I would have just wanted to ask what should I do. I have been Catholic nearly 10 years. I have been closing some memories of some sins of past all these years. I recently understood while praying that they were still offensive to God. I was wondering whether I should go n confess those. There is stuff I remember doing like as a five year old and upto when I was twenty years all kinds of things. Should I still go n confess them even though I was not Catholic when I commited some of these sins?
My answer would be different, based on differing scenarios.
Your profile indicates that you became Catholic in 2007. If you were baptised when you became Catholic, then there is absolutely no need to bring sins that pre-date your baptism to the sacrament of reconciliation. They have been washed away.
If you were received into full communion, having been validly baptised in another Christian confession, yes, sins from your past that have not been confessed are properly confessed – however, in terms of pastoral application, one would make a confession when one is received into full communion that involved a sincere and thorough examination of conscience, to resolve sins of the past.
That said, it certainly can happen that, for any number of reasons, one will remember sins from the past and even the remote past – and one can mention them in a subsequent confession. It can also happen that, as one’s knowledge and closeness to the faith grows, one’s awareness, even of past actions, can change and that may prompt a person to bring something from the past to a current confession.
But this should not be an on-going process, spanning years. The past should be consigned to the past.
Having been a confessor for a very long time, I am also a bit concerned when you are raising the issue of sins from when you were five years old…this is almost certainly before you attained the age of reason and, in any event, could not be serious sins such as what must be brought to the sacrament. Also, you must not retroject the knowledge that you have today to the knowledge you had in the past. The assessment has to be made in light of what the younger you knew then – not what you know today.
In order for a sin to be serious, the matter itself has to be serious, you have to know that it is serious, and freely choose that which is sinful. If one of those is lacking, one is not guilty of serious sin.
Now, having said all of that…you have been Catholic for almost 10 years. It would not be inappropriate to make what is called a general confession; such a confession, which is more normally done at milestone moments of life, such as taking the religious habit or a major retreat, has a very retrospective quality and can be more or less thorough.
You could make such a confession in which you address these points about which you are concerned – but then that should be the end of the matter regarding sins in the past. These sins should never again be re-visited. When one has a sensitive conscience, one must be very attentive against moving toward scrupulosity.
I should add, too: if you decide to make a general confession, it is best to do so in the context of making an appointment with the priest rather than attempting to do it in the context of regularly scheduled confession times…a general confession, by appointment, allows you and the confessor more time so that this confession could provide you definitively with the closure to those memories for which you are seeking closure. Any sense of being rushed and not being able to articulate whatever you are wanting to say could defeat the purpose and exacerbate the situation, in my opinion.
