General Confession: Yea or Nay?

[Don9of11]

No, Don – you are referring to “general absolution.” When we say “general confession” it is a totally different topic. It is still individual absolution, but it is for sins (mentioned in that confession) that cover one’s whole life, even if they have already been previously absolved.

I would recommend to read the following:
jimmyakin.org/2006/07/a_reader_writes.html

dneoca.org/articles/generalconfession0298.html

 

[Pug]

Myself, I was thrilled to get to make a general confession. I finally felt I had satisfied the need to speak all those sins that had been parts of bad confessions, etc. I stopped fretting about my non-compliance with saying all those sins.

Part of the history of this is that I am a convert who was poorly instructed, so when I made my first confession, it only included a few recent sins. Nothing of my past life was included, as I didn’t know to do that. I remembered all those sins but had never confessed them. Over time, I came to be familiar with confession and what I was required to do, and that the list of mortal sins since the last confession was supposed to be complete at each confession. Eventually a rather serious Polish priest had pity on me and was willing to hear all the mortal sins that I’d never mentioned in a good confession, or never mentioned at all, but still remembered. I had felt perennially trapped in sin for going to confession and not mentioning those past sins that I remembered, and had become so tangled up inside that I was wondering if any of my confessions had ever been good. I’m so glad I found Fr. X. I took one look at him and knew he’d listen.

EDIT: Perhaps I wasn’t poorly instructed. Perhaps I didn’t comprehend what I was taught. I didn’t mean to sound like I blamed my instructors.

 

[surritter]

I would recommend to read the following:
jimmyakin.org/2006/07/a_reader_writes.html

dneoca.org/articles/generalconfession0298.html

Thanks for the links. You should notice how the two articles are using “general confession” in two different senses. Jimmy Akin is using it in the same sense as this thread (private confession of general sins over a lifetime). The other article is using it in conjunction with general absolution, which is not the topic of this thread.

But thanks – I didn’t realize that it was so easy to confuse the two uses of the same phrase.

 

[alan1]

No. A general confession is not necessarily of the sins of an entire lifetime. A general confession is a confession that covers a certain period of time, normally broader than an individual confession, up to an entire life in some cases. Why would one do such a thing? Because at times there are periods that we realize we need to consider, and offer up sorrow for, as a whole, because we come to discern patterns. The point is not to deny God’s forgiveness, but to deepen our own contrition and abandonment to divine providence, and open ourselves up to direction with respect to the general motion in our lives, which is why these are appropriate before major changes of life (marriage, for instance). Of course, they can also be made if we are aware that we have offered bad confessions earlier, but that is another case and should happen very infrequently if at all (the danger of scruples is always there).