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babylonsfalling
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If a sin is confessed to God, but NOT to a priest, does the sin remain unforgiven?
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Barbkw
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Catholic vs Non-Catholic ?If a sin is confessed to God, but NOT to a priest, does the sin remain unforgiven?
Venial vs Mortal ?
3 Conditions met for Mortal sin - serious matter, knowledge of evil, full consent of the will?
See more at:
catholicparents.org/oxcart/Examination%20of%20Conscience.pdf
Mortal sins pg 1-4
Venial sins pg 4-9
See also: Catechism of the Catholic Church - Ten Commandments
scborromeo.org/ccc/p3s2.htm
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06convert
Guest
Well, first of all. Confessing to a priest IS confessing to God. Same thing. The priest is the instrument of God, while God does the forgiving. Compare it to a surgery. God would be the doctor, the priest is the scalpel. God is doing the work, but using the priest as His instrument.
As the previous poster mentioned. Venial sins can be confessed directly to God. No issue there. In fact during mass venial sins are erased!
Grave sins need to be confessed to God through a priest. It’s not so much that God can’t forgive the sin without us going to a priest, it’s more because of our inadequacy as human beings. Confession is a gift because we need it, not because God needs it.
It’s not enough FOR US when we’ve done something seriously wrong to just tell God we are sorry in private prayer. It may be enough for God, He can do what he wants, but it’s not enough for us as human beings to just secretly say I’m sorry and move on. We need more, we need to seek forgiveness, we need to feel forgiveness. People will say they can privately confess to God, but really, how do they feel? The result typically isn’t really anymore than keeping it to yourself.
The real question is, can we as human beings truly grasp the concept of what we’ve done, the fact that we are sorry, the fact that we are forgiven? Maybe we can for little things, but for more serious things, we have to hear it, else it doesn’t really sink in. It might sink in to some degree, but it’s not the same. God gave us confession for this reason, because we can’t do it by ourselves. God gave us priests so we don’t have to be secretly enslaved with our sins, we can bring them to the light and let them be healed.
As the previous poster mentioned. Venial sins can be confessed directly to God. No issue there. In fact during mass venial sins are erased!
Grave sins need to be confessed to God through a priest. It’s not so much that God can’t forgive the sin without us going to a priest, it’s more because of our inadequacy as human beings. Confession is a gift because we need it, not because God needs it.
It’s not enough FOR US when we’ve done something seriously wrong to just tell God we are sorry in private prayer. It may be enough for God, He can do what he wants, but it’s not enough for us as human beings to just secretly say I’m sorry and move on. We need more, we need to seek forgiveness, we need to feel forgiveness. People will say they can privately confess to God, but really, how do they feel? The result typically isn’t really anymore than keeping it to yourself.
The real question is, can we as human beings truly grasp the concept of what we’ve done, the fact that we are sorry, the fact that we are forgiven? Maybe we can for little things, but for more serious things, we have to hear it, else it doesn’t really sink in. It might sink in to some degree, but it’s not the same. God gave us confession for this reason, because we can’t do it by ourselves. God gave us priests so we don’t have to be secretly enslaved with our sins, we can bring them to the light and let them be healed.
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DavidFilmer
Guest
If a (potentially) MORTAL sin is deliberately and knowingly withheld from Sacramental confession then it is not part of the confession, and thus not forgiven by the confession. If a person has committed 100 mortal sins, but confesses only 99 (while deliberately omitting the final sin) he is absolved of the 99, but is still accountable for the hundredth.If a sin is confessed to God, but NOT to a priest, does the sin remain unforgiven?
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