Good confession without sorrow?

[OurLadysServant]

THAT is sorrow.

It has zero to do with how you feel.

Two kinds of sorrow are valid.
Sorrow that it hurt God.
Or
Fear of Hell, / Fear of being seperated from God.

If you are sorry because you fear hell, or being seperated from God. Then its a vvalid confession.

Each mortal sin must be confessed, in kind and number (approximate only if exact number unknown), and anything that makes.the sin worse needs to be mentioned, or makes it less a sin (eg someone forced you under gunpoint to steal)
Also: the intent must.be there to never want to sin mortally again.
And:
If any mortal sin is deliberately hhidden, the mortal sin of sacrelige is committed (which needs to be confessed) and nothing is forgiven in that confession.

So, if anyone has been deliberately hiding mortal sins, all those sacreligious confessions were not forgiven. And need to be confessed again.

 

[OurLadysServant]

I still don’t get it. If we are ashamed of what other might think of our sins that’s wrong? I thought that was the whole point of Confession behind a screen. I must be missing something…

Nothing wrong with being ashamed of public scandal on your part.

God wants us to be good examples to others, because when we sin, it can cause others to sin that way too.

It is wrong if we obsess about it to the point that we care more of others opinions rather than the fact that we hurt Jesus. That we could end up caring more of what people think of us than what God thinks of us. That our good name is more important than the fact that God saved us from eternal fire.

Severe extreme Overattachment to our reputation can be bad, st peter publically denied he knew Jesus rather than die with the Messiah.
We must love God more than we care about what others think of us, because the public around us might not be heading to Paradise, and peer pressure can sway people into sin.

God comes first.
Then, we give good example to lead people to God.
If others think less of us for being Catholic, that’s God’s business, we stay on the straight and narrow.

Confessing out of sorrow for what others think of us doesnt give valid.sorrow for confession. That would be confessing out of pride.

It must be sorrow for hurting God, or fear of Hell/ fear of seperation from God.

 

[Hoosier_Daddy]

Could I still make a good confession even though I don’t feel sorrow for a particular mortal sin? I recognize that it was wrong and have every intent to not commit that sin again including a kind of recovery plan like what to do when faced with that temptation etc. but I am still not sorrowful about it. Does that matter? Or is recognizing, taking responsibility and turning away enough? To be honest I feel more sorrow about not feeling sorrow than about the thing itself

I’m not even in RCIA yet so my first confession looms a fair way in the distance but it bothers me. Especially, like, how long will I have? Because, you know… there’s a lot… And do I really have to say how many times I’ve done a certain thing? because I’ve lost count of some things…

From your initial post I think knowing that it was not intending to do it again etc. indicates sorrow. If something is wrong and unholy then and you recognize that, then you are indicating sorrow. It was your follow up posts that concerned me.

If say, someone had a pregnancy that put their lives a risk and one chose to abort the baby there may be some issue there. I guess it all kind of depends on why you never want to do it again, why you think it is wrong and what it was.

 

[hydin]

First things first, have you had a Baptism that is recognized by the Catholic Church? If not then when you come into our Faith the first step is Baptism, which in and of itself washes away all sin… you confess nothing. If you are baptized then you will have a first confession where you are suppose to confess all of those sins you can remember. I have no idea what the sin is but let’s say it is having sex out of marriage… and one had done it weekly or more and is not sorry for that sin… It is only my opinion but I would ask them if they really understood what it meant to be a Catholic. If you are converting to the Faith you need to understand and embrace the Church’s position on the 10 commandments. If you are not regretting a sin then that means you really don’t think it was wrong… no matter what the Priest says it is likely that sin remains. Since your heart is not sorry when you say the act of contrition you are lying… and the priest has know way of knowing that, but God does.

Sinning offending the love of God. Sorrow, regret and true repentance comes when we understand the impact of our sin on others and what we are really telling God. In the case above with sex… that person is by their action telling God that they understand his teaching but they think He is wrong…so they continue to do it “their way”. Contraception is another popular sin… speaks exactly the same to God… sure I understand the pill causes the fertilized egg to be aborted 8% of the time (check the indications paper in the pill packet… I have…8% = 1 of 12 months by the way- one a year) and I know you want us to do NFP but come on God… get real (Confession time… a priest in our engaged encounter actually told the entire group it was fine as long as we planned on having kids… sometime… years ago found out the truth.) Sins are sins for a good reason. Mortal Sin hurts more than the sinner… How many are receiving communion each week but filed for divorce and are happy they did? If they confess (divorce is grave matter… just divorce, not remarriage…their is an innocent party… the other party is??? Canon Law always calls for reconciliation, even after abuse, if the danger is no longer present. knowing all this or in a position where they should know… Does God forgive them? Priest has no way of knowing what is in the heart. God forgives, not the Priest. When we face God for our final judgement I doubt telling Him that “Father Pastoral absolved me of that sin, you can’t bring that up again… I am forgiven for it…” will have much impact.

the Catholic Faith is wonderful. It is tough to follow the teachings of the Church but each and everyone is in place only to keep us on the path to Heaven. Each and every rule has a reason that makes sense on a practical level and if followed, helps us avoid stumbling blocks on our road to eternal life. As they say Either we tell God with our lives “thy will be done” or He tells us, as we slip away from eternal life with Him, “Thy will be done…” It is our free will to decide…

 

[plainsongflower]

Wow, so many great answers and a lot to think about. Thank you for the explanations of the whole pride thing that was very helpful. I particularly appreciate the variety of information, especially as I have never confessed before, it’s great to be able to learn so much about it