean]

If i was to die today and had not confessed a mortal sin to a Catholic priest, however i had confessed to christ and had repented would i go to Hell.

Probably not.
If you confess to a priest the priest will deal with it in the ordinary manner of the Church. Usually that means a token penance. Certainly priests very rarely refuse absolution unless it is clear that there is not inkling or repentance whatsoever.

If you confess to Christ directly, then Christ will deal with it directly. We don’t know how. So you take your choice, go through the approved, normal channels, or go over the ministers’ heads and call in the boss.

 

[gardenswithkids]

Please make sure that we are welcome to Damo. He’s new to the forum and this would be a great time to show him how charitable Catholics are. We all love a lively debate, or we wouldn’t be here, but we can show him that we are Christians, even in our debates.

Welcome to Catholic Answer forums Damo I’ll give you my Catholic answer to your question.

As a Protestant you don’t have full access to our beautiful sacrament of reconciliation, but of course you have access to Jesus’ mercy. Those with unconfessed mortal sin, but who are perfectly sorry for those sins would go to heaven through the mercy of Jesus.

Being “perfectly sorry” can be tricky. People often get a bit attached to their sins, knowing something is wrong but refusing to let go of it and stop sinning. The Sacrament of confession give us the grace to break away from those attachments, even if we aren’t “perfectly sorry”. If one has commited a mortal sin but has not been to the sacrament of confession (for whatever reason), Jesus may give the grace of perfect contrition.

A mortal sin (by Catholic definition) relates to a serious matter that the person also* knows* to be a serious matter. If one stays attached to their serious sins, refusing to confess the sin or accept His healing grace, and never become* truly* sorry for it, then the person choses sin over Jesus. So I ask you in turn, if a person choses sin over Jesus, do you think the person goes to heaven?

 

[havemercy]

Confessing your sins in front of a priest is confessing your sins to Christ, in the most profound way.

 

[Walking_Home]

Probably not.
If you confess to a priest the priest will deal with it in the ordinary manner of the Church. Usually that means a token penance. Certainly priests very rarely refuse absolution unless it is clear that there is not inkling or repentance whatsoever.

If you confess to Christ directly, then Christ will deal with it directly. We don’t know how. So you take your choice, go through the approved, normal channels, or go over the ministers’ heads and call in the boss.

---

I had to re-read your post to understand what you were actually saying. Confessing to our Lord directly and the part about going over the ministers head and calling in the boss.

From what you say–confessing to a priest–is an option–and one falling short of going directly to the boss. For a Catholic (your profile says you are Catholic) this is a mis-representation of what Catholic teaching is.

 

[jmcrae]

If i was to die today and had not confessed a mortal sin to a Catholic priest, however i had confessed to christ and had repented would i go to Hell.

If you had Perfect Contrition for all of your sins, you could go to Heaven - in fact you would die of happiness and go there immediately. Most of us do not have Perfect Contrition, though, so for us, there is the Confessional.

Me, I confess to a priest because I fear Hell. I also love Jesus very much, but I have moments when I love myself more than I love Jesus, and it is for those moments that I need the Confessional - if I had Perfect Contrition, then I would be unable to sin, or to do anything other than remain on my knees in prayers of gratitude and love, until such time as I am carried away to Heaven for sheer bliss.

But my reality is that I don’t do that, and although I hope for Heaven, I am still saying “Not yet, Lord!” So, for myself, I still need the Confessional. Some day, I hope to achieve Perfect Contrition, but as of today, I have not yet done so - that’s why I went to Confession last night, and instead of perfect bliss, I received the more earthly joy of hearing Christ’s words of forgiveness spoken to me in a human voice.

 

[Malcolm_McLean]

Walking_Home:

---

I had to re-read your post to understand what you were actually saying. Confessing to our Lord directly and the part about going over the ministers head and calling in the boss.

From what you say–confessing to a priest–is an option–and one falling short of going directly to the boss. For a Catholic (your profile says you are Catholic) this is a mis-representation of what Catholic teaching is.

We have freedom of action. So not going to confession but confessing sins “in your heart”, or saving them up until you meet Christ is certainly an option.

I was pointing out the implications. If you bypass the normal procedures, then you don’t know how the boss is going to react. It might be, as Protestants think, that He is irritated by the Church and wishes He had never established the bishops’ right to forgive sins. It might be that the bit of scripture that says this is in error. Or it might be that the boss sees calling Him in as an attempt to take the easy way out. That might or might not be seen as legitimate.

I think the risk isn’t so much that Jesus will refuse to forgive the sin, consigning the sincere Protestant to Hell,as that He will sigh deeply and say that He delegated the authority to the Church for a good reason. What if He says to the sinner, now you must experience for one moment the inner life of the Trinity?

 

[Verbum_Caro]

If you had Perfect Contrition for all of your sins, you could go to Heaven - in fact you would die of happiness and go there immediately. Most of us do not have Perfect Contrition. . .

. . .if I had Perfect Contrition, then I would be unable to sin, or to do anything other than remain on my knees. . .

Some day, I hope to achieve Perfect Contrition, but as of today, I have not yet done so

jmcrae,

I think you may be “overstating” what is required for perfect contrition, as it is understood by the Church.

