Hi Rob,
I can try to offer the Catholic perspective.
It is my understanding that for mortal sins, in order for forgiveness you must either:
- Be contrite and go to confession
- Have attrition and go to confession
- Be contrite and seriously intend to go to confession
It might be useful to clarify terms. “Contrition” in general denotes sorrow for sin. It is fundamental that
some sort of contrition is necessary for forgiveness of sins, whether mortal or venial. In the case of venial sins the contrition can be “virtual” or non-explicit, in other words implicit in a renewed act of love towards God. For mortal sins, however, contrition must be explicit.
Contrition itself can be classified as either perfect or imperfect. Sometimes “attrition” is used to denote imperfect contrition.
So recasting your three options for forgiveness of mortal sin: 1) Perfect Contrition + Sacramental Absolution; 2) Imperfect Contrition (Attrition) + Sacramental Absolution; or 3) Perfect Contrition along with the intent (explicit or implicit) to obtain sacramental absolution.
Perfect contrition has as its ***primary ***motive sorrow for sin out of love of God, with or without any secondary motives such as fear of punishment.
Imperfect contrition (or attrition) does not have love of God as its primary motive, but rather some less complete sorrow such as fear of punishment.
Both types of contrition (i.e. sorrow in general) must be
- Interior (a movement of the heart, not merely an exterior action)
- Supernatural (initiated by God’s grace, and not elicited from purely natural motives such as loss of prestige or pecuniary gain)
- Universal (extending to all one’s sins, and resolve to avoid future sins)
- Sovereign (where sin is detested above all other evil)
In other words, when true contrition is absent, attrition and the Sacrament of Confession is absent.
I’m not sure exactly what you mean by “true contrition” here. True contrition must have the four characteristics above. But both types of contrition (perfect or imperfect) are true in that sense. If by “true” you mean “perfect” than it is not the case that when perfect contrition is absent imperfect contrition is also absent.
So, why do we always have to pray the prayer of contrition?
You don’t always have to pray the act of contrition. But contrition in general is necessary for the forgiveness of sins and specifically is a necessary and integral part of the sacrament of penance. Again, contrition must have those four qualities (interior, supernatural, universal, and sovereign) – but it does not have to be expressed through a formal prayer or any exterior action.
Is it wrong to pray that we are contrite when in fact we aren’t?
It would be wrong to pretend to be contrite (to have sorrow). But there is good reason to suppose that one can make an act of contrition, which is primarily a movement of the will, without any accompanied feelings or
affect.
Shouldn’t in that case, we pray a prayer of attrition?
The motives for imperfect contrition or attrition do not rise to the completed and perfected level of perfect contrition – but they are not incompatible with perfect contrition. In other words both types of contrition can exist at the same time. I suppose if one’s
only or *main *motive is fear of punishment, or loss of heaven – then conceivably you could limit yourself to making an act in accordance with those motives.
Wouldn’t that be honest and acceptable to the priest? I’ve never tried it, so I don’t know.
The traditional act of contrition expresses both types of contrition (imperfect: “because I dread the loss of heaven and the pains of hell” rising to perfect: “but most of all because. . . your are deserving of my love”). Since they can coexist it seems odd to eliminate one. I suppose if you absolutely could not make an act of the will encompassing the latter assertion (“but most of all”) then you would omit that clause.
My understanding has been that even if you’re not contrite, you should pray that contrite prayer, to satisfy some need for the priest to think “well, he said he was contrite” or perhaps as a way to ask “Lord, make me truly sorry.”
Forgiveness can’t happen unless you actually ARE contrite, whether or not you express it to the priest. A priest may be able to withhold absolution if he has grave doubts about your contrition, and so the act audibly said can help him make that judgment. But contrition audibly expressed is not necessary, only the interior disposition.
To the best of my knowledge that is the mind of the Church on the matter. What do you think?
VC
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