Confession for baptized?

[dulcissima]

Pug, I understood your post to mean that it is certainly possible that someone could go years without committing a mortal sin, so there should be no requirement that a baptized convert go to confession before entering the Church. It may well be the case that someone can go that long without committing a mortal sin; however, all Catholics are obliged to go to confession when they have the stain of mortal sin on their conscience or at least once a year even if they have not committed a mortal sin. Personally, I think it is a good idea to go much more frequently than once a year, because otherwise it is easy to convince yourself that your sins are not so grave or were unintentional. I think having to to confession prior to entering the Church and at least every year thereafter is a good reminder that we are all sinners, and that every sin, no matter how small, is offensive to God.

 

[BrownR]

Perhaps you misunderstood me, but I’m not sure, so perhaps I misunderstand myself. I can have no idea what is in their heart, and I didn’t think I said that I did. I do not know what is in their life. I simply cannot.

I think it is great to encourage confession, and I do encourage it. If a candidate expressed a need to go again even right before the Vigil, I would respond by encouraging them to approach the priest, or by offering to get a priest into a box for them. For some people, confession is best quite often. For example, a person struggling with self-abuse might benefit. I have zero issue with this. That is what the sacrament is there for. I do not think Catholics are in less need of this healing sacrament than they were before. It could help so many people, and is designed for us.

The thing I dislike is when it is implied that there is some way to guarantee that *every *baptized person will do a mortal sin in a certain amount of time, say, two years, no matter how God might have aided the person, so that they can point to such a person and say he needs to go to confession on account of mortal sin. Nobody on the thread implied it, and the policies surely do not imply it, but sometimes certain things get my back up on the local level. I’m not sure why. That is why I spoke up here because I felt reasonably confident jmcrae would offer an enlightening comment (and so it was).

I hope that makes it clearer. Even if it doesn’t, I apologize for messing up your thread. Looking back, I see how what worried me is the opposite of what you were asking about, so my post was confusing in that context.

My apologies. I went back and re-read your post and I think I completely misinterpreted it. I thought you were saying that an entering Catholic shouldn’t need to confess again before the Easter Vigil if he/she have already given one recently. Meaning, that a convert from another tradition should be capable and furthermore should be expected to refrain from mortal sin until Easter Vigil. Now that you have clarified things in your second post, I don’t think you were approaching the topic from a self righteous or judgmental perspective, but merely reflecting on the requirement of confession in the context of the technicalities of mortal sin, and having a personal problem with the universally implied mortal sin that is intrinsic to the “requirement” itself. Anyway, my apologies for my strong words considering that I seem to have severely misinterpreted your original post!

 

[Pug]

I went back and re-read your post

No worries! And yes you have figured out what I meant to say.

dulcissima:

I think having to to confession prior to entering the Church and at least every year thereafter is a good reminder that we are all sinners, and that every sin, no matter how small, is offensive to God.

Yes, that would be a good reminder. There are many opportunities for conversion in life. In fact, every morning we can get up and rededicate ourselves to God. Going to confession often will help keep this need for continuing conversion in our minds.

I think it might be helpful to add two links about what the exact requirement for yearly confession is in the Ask an Apologist section.