Does not doing your penance disqualify your confession? Is it a sin?

[Polak]

Not that there is any reason why somebody would not want to do it, but I assume once you leave the confessional your sins have been forgiven.

Is doing the penance part of the condition to be forgiven? My gut thought is no, as if you have been forgiven once you leave the confessional, that won’t be undone if you do not do the penance. I think of the penance as something you want to do for yourself and it is proper to do it, but not a rule.

Having said that, if somebody for some reason did not like doing penance and avoided doing it every time, would this in itself affect the confession or at least be sinful and mean they have to go to confession again (this would of course cause a bit of a vicious circle)?

 

[RolandThompsonGunner]

Having said that, if somebody for some reason did not like doing penance and avoided doing it every time, would this in itself affect the confession or at least be sinful and mean they have to go to confession again (this would of course cause a bit of a vicious circle)?

My understanding is that it wouldn’t invalidate the absolution, but if someone never intended to do their penance I’d wonder how genuinely contrite they were. Like, “really? You say you’re sorry for your sins but saying a few Hail Marys is too much to ask?”

 

[Tis_Bearself]

Is doing the penance part of the condition to be forgiven?

No. You’re forgiven when you’re absolved. Penance is an extra step to try to repair the damage you caused to the world by sinning. It has nothing to do with your forgiveness.

Having said that, if somebody for some reason did not like doing penance and avoided doing it every time, would this in itself affect the confession or at least be sinful and mean they have to go to confession again (this would of course cause a bit of a vicious circle)?

It doesn’t affect the confession you just made, assuming you were sincere in your repentance (in other words, not planning to commit a future sin while you’re expressing contrition in the confessional, see my post below).

However, willful refusal or neglect of doing an assigned penance is likely a separate sin of its own, so you’ve basically just finished confessing and now you commit a brand new sin by willfully refusing or neglecting to do your penance.

If you don’t willfully refuse or neglect your penance, and instead just accidentally forget, then not a sin.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

but if someone never intended to do their penance I’d wonder how genuinely contrite they were. Like, “really? You say you’re sorry for your sins but saying a few Hail Marys is too much to ask?”

Yeah, one thing to keep in mind is that most priests give incredibly small penances these days.
The strictest priest I typically get for confession (he’s from Africa) gives a penance of 10 Hail Marys.
Most of them give three Hail Marys, or one Hail Mary, or one Our Father.
You could knock it off in 30 seconds after you leave the confessional.

Furthermore if you’re in the confessional confessing your sins but planning to not do your penance and you don’t mention that, you’re committing a sin of either withholding a sin (if it’s possibly grave/ mortal, as it might be if you have a habit of refusing to do penance in this way) or presumption (assuming you can just skip penance and it’s going to be okay with God that you did that).

So there is a question of whether you just made a bad confession, but the issue is not that you didn’t do the penance, the issue is that you’re planning to commit a future sin - wouldn’t matter if the future sin was not doing penance, or stealing a candy bar from the drug store on the way home, or missing next Sunday’s Mass without a good reason. You can’t sincerely say in confession, “I firmly resolve, with the help of thy grace, to sin no more” if you’re already planning to sin while you’re saying it.

 

[Cor_ad_Cor]

Failure to complete penance, as others have said, is just something to be mentioned at your next confession (whenever that comes).

Furthermore if you’re in the confessional confessing your sins but planning to not do your penance and you don’t mention that, you’re committing a sin of either withholding a sin (if it’s possibly grave/ mortal, as it might be if you have a habit of refusing to do penance in this way) or presumption (assuming you can just skip penance and it’s going to be okay with God that you did that).

So there is a question of whether you just made a bad confession, but the issue is not that you didn’t do the penance, the issue is that you’re planning to commit a future sin - wouldn’t matter if the future sin was not doing penance, or stealing a candy bar from the drug store on the way home, or missing next Sunday’s Mass without a good reason. You can’t sincerely say in confession, “I firmly resolve, with the help of thy grace, to sin no more” if you’re already planning to sin while you’re saying it.

This (willful failure to complete penance) can possibly invalidate your confession because valid matter for confession includes repentance; it’s highly questionable that one is repentant if planning another sin.

 

[Polak]

The strictest priest I typically get for confession (he’s from Africa) gives a penance of 10 Hail Marys.
Most of them give three Hail Marys, or one Hail Mary, or one Our Father.

Polish ones are more like the African ones then and vice versa. 10 Hail Marys or a Chaplet of the Divine Mercy aren’t even considered ‘strict’ in Poland, just standard penance.

I remember being told my penance by a British priest and being tempted to say, ‘are you sure you don’t want me to do anything else?’

 

[Tis_Bearself]

I’m pretty sure the Latino priests around here may give stricter penances too.
I don’t go to confession to them though, because they are primarily focused on hearing the confessions of immigrants who speak Spanish, and there are plenty of English-speaking priests for me to go to without taking up the time of the small number who serve the large Spanish-speaking population here.

My last confession was to one of the local US-born pastors around here. I hadn’t gone to confession to him before, and his parish is really big and he hasn’t been here long and we just had months of COVID shutdown and I don’t attend his parish all the time, so even though we were face-to-face he doesn’t know me. After I told my sins he was giving me advice and he asked me, "Do you pray?’ I about fell off my chair, I was thinking “I just stood in line for 20 minutes to go to confession to you and I just told you my last confession was 3 weeks ago, and you’re asking me do I pray? Would I even be here if I were the type of person who didn’t pray?” But then I thought he must actually meet a lot of people who say, no they don’t get around to praying.
He gave me a penance of one Our Father.

 

[Vico]

…
Is doing the penance part of the condition to be forgiven?
…
Having said that, if somebody for some reason did not like doing penance and avoided doing it every time, would this in itself affect the confession or at least be sinful and mean they have to go to confession again (this would of course cause a bit of a vicious circle)?

Penance is required "to put off completely the “old man” and to put on the “new man.” " and besides what the priest proposes, one does more. Better now than in the purgatorial state.

Catechism of the Catholic Church

1459 … Absolution takes away sin, but it does not remedy all the disorders sin has caused.62 Raised up from sin, the sinner must still recover his full spiritual health by doing something more to make amends for the sin: he must “make satisfaction for” or “expiate” his sins. This satisfaction is also called “penance.”

1494 The confessor proposes the performance of certain acts of “satisfaction” or “penance” to be performed by the penitent in order to repair the harm caused by sin and to re-establish habits befitting a disciple of Christ.

1473 The forgiveness of sin and restoration of communion with God entail the remission of the eternal punishment of sin, but temporal punishment of sin remains. While patiently bearing sufferings and trials of all kinds and, when the day comes, serenely facing death, the Christian must strive to accept this temporal punishment of sin as a grace. He should strive by works of mercy and charity, as well as by prayer and the various practices of penance, to put off completely the “old man” and to put on the "new man."84

 

[BornInMarch]

The explanation I’ve heard was that the priest saying your sins are forgiven at the end of confession keeps you out of Hell, but that doing the penance assigned to you keeps you out of purgatory.

 

[Anesti33]

The explanation I’ve heard was that the priest saying “Go and sin no more” at the end of confession keeps you out of Hell, but that doing the penance assigned to you keeps you out of purgatory.

Huh, my confessors never say “sin no more” because that is not part of the Rite. They say “Go in peace.”

 

[BornInMarch]

You know darn well what I meant.