Eucharist and Invincible ignorance

[Jerok]

Background: I’m not Catholic yet but I’ve had my first confession, and my girlfriend is a cradle Catholic.

My question is about invincible ignorance, specifically after confession and before taking the Eucharist, and if it’s charitable to ‘pop’ the ignorance bubble so close to Mass.

For instance my girlfriend and I spent the night with each other this weekend but didn’t do any sexual acts, but I knew it was wrong (a scandal, near-occasion of sin). She doesn’t think it is wrong at all, since we didn’t do anything - so she doesn’t confess it. Driving to Mass I finally conclude I should try to amend my life and stop it, and I should try to convince her it is wrong - it’s hard because I enjoy her spending the night too. But anyway, I feel bad about telling her this right before Mass, because then she wouldn’t be able to partake in the Eucharist - or if she does, she might not be as ignorant as before and it would damage her soul.

I know leaving people in ignorance is wrong. But in this case, say you’re in the car 15 min before Mass and just had the epiphany that something was wrong and neither one of you confessed it. Should you tell her now? Or risk her partaking in the Eucharist with this mark on her soul and tell her later?

Thanks!

 

[baltobetsy]

“Popping the ignorance bubble” doesn’t retroactively make something a sin. It’s a sin if AT THE TIME you knew it was a sin and did it freely anyway. If you tell your gf and she believes you, the new knowledge will apply to future instances, not to the past.

Betsy

 

[JRKH]

The above reply pretty well covers it, but I’ll just mention that 15 mninutes before mass would not be the charitable time to bring up something like this. It obviously going take some time to talk through.
I would not choose to squirrel up her mass like that.

Peace
James

 

[Jerok]

Ah, I see. That makes a lot more sense than what I was thinking. Thanks!

 

[thistle]

Background: I’m not Catholic yet but I’ve had my first confession, and my girlfriend is a cradle Catholic.

My question is about invincible ignorance, specifically after confession and before taking the Eucharist, and if it’s charitable to ‘pop’ the ignorance bubble so close to Mass.

For instance my girlfriend and I spent the night with each other this weekend but didn’t do any sexual acts, but I knew it was wrong (a scandal, near-occasion of sin). She doesn’t think it is wrong at all, since we didn’t do anything - so she doesn’t confess it. Driving to Mass I finally conclude I should try to amend my life and stop it, and I should try to convince her it is wrong - it’s hard because I enjoy her spending the night too. But anyway, I feel bad about telling her this right before Mass, because then she wouldn’t be able to partake in the Eucharist - or if she does, she might not be as ignorant as before and it would damage her soul.

I know leaving people in ignorance is wrong. But in this case, say you’re in the car 15 min before Mass and just had the epiphany that something was wrong and neither one of you confessed it. Should you tell her now? Or risk her partaking in the Eucharist with this mark on her soul and tell her later?

Thanks!

Invincible ignorance means not knowing about Christ and his Church (the Catholic Church). If someone is a born and brought up Catholic then invincible ignorance by definition cannot apply to them.
Vincible ignorance on the other hand can apply where a Catholic doesn’t actually know about a particular teaching or has been misinformed about a teaching.