Confession of a former atheist

[mapta]

Hi!
I’m considering reverting to the Catholic Church so I’ve been trying to do an examination of conscience to prepare for a possibile confession.
It is my understanding that for a sin to be mortal it must be committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent.
My problem is: I left the Church when I was 12 (before Confirmation) with very little catechesis under my belt and remained a staunch atheist for well over a decade. I see how I’ve sinned against the first commandment, but what about the others? For example, I certainly encouraged others to sin, I feel terrible about it, however at the time I didn’t even consider sin to be a thing, so I fail to understand how I could have had full knowledge of what I was doing and given deliberate consent.
Am I getting something wrong?
Thank you in advance for your help!

 

[CapitalistCatholic]

Did you know what you were doing might have been morally perverse to Christianity?

 

[Catholic21]

Welcome to CAF!

For a sin to be “mortal”, three conditions must together be met: “Mortal sin is sin whose object is grave matter and which is also committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent.”

Given that you said this was during a time where you did not acknowledge this type of behavior as sin would not count as full knowledge in my opinion.

If you do ever go to confession, feel free to say anything that comes to mind and don’t get too hung up on the text book definition of a mortal sin.

God Bless

 

[Trishie]

The priest will guide you.
Ask the Holy Spirit to inspire you.
And know that the Angels will be rejoicing! [Luke 15:7]

May God bless you for your courage and for responding to His grace.
May He deepen and strengthen you in faith and faithfulness.

 

[TTLE127]

You can speak to a priest, they will be glad to help. Welcome home and God bless!

 

[Dan_Defender]

at the time I didn’t even consider sin to be a thing, so I fail to understand how I could have had full knowledge of what I was doing

If I were you I would pray for guidance. It may be you don’t remember it well, but deep inside you knew what you were doing. When in doubt, confess.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

You don’t need to determine whether a sin was “mortal” or not in order to confess it.
All you need to do is confess all of your serious (aka “grave matter”) sins.

Leaving the church, being an atheist, and encouraging others to leave the church is a serious sin, although it might not have been mortal for a variety of reasons, such as you being 12 when you left and having little catechesis.

All you have to tell the priest is just what you told us:
“I left the Church when I was 12, before Confirmation, having had very little catechesis, and I remained an atheist for well over a decade. I also encouraged others to sin by encouraging them to do ______, although I didn’t fully realize those things were sinful at the time.”

You don’t need to sit down in advance and figure out which commandments you broke and whether the sins were mortal. Just tell the priest what you did. It’s like if a kid breaks a window, he goes and tells his dad, “I was throwing my baseball too close to the house and I broke the kitchen window.” He doesn’t say, “Dad, I violated the 4th and 7th commandments in a venial and possibly a mortal way.”

If that stuff needs to be figured out (it usually doesn’t), the priest will figure it out.
The priest will also help you through your confession, and if he needs to know something specific, he’ll ask.