Didn't say the amount of times sin was committed

[McatholicN]

I went to confession today, but for some reason forgot to say the amount of times I committed a sin which may have been mortal. I realized that I had forgot after saying the Act of Contrition.

Was the sin not forgiven seeing as I didn’t say the number of times it was committed?

 

[LilyM]

You forgot. So it didn’t invalidate the confession and doesn’t mean you weren’t forgiven.

You can’t make a confession invalid by anything you do by accident. You’d have to intentionally not tell the number of times (presuming the sin you’re referring to is mortal, of course).

 

[Bookcat]

Only mortal sins must be confessed number and kind. If one “withholds” such …then there can be no absolution…

If one forgets such…then that sin can be absolved “indirectly” in confession with the absolution…but one is still obliged to mention it the next confession…and of course if you murder 3 persons and forgot to say the “3 persons part” honestly…then that too would be absolved the same way…and one would say one forgot it in the next confession…

Regarding The fact that you remembered it right after the act of contrition…this may be helpful in thinking about what happened…jimmyakin.typepad.com/defensor_fidei/2005/04/confession_vali.html

 

[McatholicN]

After reading Jimmy Akin’s article, it looks as though the confession was valid.

 

[Gerhard2]

I would prefer if you say what happened to the priest. I don’t know Jimmy Akin, I read the link but I really don’t know what document of the Church he is talking about or if is reasoning only. And yes, if you rememberer you must say it the next time

“If, however, the sin be omitted, not through any fault of the penitent, but through forgetfulness, it is forgiven indirectly; but it must be declared at the next confession and thus submitted to the power of the keys.”
newadvent.org/cathen/11618c.htm

 

[acadian]

God is not out to get you on a technicality.

I returned to confession after nearly a decade away, and I had a whole list of mortal sins. No doubt that they were mortal. I had no idea that I was supposed to quantify them, so I didn’t. I just laid them out there. No numbers. (maybe some of them were described with “often” or “a lot”) I sincerely hope that if the priest would have asked me for a number if it had been necessary for the confession to be valid. It wasn’t the kind of stuff that you would want to have to repeat in another confession.

But he gave me absolution, and I never had any doubt that that confession was valid. The grace was almost tangible, and it was literally life-changing.

 

[Newbie2]

Only mortal sins must be confessed number and kind. If one “withholds” such …then there can be no absolution…

If one forgets such…then that sin can be absolved “indirectly” in confession with the absolution…but one is still obliged to mention it the next confession…and of course if you murder 3 persons and forgot to say the “3 persons part” honestly…then that too would be absolved the same way…and one would say one forgot it in the next confession…

Regarding The fact that you remembered it right after the act of contrition…this may be helpful in thinking about what happened…jimmyakin.typepad.com/defensor_fidei/2005/04/confession_vali.html

We don’t want to give the wrong impression about the number of times:

Let’s say somebody masturbated daily, sometime more frequently, for 20 years. There’s no way someone could remember the exact number of mortal sins they committed over that time.

In such a case, or if one simply does not remember how many times they mortally sinned, it’s perfectly acceptable to say so. e.g. “Father, I did X, Y or Z so many times since my last confession, I don’t remember how many”.

Bottom line is that regardless of whether your remember the specifics, God knows them and knows if you’re sorry for them. We should try our best to remember, and not sweat it if we don’t.

 

[McatholicN]

After reading Jimmy Akin’s article, it looks as though the confession was valid.

I don’t know of course. Jimmy Akin isn’t infallible, after all. Was what I stated in the original post sufficient for a valid confession? Must I have said the times?

 

[baltobetsy]

I see you’ve decided to go ahead and second guess and retract everything you’ve said since you started posting on the Internet. It’s not necessary, it’s a waste of time, and from what you’ve said in another post, it’s affecting your grades. Skip this and do your school work. I promise you, that will please God and not be a sin.

 

[hartleymartin]

I think that God would give you some credit for having a contrite heart and a real desire to make amends for your sins rather than looking to send you to eternal damnation because you couldn’t remember how many times you had committed a particular sin.

I’m not saying that it is unimportant. What I am saying is that forgetting to nominate the number of times you committed a sin is quite different from intentionally trying to minimise your confession.