Confessing to a close priest or one not well known?

[buckr02]

Hello all,

To get to the point, I have been struggling with an addiction to pornography/masturbation for about 8-10 years. Recently I have been frequenting the sacrament of Reconciliation, but not to a regular confessor. I hope to change this, but am unsure how I should do this.

There is a priest at my college with whom I am very close and I talk to him after Mass daily. Just today I spent awhile talking to him about a problem I have been having and so he and I are fairly close.

Now my problem is that I am unsure if it would be strange to begin confessing this problem to him or if it would be a great idea. I wonder if it would be more prudent to find a regular confessor that I don’t know quite so well.

Thoughts?

 

[passus]

The object in having a ‘regular confessor’ is that you *do *know him well, or at least get to know him well. If you know this priest well already, then he would be able to offer you more personalized advice and possibly help you with issues he knows might be leading you to this particular sin.

What are you worried about in confessing to him?

 

[buckr02]

The object in having a ‘regular confessor’ is that you *do *know him well, or at least get to know him well. If you know this priest well already, then he would be able to offer you more personalized advice and possibly help you with issues he knows might be leading you to this particular sin.

What are you worried about in Confessing to him?

I just was worried that it might make things awkward in the future or it might be weird. I dunno, I’m just kind of unsure what to do.

 

[JPUSC]

Just go to another priest, no big deal. You don’t have to have a regular confessor. But if that’s what you want, your college priest sounds like a good choice.

 

[passus]

I just was worried that it might make things awkward in the future or it might be weird. I dunno, I’m just kind of unsure what to do.

No, I don’t really think so. I have confessed sins like these to two different priests at my parish with whom I work closely on a number of things. It hasn’t changed anything at all.

 

[acadian]

My priest was not well known when I started confessing to him, but he is now. One of the results, I guess.

One day a few months ago, I went to confession. For me, it was a difficult one - it seemed like a lot of little things that I was ashamed of that just added up. The next day, I had to go by the office (which is in the rectory) to make copies of the altar server schedule. He stuck his head in the room where the secretary and I were talking and carried on a conversation just like nothing had transpired the day before. I don’t know how they can listen to the worst one day, and then act like nothing happened the next day, but they can. And it’s a good thing.

 

[John_Russell_Jr]

It’s best to find a good confessor and only confess to him. This will be 100 times more effective helping you in your struggles. You can choose which one, but you should never worry about your relationship with this priest being damaged. God bless.