Confession and Amnesia

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Irishgal49

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Ok before you think I’m giving one of those “crazy hypotheticals” I want to say this is real and it’s happening to me.

I come from a horribly traumatic background. I won’t get into details but I just recalled two things I did that are probably mortal sins. It’s hard to say since I was so damaged I am not sure I had the full knowledge to understand the seriousness of my actions. I have just remembered them in full this week and prior to this week had no memory of them whatsoever.

Since I am just now remembering them should I name them tonight in Confession? My priest knows of my background and is very caring and understanding.

Also, will I go to hell if I have additional things buried in my subconscious that I don’t remember that are mortal sins on my part?

Thanks for any help you can give me,
I have Confession tonight.
 
Irishgal,

A good priest will be able to walk you through this difficulty w/o causing you any more confusion/worry. Explain your situation concisely to the priest in confession, let him discern your responsibility or non-responsibility in your circumstance, then hear what he has to say.
God has provided the sacrament of Confession for souls and the priest is the spiritual doctor.
I will not speak to specifics because over the net you can get a myriad of opinions on things like this. What good advice I know should be given is to explain the situation to a true priest of God and he can take it from there.
I will remember you in my prayers. Please pray for me.

Joe
 
Irishgal49 said:
Ok before you think I’m giving one of those “crazy hypotheticals” I want to say this is real and it’s happening to me.

I come from a horribly traumatic background. I won’t get into details but I just recalled two things I did that are probably mortal sins. It’s hard to say since I was so damaged I am not sure I had the full knowledge to understand the seriousness of my actions. I have just remembered them in full this week and prior to this week had no memory of them whatsoever.

Since I am just now remembering them should I name them tonight in Confession? My priest knows of my background and is very caring and understanding.

Also, will I go to hell if I have additional things buried in my subconscious that I don’t remember that are mortal sins on my part?

Thanks for any help you can give me,
I have Confession tonight.
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Dear friend,

Yes, if you have knowledge of these mortal sins, I would confess them. We are asked to confess all of the mortal sins that we can honestly remember by number and kind. If you honestly could not remember them before because of trauma or other mental anguish, then this is not your fault, and you are not guilty of any sin. Simply do your best to remember all that you can, and confess what you remember if you have not confessed these previously. If in doubt, confess it anyway, it can never hurt. You can also express this to your priest, that you fear that there might be some other mortal sins that you cannot remember.

Pray to the Holy Spirit, He will assist you. Have faith that God will never turn away from a sincerely contrite heart. If you go to the Sacrament and have true contrition, and make a sincere and honest effort, you can always be confident your sins will be forgiven by Jesus, our great High Priest, working through His minister. You are in my prayers.
 
I trust that your confessor will set your mind at ease on this, but, as you have asked the question here I will post Fr Vincent Serpa’s general advice on this topic.

Are unconfessed mortal sins forgiven during confession?
Usually, it is best to conclude our confession by saying, “I’m sorry for these and any sins I may have forgotten” or “all the sins of my past life”. But even if we don’t say this, any mortal sin that we have forgotten IS forgiven when the priest absolves us. However, if we should later remember a mortal sin from the past that we have not explicitly mentioned—even though it HAS been forgiven, we OWE God the acknowledgement of it to the priest, the next time we go to confession. Our Lord endured such agony to redeem us. The least—the very least we can do, is to acknowledge it to Him in the person of His priest! It’s an act of humility and gratitude and the Lord deserves to hear it.
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Fr. Vincent Serpa, O.P.
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So, if we later remember mortal sins which we honestly forgot to mention in confession, we should mention them next time we go to confession. However, that is not for the sake of restoring us to a state of grace, or to make the previous confession “valid”, as if it were only conditionally valid until we eventually confessed all mortal sins.
 
Thanks so much for the great responses, I really appreciate them. I confessed it tonight explaining that I had only recently recovered some more “memories” and that while it’s been painful, it does feel good to get rid of them.

I felt a huge load lifted when I was given absolution and usually I don’t experience this so I was very encouraged by this and appreciate my priest being so understanding.

Thanks again everyone.
 
Good for you, Irishgal! Glad to be able to help 🙂

~ Edmundus
 
***When I was taught how to go to confession, in 1963-64, (age 7 - 8, yes, I actually remember) we were taught to say “that is all I can remember” to signal the end of our confession (meaning that we can’t remember any more mortal sins); and that all mortal sins that we really didn’t remember were forgiven, in that confession. We were also told that if we did remember them (forgotton mortal sins only, venial sins don’t **have to be confessed) during a latter confession that we should confess them at that time, and say that I forgot these sins during my last confession; BUT that we had already been forgivin of them at our last confession. *
This is still what the church teaches and I teach this to my confirmation students.
 
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