Did I lie during confession?

[biblebrother234]

We were talking about me using google to copy and paste questions on a review that a teacher and he asked “did you try to answer the questions?” And I didn’t say yes or no, I said “Well they were hard!” Does that mean I said no? They actually were hard, when I actually tried on some of her reviews, I still couldn’t find the answers. It had no effect on wether it determined if it was a sin or not. Does this invalidate the confession? I didn’t realize this til after.

 

[april32010]

talk to your priest . reading your other thread it is possible that you could be prone to scrupulosity , talk to him about your difficulty in discerning what is and is not a sin. God Bless You,i’ll pray for you.

 

[Ruthie_again]

I come from a scholarly background. My mother and both her parents were scholars. Mom taught English and had no tolerance for plagiarism. So I understand these issues pretty well.

I think that the essential question here is, what does your teacher want?

1. If she wants you to treat the review like a quiz, then there is no harm in copying and pasting. All you’re doing is saving time by doing that instead of typing them out.
2. But if the review is supposed to be an essay that contains the answers to all the questions, then it would be a bad idea.

And if there is an assigned word count, that is, if your review paper must be “minimum 400 words,” than you would be padding the count.

But, if the questions are just to help you study, see #1!

As far as the question about your confession being valid, if the priest absolved you, you are forgiven. If what I wrote above convinces you that you sinned, then mention it next time you receive that Sacrament.

P.S. If there was a reading assignment for the course, that is where I’d look for the answers.

May God bless your studies,

 

[Zooman77]

This would not “invalidate” your confession since this is through no fault of your own and you thought of it after the confession you are absolved. In confession you are absolved from all your sins unless you deliberately left sins out which would then be sacrilege and you would have to re confess the sins you left out. But in this case you are fine.