Confessing without revealing sins of another

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Veronica97

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I was away from the Sacrament of Confession for about 7 years, and I came back about 20 months ago. I am still remembering sins from my past, and so I try to confess them when I remember them. What do I do if I remembered that I failed to encourage my husband to do something that he was morally obligated to do and probably legally obligated to do? It was a serious obligation, and I may have even (by my words and attitude of fear, etc.) discouraged him to do the right thing? (Although he was pretty opposed to doing it anyway and likely wouldn’t have complied even if I had encouraged him.) This is my pastor that I’ll be confessing to and he knows my husband. How specific do I need to be about what the obligation was? I don’t want to make an invalid confession; neither do I want to confess the sins of someone else.
 
You don’t have to say it was your husband. Say a family member. You don’t even have to say what it was. As you state you are confessing your sin not his.
 
state i failed to do what was right by discouraging another from doing what was right.
 
Doesn’t it make the sin worse though, if you’ve discouraged your own husband to do the right thing? Aren’t we supposed to try to help our spouse get to Heaven? Could I say “someone close to me” or “someone to whom I have an obligation to steer in the right direction?”
 
What if I say “immediate family member”? Would that work?
 
I’ve found it’s easier to state the pertinent facts. If I committed a sin either by encouraging my wife to do something sinful or by her encouraging me, I’ll say it was my wife and not try to whitewash the situation. I’d rather walk out of the confessional knowing I’ve given a full and accurate Confession, rather than have doubts later about whether I compounded my sin by not confessing it properly.
 
Gordon_Sims said:
I’ve found it’s easier to state the pertinent facts. If I committed a sin either by encouraging my wife to do something sinful or by her encouraging me, I’ll say it was my wife and not try to whitewash the situation. I’d rather walk out of the confessional knowing I’ve given a full and accurate Confession, rather than have doubts later about whether I compounded my sin by not confessing it properly.
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Yeah, I’ve decided to go out of town to another priest for confession tomorrow. That way I can state my sins accurately, and the priest doesn’t know me or my husband.
 
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