Forgiveness of Sins without Confession

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The version I recite omits the very words that you bolded, and I say “to do penance, to amend my life, and to avoid sin in the future”. The part about confessing is implicit.
 
That’s not what I meant. @AHapka was on the right track by stating that God can forgive sins outside of confession. However, the ordinary means is the Sacrament of Penance (Confession).
 
Vico said:
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OurLadyofSorrows:
Perfect Contrition is a very hard state to achieve, the penitent must be free from ALL attachment to sin.
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You must be thinking of the plenary indulgence requirement, not perfect contrition.
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Correct. “Perfect contrition” means that your contrition is based on the fact that your sin offends God. Not that you know it’s wrong, or that you don’t want to go to hell, or that you’ve offended a person – perfect contrition means “God, I’m sorry because it’s you whom I’ve offended.”

Add to that the requirement that, even with perfect contrition, recourse to sacramental reconciliation is still required.
 
I agree with you and thinking about what you said it seems like there can be something similar to the “baptism of desire” with confession. God may consider the lack of knowledge of the sacrament and forgive sins according to His Mercy.

Great post HomeschoolDad
 
Ahhh confession, I usually never was very honest during confession anyways. I just felt uncomfortable as a kid going to rat on myself to Father Ochoa, plus he was the driest personality type too; like not comforting or easy to talk to at all. One time he actually got frustrated with me and told me not to come back to confession until I improved my life. So what, it was winter of 73 or 74, it was freezing being Chicago past September. Anyways my friends and I went to go see the Exorcist after taking putting a few beers and Valiums down. I know, I was a dumb kid, it was freezing and also it was the 70s, (which was a weird time)aha I don’t know why, but my friend and I went to confession all messed up after the movie and asked the father if he’d help us do an Exorcist. Oh boy, he was livid and told my dad. I ended up getting a worse beating from my old man than the priest at the end of the exorcist.
 
My sister’s response to these proofs was, “well you know some people interpret those verses differently.” There isn’t much you can do with that thought process.
 
According to some priests just one bad thought is a mortal sin so most of us must be in mortal sin every minute of our lives.
 
The thought per se is not sinful - as they occur to us for no apparent reason. The great Saints were harassed with vicious and scandalous thoughts of every kind. It is what we do with those thoughts.

Now, addressing the OP: as to forgiveness via confession, our Lord intended for us to know - not presume, not guess, not assume that our sins are forgiven. He erased all doubt by telling the sinner that they were forgiven, and taught His apostles the same.

It is the normative means of achieving a state of sanctifying grace. Perfect contrition? Certainly! But, closure is only brought via absolution and penance.
 
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Thank you !
You could always try quoting Article 11 from the (Lutheran) Confession of Augsburg:
Of Confession they teach that Private Absolution ought to be retained in the churches, although in confession an enumeration of all sins is not necessary. For it is impossible according to the Psalm: Who can understand his errors? [Ps. 19:12]
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mdcpensive1 said:
The question is why they need “perfect” contrition. Why is their sins not forgiven if they don’t have perfect contrition. Where does scripture say something about this…
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The only verse I could find that related to this was 2 Corinthians 7:10:
“For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death.”
mdcpensive1 said:
God may consider the lack of knowledge of the sacrament and forgive sins according to His Mercy.
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It would be nice if there could be some sort of overpriest, like a High Priest, who could always be available to us no matter where or when, and who could always intercede on our behalf 😉
 
mdcpensive1 said:
I agree with you and thinking about what you said it seems like there can be something similar to the “baptism of desire” with confession. God may consider the lack of knowledge of the sacrament and forgive sins according to His Mercy.
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Yes and no. A “baptism of desire” doesn’t require that a subsequent sacramental baptism take place, if possible. The graces of the sacrament are present in a ‘baptism of desire’, full stop, end of paragraph. Forgiveness of sins through “perfect contrition” does, however, require subsequent recourse to the sacrament of reconciliation, if that becomes possible. So… there are analogies here, but they’re not the same situation.
BigRon said:
According to some priests just one bad thought is a mortal sin so most of us must be in mortal sin every minute of our lives.
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Umm… I think you’re thinking of Jesus, not just “some priests.” See Matthew 5:28… 😉
 
Bad thoughts, by which I assume you mean impure thoughts, are mortal sins if we consent to having them knowing that they are grave matter. Just having a though flash through your mind does not make you guilty of sin if you make the conscious decision to ignore it. There are certainly many who constantly give into such thoughts, but learning to dismiss them is certainly possible. When we don’t dismiss them and deliberately entertain them, then yes, they must be confessed.
 
I certainly agree with you but what do you tell a protestant who says that all he had to do is just confess his sins to God either mentally or orally and that scripture doesn’t say anything about perfect or imperfect contrition ?? If I tell them about the types of contrition that Catholics talk about it is then using terms they are not familiar with.
 
BigRon said:
We must all be in a constant state of mortal sin then?
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Speak for yourself. 😉

I would respond that this is not the case. Perhaps you’re thinking of venial sin, which does not imply that we are not in a state of grace?
 
Go back to the scripture quotes. IME here and elsewhere, most “bible” Christians know rather little of the bible. We are not converting - that is the Holy Spirit’s work. However, we do plant seeds.
 
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