Confession is required only once a year

[onmyknees]

In my opinion, what you are relating here is one of the glaring problems of an open forum like CAF.

It is my observation that there is a preponderance of conservative Catholics who post on this board, in every Forum, and who follow every minuscule rule of the Catechism and every directive ever uttered by every Pope – and who expect everyone else on earth to follow the same rules and conventions “or it’s a mortal sin and you’re going to HELL!”

The letter of the law, all billion lines of them, remain as the pinnacle of their relationship with God. This obviously extends to their desire to see every rubric, every convention, every tiny detail of every Mass followed by every priest, every time, also. Yay for them… it’s obviously how they perceive the nature of God and His Church as learned, or passed down, from the time of the Church of the counter-reformation. (I was part of that church culture, too.)

On the other hand, there are a very few of us on CAF who underwent a real renewal at Vat II and in the years since, following priests whose theological formation was done just before and after Vat II – who believe that the letter of the law is secondary to the love with which we live our lives – loving God, loving and serving one another, as Jesus commanded.

These priests apply this principal as they hear confessions, realizing that it is the relationship one has with God and with people as the baseline for behavior. While not overtly denigrating the “rules,” they consider grave sin to be more along the lines of breaking those relationships and/or continuing in habits which damage the relationships. They give loving counsel to people not along the lines of black checkmarks against a hard and fast list, but mercifully, recognizing that human behavior is never perfect. They also realize that adults are ADULTS – able to act from their own informed consciences in many matters and not requiring Rome’s okay for every breath they breathe.

How grateful I am that these loving, intelligent, compassionate, empathetic priests are they who are available for the sacrament of Reconciliation – and not the people on this board who are blind to everything but following rules like little robots.

You don’t know me at all. I talk to Jesus all day long in everything I do. I try to be loving and forgiving to all people.

I love my confessor because in confession he always is very loving and kind. I feel like I am really talking to Jesus. The priest is in persona Christi in confession and I really believe this. He never discounts my grave sins and I appreciate this. When priests tell me its all okay and not to worry I feel like why did I even need to go to confession? I don’t want a scolding, mean confessor!

And about Jesus being just and merciful he is and was. Jesus himself said to keep the commandments to have eternal life and the gates are narrow and few will enter. I follow the teachings of the Church because these teachings are from Jesus! Jesus gave Peter the first pope the authority to bind and loose. “What you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and what you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” He also told the apostles, “Whose sins you forgive they are forgiven. Whose sins you retain they are retained.” And he said to them, “I still have many thing to say to you but they would be too much for you now. But when the spirit of Truth comes He will lead you into all Truth”, Now if you want to pick and choose what you want to follow than that is your choice, but I choose to follow God’s will!

 

[Tigg]

Since we moved to a progressive diocese five years ago, I have noticed that the least used room in the Church is the confessional. Pity that…since so much grace and strength is derived from confessing venial sins and getting much needed spiritual insight along the way. Hurray for us…we got a new bishop a few months ago, and slowly things are noticeably starting to change.

"Tis true that one not need go to Confession even once a year except in the case of grave sin. However…please re-read above.

It is my observation that there is a preponderance of conservative Catholics who post on this board, in every Forum, and who follow every minuscule rule of the Catechism and every directive ever uttered by every Pope – and who expect everyone else on earth to follow the same rules and conventions “or it’s a mortal sin and you’re going to HELL!”

The letter of the law, all billion lines of them, remain as the pinnacle of their relationship with God. This obviously extends to their desire to see every rubric, every convention, every tiny detail of every Mass followed by every priest, every time, also. Yay for them… it’s obviously how they perceive the nature of God and His Church as learned, or passed down, from the time of the Church of the counter-reformation. (I was part of that church culture, too.)

On the other hand, there are a very few of us on CAF who underwent a real renewal at Vat II and in the years since, following priests whose theological formation was done just before and after Vat II – who believe that the letter of the law is secondary to the love with which we live our lives – loving God, loving and serving one another, as Jesus commanded.

