How to Evangelize a fellow Catholic that's in sin

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TrueRomanCatholic

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Hello,

My friend is in a state of sin because she feels that abortion is ok and is refusing to confess to a priest that she goes to anti-life rallies.

How can I force her to go and confess? She’s still going to Mass and taking communion and every time I see her in the church pews with her parents, and husband, it absolutely turns my stomach to see someone that participates in anti-life rallies take the Bread of Life.

I always joke with the people next to me, “oh look here comes the anti-lifer” and I tried to organize a confession intervention, but no one would listen or they’d turn a blind eye.

How can I get her to confess to God and the priest that she believes in the Satanic anti-life cause??
 
YOU don’t ‘force’ anyone. Anyone.

The reason people aren’t listening to you is that you are totally out of line.

There is a Scripture passage I suggest you read and think real hard about. Read the whole chapter to get the context (Douay-Rheims Bible below)

Luke Chapter 6: 41. And why seest thou the mote in thy brother’s eye: but the beam that is in thy own eye thou considerest not? [42] Or how canst thou say to thy brother: Brother, let me pull the mote out of thy eye, when thou thyself seest not the beam in thy own eye? Hypocrite, cast first the beam out of thy own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to take out the mote from thy brother’s eye.
 
A forced confession is not a valid confession. She has to confess because she is truthfully sorry for her sins, as we all must. Pray for her, and for yourself. Making fun of someone, even if they’re belief is contrary to church teaching, sounds wrong to me.
 
How do you force someone to go to confession? You don’t.

I assume you brought this up with her? If so, you’ve done your job. Pray and fast for her and get out of the way. Give the Spirit some room to work.

You tried to organize a confession intervention? How dare you! You’re not her parent, religious superior, or spiritual director. And you actually interrupt people during Mass to tell them she’s pro-choice? It must be a real test of their patience to sit near you at Mass.

If you find her behavior so offensive, perhaps you could start attending another Mass. And use the time while you’re there to reflect on the idea that we already have a savior, and it’s not you.
 
Start a novena, go to adoration, pray the rosary, fast and do penance, sincerely and humbly apologize to the people you joked with.
 
I hope this post is a joke. Otherwise, you might want to go to confession for yourself. We are called to evangelize but also to be merciful. You have not been merciful but rather have mocked and ridiculed.

This thread question offends me
 
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Just for the record, I see that the OP joined CAF about a half hour ago. A message like this immediately after joining raises the possibility we’ve all been taken in by a troll.
 
I hope and pray this thread is only someone who needs to find a new hobby besides messing with the minds of others but you can never be sure of anyone’s intent…

Assuming it’s true, you need to stop harassing this person. Arranging a “confession intervention” and openly mocking someone during mass is pretty far from charitable to say the least and unlikely to be helpful for her. It’s more likely to drive her farther away.

Without getting too personal because it’s not anyone’s business and frankly I don’t want to open myself to someone else’s critique I’ll share a bit of an experience I had. There was a time I was struggling to go to confession while on a pilgrimage. I needed to, I wanted to, but it had been a long time and I wasn’t actively practicing the faith and near terrified of God. A friend of mine who was there took it upon himself to approach me outside while I was trying to pray and honestly he was very aggressive. He wouldn’t leave me alone. Some of his statements were borderline belittling. I do think his intention was decent, but what he actually accomplished was getting me very worked up and in a panic about it when what I was trying to do before his arrival was the exact opposite and calm myself down enough to go. He only made things worse and then left me there alone in the midst of a panic attack saying he was “done with me” and I needed to “never bring this up again” and if I had questions or wanted to talk about the faith I better not come to him.

What you should do: pray for her, be willing to encourage and talk with her if she approaches you, live out your faith in an admirable way and strive to correct your own faults. What she’s doing is of course wrong, but what you’re doing is as well.
 
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