Detail needed in Confession

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How much detail is necessary when confessing a mortal sin? I know you have to state the number, but the kind of sin and circumstances are where I get lost in the realm of details that could be provided.

I have read the link below, but it still leaves me with confusion.

jimmyakin.typepad.com/defensor_fidei/2007/03/specific_confes.html

Sticking on the topic of the article I can see how sins of impurity might be too vague and you would probably need to say impure thoughts, acts, etc., but is that as far as it needs to go? I would assume if you were married that would need to be mentioned, but would the specifics need to be mentioned? Like impure thoughts about x or just impure thoughts? Impure images/pornography or impure images of x. Would there be any topic of impure thoughts/images that you would need to state what they were about?
 
As a rule of thumb you need to let the priest know all the details so he can council you on the best way to overcome that sin.
 
I don’t think you need to let the priest know all the details. In fact, a great priest at one of the churches in Houston wrote a little something about confession in the latest weekly bulletin. Here’s the link
holyrosaryparish.org/bulletin/04-10.pdf
It is on the left hand side “Message from the Pastor.”
Not only is not elaborating or going into detail about your sins unnecessary, it causes undue waiting time for others. In some cases Father doesn’t have enough time to hear everyone’s confessions because of this. If he does want more detail, he will ask you. I would recommend if you find yourself having trouble with a particular sin and would like to have a detailed discussion with a priest, to make an appointment with him, either a confession or even a talk in his office.
 
without trying to derail this thread is there a website or something where i can read a sorta in depth all you need to know about confession kind of thing. becuase iv been wondering a lot about confession lately and realized how poorly i was taught on the whole thing.
 
If a priest wants more information he will ask for it. Some priests might want more, others may not.
 
If you are confessing mortal sin , You identify it, example, fornication, adultery, abortion, and the number of times committed. You do not need spell out detail, If you desire much council, do as one of the posters suggested, make an appointment with your priest for a good talk and direction,Peace, Carlan
 
For mortal sins: Number and kind (as Jimmy describes there) and circumstances that change the sin…such as it was your brother that you murdered or the gold cup you stole was the chalice from the Church.

As for sexual sins…yes one needs to mention things like one is married…and the particular kind as he notes…“Adultery 3x, buying and watching pornography 2x …etc” …but one does not get into unneeded details…for such can be not good for you or the Priest.
 
Bookcat said:
but one does not get into unneeded details…for such can be not good for you or the Priest.
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What would be those unneeded details? In my example, would there be any situation where something is required to be in the “x” spot or would just saying impure thoughts be sufficient?
 
newbie9 said:
What would be those unneeded details? In my example, would there be any situation where something is required to be in the “x” spot or would just saying impure thoughts be sufficient?
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If you entertain impure thoughts , you should simply say so,(Having impure thoughts and giving into them,that is acting on them are two different things) Tell him. Your confessor will ask if he needs more than that.
Peace, Carlan
 
I don’t think the circumstances of the sin are important…if you committed the sin, you committed the sin. You wouldn’t have to say that on last Saturday you were really bored, so you got dress in a blue shirt and went to some bars and got really drunk, and then you committed adultery. Just say you committed adultery.
But, maybe you committed adultery with a minor. Or looked at pornography with minors involved. The “minor” part is not a detail I would leave out. I would definitely confess something like that, because I feel like it’s a huge added element.
 
^ Yes. Your relationship to a person (such as you mentioned) or to a situation (such as doing something scandalous in a position of leadership where you are expected to be a role model, or being the one trusted to convey a truth to authorities —as a representative of a respected institution, such as a school or a court – but then violating that trust by lying). Those would be important circumstances.

Fr. Wade Menezes gives a good one on EWTN, in which a man confesses to have hit “someone” hard enough to draw blood & send the person to the hospital, but fails to confess that the “someone” was his wife. That would a material element which increases the gravity of that sin.

“Lead-up” details are not important unless what leads up to the action is consciousness that a particular environment has been an occaison of sin for you in the past and you are aware that it is likely to be again, and consenting to visiting that environment anyway. (“Whenever I go there, I do this, or meet ____; I knew that before I left, and I even thought about it; and I deliberately gave in to the temptation to put myself in a near occasion of sin”)

Also, lead-up background (as opposed to details) can be helpful to confess if the lead-up has to do with a capital sin that the penitent especially struggles with, such as lust, avarice, etc. (“I blew all my money at the casino even though I knew it was irresponsible, because I was greedy”)

So in the example just given, it wouldn’t be the “boredom” per se, but remembering that one was looking for lustful excitement and would have difficulty avoiding that in a particular environment, is a helpful thing for the penitent to confess, if that was true.
🙂
 
Elizabeth502 said:
Fr. Wade Menezes gives a good one on EWTN, in which a man confesses to have hit “someone” hard enough to draw blood & send the person to the hospital, but fails to confess that the “someone” was his wife. That would a material element which increases the gravity of that sin.

🙂
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That is a great example.
 
newbie9 said:
How much detail is necessary when confessing a mortal sin? I know you have to state the number, but the kind of sin and circumstances are where I get lost in the realm of details that could be provided.

I have read the link below, but it still leaves me with confusion.

jimmyakin.typepad.com/defensor_fidei/2007/03/specific_confes.html

Sticking on the topic of the article I can see how sins of impurity might be too vague and you would probably need to say impure thoughts, acts, etc., but is that as far as it needs to go? I would assume if you were married that would need to be mentioned, but would the specifics need to be mentioned? Like impure thoughts about x or just impure thoughts? Impure images/pornography or impure images of x. Would there be any topic of impure thoughts/images that you would need to state what they were about?
Click to expand...
If you know the number then fine say the number of times you committed the sin but the number is not required. You can say you committed the sin several times or many times, for example. Yes you need only say you had impure thoughts. You do not have to give details unless the priests asks you which would be unlikely.
 
thistle said:
If you know the number then fine say the number of times you committed the sin but the number is not required. You can say you committed the sin several times or many times, for example. .
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I assume you mean to say that if one does not know the number…one can approximate as close as one can…

For the number is required for mortal sins. (We are obliged (see Canon Law) to do so…)

but yes…of course if one after their examine does not know the number per se…one can approximate as one can…if one can say 5-8x do so…if one is can say 5-6 times a month for the last 10 years…one says that…but of course yes if one need to one can approximate wiht “many times” or “many times” etc
 
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