These priests apply this principal as they hear confessions, realizing that it is the relationship one has with God and with people as the baseline for behavior. While not overtly denigrating the “rules,” they consider grave sin to be more along the lines of breaking those relationships and/or continuing in habits which damage the relationships. They give loving counsel to people not along the lines of black checkmarks against a hard and fast list, but mercifully, recognizing that human behavior is never perfect. They also realize that adults are ADULTS – able to act from their own informed consciences in many matters and not requiring Rome’s okay for every breath they breathe.

How grateful I am that these loving, intelligent, compassionate, empathetic priests are they who are available for the sacrament of Reconciliation – and not the people on this board who are blind to everything but following rules like little robots.

Well at least you qualified your words with a reference to informed conscience, but I’d be very careful in making such a liberal statement. The foundation of the Law is love, but nonetheless, the law is still there and the perimeter has not changed no matter how much the moral relativists would wish it to be true.

Regarding those priests who try to tell us that even our capital sins aren’t so capital……(true story) the secret is the examination of conscience which we balance with Truth (which we know from the continued study of our Orthodox Catholic Faith) and PRAYER, and the pure intent of our heart to repent and please our God in all things.

 

[onmyknees]

Actually, I honestly don’t know what you are talking about. We would need to know all the details and circumstances to know exactly what the priest was allowing, not that I’m asking. I have seen too many knee-jerk reactions around here to simply take a posters single sentence summation of things as evidence against a priest that none of us here know.

It was for the good of the marriage to for me to help my husband to spill the seed because I was not able to have intercourse due to a medical problem.

 

[dnar]

Can. 916 Anyone who is conscious of grave sin may not celebrate Mass or receive the Body of the Lord without previously having been to sacramental confession, unless there is a grave reason and there is no opportunity to confess; in this case the person is to remember the obligation to make an act of perfect contrition, which includes the resolve to go to confession as soon as possible.

Does this mean someone who is conscious of a mortal sin shouldn’t go to Mass?

 

[Friar_David_O.Carm]

Can. 916 Anyone who is conscious of grave sin may not celebrate Mass or receive the Body of the Lord without previously having been to sacramental confession, unless there is a grave reason and there is no opportunity to confess; in this case the person is to remember the obligation to make an act of perfect contrition, which includes the resolve to go to confession as soon as possible.

Does this mean someone who is conscious of a mortal sin shouldn’t go to Mass?

No, lay people assist at Mass, they do not celebrate it.

A lay person conscious of a mortal sin should go to Mass but not receieve the Eucharist.

A priest who is conscious of a mortal sin should not celebrate Mass.

 

[dnar]

No, lay people assist at Mass, they do not celebrate it.

A lay person conscious of a mortal sin should go to Mass but not receieve the Eucharist.

A priest who is conscious of a mortal sin should not celebrate Mass.

Okay, so its referring to the celebrant. The word “Anyone” threw me off.

 

[Vico]

Can. 916 Anyone who is conscious of grave sin may not celebrate Mass or receive the Body of the Lord without previously having been to sacramental confession, unless there is a grave reason and there is no opportunity to confess; in this case the person is to remember the obligation to make an act of perfect contrition, which includes the resolve to go to confession as soon as possible.

Does this mean someone who is conscious of a mortal sin shouldn’t go to Mass?

No, we are all bound to participate in Mass or Divine Liturgy on holy days and Sundays, even when not in the state of grace.

Only a presbyter (priest, bishop) celebrates Mass (they are called celebrants). The faithful, including the celebrant or celebrants, receive the Body of the Lord. The faithful participate (or assist) in the eucharistic celebration.

Consider Canon 917 for wording:

“A person who has already received the Most Holy Eucharist can receive it a second time on the same day only within the eucharistic celebration in which the person participates …”

ewtn.com/library/liturgy/zlitur68.htm

 

[SeanTom]

The august sacrament of Confession has quietly disappeared in importance from our Church. Why is this?

Yes, the Church requires a single Confession annually but if one commits a mortal sin that requirement changes to: Go to Confession ASAP!

How about all the venial sins that pile up in a year and then become a mortal sin? Could that happen?

