Do you give details during confession?

[thevickinator16]

Canon 959 sets out the criteria for a valid confession:

“Canon 959 In the sacrament of penance the faithful who confess their sins to a legitimate minister, are sorry for them, and intend to reform themselves obtain from God through the absolution imparted by the same minister forgiveness for the sins they have committed after baptism and, at the same, time are reconciled with the Church which they have wounded by sinning.”

You can determine the four requirements for a valid confession from this canon. It states that in order to ‘obtain … forgiveness’ you need to
a) confess your sins to a legitimate minister
b) BE sorry for them (which is a different thing to SAYING you’re sorry, of course) and
c) intend to reform yourself
d) receive absolution from the minister

Sounds pretty clear that it’s the existence of sorrow for sin, rather than the saying of an Act of Sorrow for sin, that obtains forgivenss no? And therefore that an Act of Contrition is unnecessary.

LilyM, you are absolutely right. I have a Pieta Prayer book which has the Act of Contrition, there is a star at next to the title. At the bottom of the page it says the pray was Indugenced by the Sacred Penitentiary. April 26, 1921. Then I remembered that my priest always asks if I want to say an Act of Contrition. Never thought about why he asked, I always thought you had to pray it… Since it is a childhood habit, I will still pray it.

God Bless!

 

[DevotedCatholic]

I would have to say that most of the time you are not required to give any details unless the priest ask you in detail about what you sins you confessed, Otherwise you state what the sin is and how many times you committed this sin. Then just pay attention to what the priest tells you to do next. It might sound harder then it is, and that is true for most people, but after you finish your confession the weight on your shoulders will not be there. I have seen bits and pieces from Fr. Corapi, and though I do not have a distingusihed opinion about him I will say he has a strong personality.