The Church when speaking of an “Act of Perfect Contrition” is not speaking of a perfect act of contrition, which is what you seem to be describing!

Rather the act of perfect contrition has, as its primary motive, sorrow for having offended God, out of love of God. But it CAN have secondary motives as well, such as fear of Hell or punishment.

In fact, the traditional “act of contrition” that is often said during the Sacrament of Penance would be considered an “Act of Perfect Contrition” because it expresses as its primary motive (i.e. “but most of all. . .”) the love of God.

O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest all my sins, because I dread the loss of heaven, and the pains of hell; *but most of all *because they offend Thee, my God, Who are all good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace, to confess my sins, to do penance, and to amend my life. Amen.

What do you think?
God Bless,
VC

 

[Verbum_Caro]

Damo73,

Welcome to the forums.

I wanted to take a crack at your question as well.

Let me start be saying that my response is, to the best of my knowledge, consistent with the teaching of the Church. If anywhere in my response I should deviate from the teaching of the Church it should be rejected. Any errors are my fault alone, either due to my lack of knowledge or inability to communicate the concepts properly and correctly.

It is possible for mortal sins to be forgiven outside of the Sacrament of Penance (confessing to a priest) and for sanctyfing grace (salvation) to be restored.

However we must also state that:

1. This is NOT normative. Catholics hold that Christ intended the normal manner of being restored to be through His ministers through the sacrament.
2. Outside of the sacrament one must make an act of perfect contrition. Perfect contrition (a supernatural act contrition out of love for God and not out of fear of punishment) is only possible through God’s gift of actual grace.
3. For a Catholic this perfect contrition outside of the sacrament must be accompanied with the intention to avail onself of the sacrament as soon as possible. When the sacrament is available even perfect contrition, without partaking of the sacrament, cannot suffice.
4. For a non-Catholic perfect contrition may suffice. One way to look at this is that since perfect contrition consists of true love of God and obedience to His will, and since His will would include being Catholic and availing oneself of the sacraments (including, of course, Penance) then a non-Catholic may be said to implicitly desire the sacrament, even though they are mistaken about what God’s will is for them, and so do not avail themselves of the sacrament.

Here is a quote from Fr. Hardon, an emminent Catholic theologian and teacher on this subject:

Chaplains during the last war were often disturbed about the number of Catholic boys who did not know the act of perfect contrition, or thought it was too hard to make. For they realized that this act could mean eternal life for many boys. They wished that all our young people would be taught its power and importance, taught how to make it, taught to make it regularly, so that if they ever really needed it to regain sanctifying grace, it would do just that for them.

This act can be of vital importance to non-Catholics. For if they should fall into mortal sin after baptism, it is the only way for them to regain sanctifying grace. It would be a great act of charity, if Catholics told their Protestant and Jewish friends about this act of perfect contrition: what kind of love of God it involves, what kind of sorrow for sin it means, and how to make it.

Does this help at all? It is a rather cursory attempt at addressing an important issue.

Please let us know if you have any other questions, as to what the Sacrament normally entails, or for a deeper explanation of what “contrition” is, etc., and I am sure all of us here will do our best to address them.

Let me know what you think,
God Bless,
VC

 

[jemfinch]

Certainly priests very rarely refuse absolution unless it is clear that there is not inkling or repentance whatsoever.

It’s not a matter of “very rarely”; it’s a matter of “cannot licitly.” Unless the priest has manifest evidence that you’re not repentant (such as a penitent saying, “I’m not repentant”), he cannot refuse absolution.

If you confess to Christ directly, then Christ will deal with it directly.

There’s no biblical or apostolic warrant for saying that; it’s not a teaching of the Church.

We don’t know how. So you take your choice, go through the approved, normal channels, or go over the ministers’ heads and call in the boss.

Not the Catholic teaching, as noted by another person in this thread.

We have freedom of action. So not going to confession but confessing sins “in your heart”, or saving them up until you meet Christ is certainly an option.

It’s an “option” in the most unuseful way; “We have free will, therefore this is an option.” No one needs to note that; it’s understood. It’s not a licit option for a Catholic, which is certainly what the original poster was asking for.

I was pointing out the implications. If you bypass the normal procedures, then you don’t know how the boss is going to react.

That’s true enough.

It might be, as Protestants think, that He is irritated by the Church and wishes He had never established the bishops’ right to forgive sins.

Sounds to me like in that case, those gates of hell might have prevailed against the Church.

It might be that the bit of scripture that says this is in error.

Even if that were the case, this teaching and practice of the Church is not based solely on Scripture.

Or it might be that the boss sees calling Him in as an attempt to take the easy way out. That might or might not be seen as legitimate.

He might be upset because he clearly put the Apostles on earth to forgive sins, and yet Protestants consider that ministry to have ended (with no biblical justification) and don’t look for the ministers of reconciliation to be reconciled with God.

I think the risk isn’t so much that Jesus will refuse to forgive the sin, consigning the sincere Protestant to Hell,as that He will sigh deeply and say that He delegated the authority to the Church for a good reason.

That’s a good guess, but the only way really to be sure our sins are forgiven is to confess to a minister of God with the authority to forgive sins.

What if He says to the sinner, now you must experience for one moment the inner life of the Trinity?

Wouldn’t that be a reward?

Jeremy