Do I need to confess sins committed without full knowledge?

[nickybr38]

OP
Please go talk to a confessor. Not to be forgiven again. But to help you understand that the guilt you still feel is unnecessary. I do enjoy the debate and want to continue it perhaps on another thread. Nicky is a class act. And though you are witnessing us disagree rest assured we are nothing but two amatur Catholics just trying to make sense of it all.
I would welcome another thread about this topic but I cannot in good conscience continue on this thread because I don’t want to engage in a conversation that could lead you to unnecessary justification for your sin when that sin is no more. I can see from previous posts that you still struggle with some Church teachings, and I encourage you to keep struggling, to keep seeking. And to keep being obedient even when it is hard or when you don’t understand, or when it does not make sense. I have read some posts of yours and have felt an incredible amount of emotion in them. Thank you for sharing with us, thank you for seeking the good.
Now, go see a good priest!

God Bless You.

I have not seen the poster before. I apologize if I’ve misunderstood you. Imagine just coming across this post and never having seen this poster before and reading your own posts…they struck me as rather combative to the OP, which, of course, made me a bit defensive (on OP’s behalf), and I think in the same situation you might have also gone: What?

Either way, I stand by my response to the OP’s original question. Grave sin must be confessed, whether or not we committed them with full knowledge or not.

I also stand by the fact that many Protestants do NOT know their actions are sinful. The confusion Protestants face is a truly sad thing and clearly an act on Satan’s part. Confusion masks truth, which, of course, is the point. We mustn’t scoff at them and say: You knew it was sinful you just wanted to pretend you didn’t know.

 

[nickybr38]

Unfortunately, in some places a confessor just may tell the person not to worry about it! Could that not be a BIG problem? So many people as you say, need the church, need God, need confession and the sacraments. But they ALSO need someone who’ll tell them the hard truth.

In some cases parishioners may not feel comfortable speaking to the confessor. In my area the priests are rather… difficult to speak to. They are all from other countries with different cultures and vary from being cruel because I don’t understand certain things or harsh because I struggle. At this point I am hesitant to ask questions of them, which is why resources such as this website are so very important.

I don’t know the OP’s situation. If he is comfortable asking his confessor questions then all means he should! If, however, it’s not so easy then this website may be a portal for him to learn. We should keep that in mind while answering his questions.

 

[LegoGE1947]

In some cases parishioners may not feel comfortable speaking to the confessor. In my area the priests are rather… difficult to speak to. They are all from other countries with different cultures and vary from being cruel because I don’t understand certain things or harsh because I struggle. At this point I am hesitant to ask questions of them, which is why resources such as this website are so very important.

I don’t know the OP’s situation. If he is comfortable asking his confessor questions then all means he should! If, however, it’s not so easy then this website may be a portal for him to learn. We should keep that in mind while answering his questions.

A website like this could also be a way the OP to get up the courage to ask a confessor and feel more comfortable about it. We all struggle with things and it helps to know one is not alone but that at least someone “has their back” as it were.