At many parishes Confession is almost an afterthought. The priests may schedule a half an hour and if one is lucky maybe a full hour once a week for Confession. After Vatican II of course the name changed to Reconciliation and people were given an option of sitting in front of the priest and confessing sins. Anonymity was stripped away.

Also, the many priests of the wood stock generation will forgive just about anything. They want us to know they care about our feelings and are not trying to judge us too harshly. However, Jesus is the judge and not the priest. The priest must follow the truth that Jesus set down for us.

I thought a priest is held accountable by God for the souls of his flock. Does anyone see the problem with little to no priestly concern about Confession?

Is there not a great risk that many souls in the Church today run around misinformed and
ignorant about the value of Confession? Are many not in grave mortal sin yet continue to receive the Eucharist because they have a misguided belief that Jesus believes only in peace and justice and will forgive them anyway because he is not a meanie?

Are these priests not putting their salvation in grave danger by for all intense and purposes ignoring the importance of Confession.

St. Padre Pio would be outraged by today’s thinking on Confession. The only good news I know of is that FSSP priests take Confession very seriously. These priests will sit and listen for as long as it takes. They care about the soul and they are prepared with the truth and with helpful prayers and ways for one to amend his ways. The priests who take Confession seriously are a small group but they are young and I can only hope that as they become leaders in the Church that Confession begins again to take on the great importance it warrants from all of us in the Catholic faith.

HOW OFTEN SHOULD/MUST WE RECEIVE THE RITE OF RFECONCILIATION?

NOTE: “CCC”, as referred to below, refers to the “Catechism of the Catholic Church“.

CCC, Article 1457 : “According to the Church’s command, “after having attained the age of discretion, each of the faithful is bound by an obligation faithfully to confess serious sins at least once a year”.

Note that the above article states that we are bound to confess “SERIOUS” (Mortal) sins, at least once a year. “Serious” sins do not include “venial” sins.

At the beginning of Mass, we pray with Father, the Penitential Rite: “I confess to Almighty God, and to you my bothers and sisters, that I have sinned through my own fault. In my thoughts and in my words, in what I have done, and in what I have failed to do; and I ask Blessed Mary, every virgin, all the angels and saints, and you , my brothers and sisters, to pray for me to the Lord out God. May almighty GOD HAVE MERCY ON US, FORGIVE US OUR SINS, etc.”

Then at the Communion Rite during Mass we say: “………forgive us our trespasses”

At Communion Father says: “This is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Happy are those who are called to his supper.” When we take the Host with a sincere heart, our venial sins are forgiven.

The above prayers do not take away our serious (Mortal) sins. We should go to confession as soon as possible after committing a MORTAL sin, but NOT LESS than once a year. Our venial sins are forgiven every time we attend Mass and receive communion, as long as we mean what we say : “God have mercy on us, forgive us our sins”. Jesus, entering our body at Communion will then enter our body free of venial sins. To take Communion with a mortal sin on our soul expands the seriousness of our mortal soul and wounds the soul more grievously.

HOWEVER, let us not ignore the fact that the more we go to confession, even if we only have venial sins to confess, the more graces we will receive. In the interim, every time we are aware of committing a venial sin, we should ask for God’s forgiveness followed by a sincere Act of Contrition.

In closing, CCC Article 1458 states: “Without being strictly necessary, confession of everyday faults (venial sins) is nevertheless strongly recommended by the Church.”
Although not mandatory, it is ‘suggested and strongly recommended‘, by the church, that we confess all sins at least once a year. But remember, Serious Mortal sins MUST be confessed as soon as possible but AT LEAST once a year.

 

[hartleymartin]

I’m lucky to have 3 priests at my local parish. A different one is rostered on for hearing confessions each Saturday for 2 hours before mass. When there is no-one there he reads the Catholic Weekly (our local Catholic Newspaper). If you turn up about 30 minutes before mass and approach any of them, they will be glad to hear your confessions just as long as they have the church set up for mass (and that should be the Altar Servers’ or Acolyte’s job too!)