How to confess sins in Confession

[Psalm30]

When confessing mortal sins, is it sufficient to specify how many times you’ve broken a particular Commandment?

For example, say you’ve had premarital sex five times. Is it sufficient to tell the priest, “I’ve committed five sins against the 6th Commandment.” or “I’ve broken the 6th Commandment five times.”?

Or is it necessary to specify that you’ve committed the sin of fornication five times?

Or if you’ve forgotten exactly how many times you committed the sin, can you say, “I’ve sinned against the (insert number) Commandment.”?

@edward_george1

@Diaconia

 

[Lou2U]

Here is a post Edward George made a while back:

Please stop describing your sins in detail! Moral Theology

I’m a priest. I hear confessions. And I can tell you, you don’t even need to go into detail in confession!! It’s better if you don’t. If you just say “I committed X sin Y times,” that suffices. And if I’m not clear on what you mean, I’ll ask! But detail has a danger, that we start explaining things to try to justify them. It’s better for our humility to just admit what we did and accept God’s forgiveness and get out! Be brief, be bold, be gone! -Fr ACEGC

 

[Wesrock]

I would say “I’ve had pre-marital sex five times.” I would not see the need to specify how or why or with whom. If the priest needs clarification, he’ll ask.

 

[CRV]

Or is it necessary to specify that you’ve committed the sin of fornication five times?

Yes. The kind and number. Not generalities. Fornication 5 times. Willingly missed Mass without good reason twice. etc etc.

If it’s been say a year since your last confession and it is a habit e.g. masturbation, so you don’t know exactly (because you haven’t kept a diary or because you’ve forgotten how many times) how often over the course of the year, you would say - masturbation an average of twice a week for the past year - would cover it - assuming the average was twice a week rather than you knowing that it really was daily.

If it was daily, then say daily. If it was twice a day, most days, for the past year, then just say that - masturbation daily/ most days a week over the past year, or masturbation twice a day (if it was) or twice a day for most days a week - over the past year.

 

[CatholicSpirit]

I ran into this rule with piracy in the 1990s and early 2000s. The priest had asked how many items I had pirated (in the hundreds at least), and a few years later I asked the priest if I was liable for forgotten sins. He said yes but there was something extra he did in the confessional that forgave me of my forgotten sins. In confession bring this up.

 

[Psalm30]

Thank you everyone for your time and responses.

 

[Diaconia]

Confess the number and kind. Nothing more, nothing less.

If Fr. needs more details he will ask.

When confessing sins against the Sixth Commandment — sometimes it is helpful to use the terms “adultery” (if one or more are married), and “fornication ” (if both people are unmarried).

The Angelic Doctor teaches that adultery is a graver sin; as it also involves taking something belonging to another.

The Sacrament of Penance is best served when we remember the three “Bs”:
Be bold
Be brief
Be gone

God bless all the wise ones who avail use of this sacrament of His endless mercy,
Deacon Christopher

 

[Psalm30]

Thank you Deacon Christopher.

 

[TheLittleLady]

Exactly. When we get into details, often we end up in a big pool of justification and gossip.

 

[Vico]

When confessing mortal sins, is it sufficient to specify how many times you’ve broken a particular Commandment?..

Some sins involve more than one, for example, sacrilege (deliberate violation of sacred persons, places, or objects) may present with sins of lust. Somehow that would need to be expressed. So in this case the commandment could be either sixth (in external act) or ninth (in internal act – thought). But sacrilege is a violation of the first commandment, so it could include this also. Also it could involve intentionally giving a bad example to others so that would be scandal which is the fifth commandment. Using the commandments specifically can be a more complex way of confessing.