timmyo:
I’ve got two different, yet related situations. All of you guys must be getting sick of my questions, but here goes.
I’m not getting sick of them at all
In fact I didn’t realize that you had asked any before
and even if I had, I wouldn’t have minded it at all
I went to confession today and was cut off by the priest because he had to start mass. I still had a couple more sins to confess which I believe are mortal or potentially mortal. I could have forcibly inserted at least one of the sins, but I didn’t want to make the priest mad, so I let him give me absolution and we both left the confessional. Do I need to go to confession again before receiving the Blessed Sacrament?
I don’t think so.
If a priest cuts you off because he has to start Mass, then you should obey the priest and just go along with that. Cutting you off may have been right or wrong but it is a decision that is the priest’s responsibility (not only is Mass his responsibility but it is also his responsibility to act as judge in the confessional), not yours. So if it happens again, then you should with a serene conscience just allow the priest to continue as he judges, knowing that any fault committed in that regard would be his mistake and not yours.
The Church doesn’t require you to confess all your mortal sins to the priest
at all costs. If the priest asks you to stop, the Church doesn’t require you to fight over it with the priest! As long as you were perfectly willinging to confess it all, the absolution would have been perfectly valid. Even if you know that the priest is wrong to stop you you should also equally know that it isn’t your place to direct the confession and thus know that accepting the direction of the priest would not affect the validity of the confession.
As long as you had sorrow for all your mortal sins your confession for some supernatural motive (so something related to God, heaven, hell, or temporal punishment) your confession would be valid. So if you had this sorrow going in to the confessional the only way that the confession wouldn’t be valid is if you committed a mortal sin during the confession (like deliberately withholding a mortal sin knowing that you are required to confess it) – because then you wouldn’t really be sorry for all your mortal sins if you commit one at the same time. From the way you described what happened, it seems clear that you didn’t commit a mortal sin in not interrupting the priest (and as I explained you shouldn’t be thinking that you should interrupt the priest – you are not required to be the priest’s judge or superior!). It seems that you maybe you were anxious about it or became anxious about it afterwards. When dealing with as weighty a matter as heaven and hell, it is understandble to be anxious. If you want to, you can for the sake of your own peace of conscience just go to confession again, remembering that should this happen again you are under no obligation to interrupt the priest.
At your next confession, you can simply mention the mortal sins you didn’t get a chance to confess. But if you suffer from scrupolisity in this respect, there wouldn’t be an obligation to mention them – because your trying to mention them and agonizing over whether you confessed properly or not, etc., would be spiritually harmful and the obligation ceases in that case (if you commit a mortal sin you would still need to go to confession, but you wouldn’t be obliged to confess every mortal sin if trying to do so, due to scrupulosity, causes you spiritual harm)
Also, I just recalled after confression today, a serious sin from 20 years ago. I am not sure if I confessed this sin or not.
You are not obliged to confess when in doubt as to whether you committed the sin or not or when in doubt as to whether you already confessed the sin or not. If you want you can mention it just to express sorrow and thanksgiving for something God has already forgiven and absolved. A large number of people would have forgotten to confess some mortal sin or other and know that they probably have forgotten to confess some mortal sin or other without knowing which sin it was – that doesn’t mean that they have to do a general confession and re-list every mortal sin they’ve committed since baptism just to make sure that every mortal sin has been duly confessed! See what I mean? You don’t need to confess when in doubt.
