Hypothetical question about confession and retrograde amnesia

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powerofk

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Okay, first of all, this is purely hypothetical - though, it’s inspired by a dream I had last night and the fact that my maternal grandfather, before he died 16 years ago, had retrograde amnesia due to a stroke he suffered several years before (retrograde amnesia occurs when the hippocampus of the brain is damaged, thus making the formation of new memories nearly impossible - though the person can remember everything that happened before the damage; it’s the opposite of the more commonly known - but much rarer - anteriograde amnesia, where a person can’t remember what happened before an incident).

Anyway, I had a dream last night that I was in line with people to go to confession. I woke up when it was to be my turn, but it got me to thinking, what if someone committed a mortal sin right before having traumatic brain damage that caused retrograde amnesia? Obviously, that person would have to go to confession to be absolved of the mortal sin. The problem would be that, shortly after confession, he/she would have literally forgotten that he/she even went to confession over this sin! If you were the person’s caretaker, how would you reassure the person that he/she has already confessed the sin, and therefore he/she was forgiven for it?
 
It seems like the caretaker would do that. It would be mean not to tell them and let them constantly go to confession for something they were already absolved from.

It’s like short term memory loss, right? So can they remember sins dyer having this amnesia? Like they have the head trauma, then sin, can they remember they sinned?
 
KendraDZ1902 said:
It seems like the caretaker would do that. It would be mean not to tell them and let them constantly go to confession for something they were already absolved from.

It’s like short term memory loss, right? So can they remember sins dyer having this amnesia? Like they have the head trauma, then sin, can they remember they sinned?
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No.

Methinks that the OP got the names crossed. In anterograde amnesia, the mind up to the injury is intact, but new memories cannot form, whereas in the more classical retrograde amnesia, part or all of the prior mind is erased.
 
A person with a severe head injury would do well to be receive the anointing of the sick.
And have his “hypothetical” sins absolved.
  • …“for these and all the sins of my past life: I am sorry.”*
    :twocents:
 
powerofk said:
Okay, first of all, this is purely hypothetical - though, it’s inspired by a dream I had last night and the fact that my maternal grandfather, before he died 16 years ago, had retrograde amnesia due to a stroke he suffered several years before (retrograde amnesia occurs when the hippocampus of the brain is damaged, thus making the formation of new memories nearly impossible - though the person can remember everything that happened before the damage; it’s the opposite of the more commonly known - but much rarer - anteriograde amnesia, where a person can’t remember what happened before an incident).

Anyway, I had a dream last night that I was in line with people to go to confession. I woke up when it was to be my turn, but it got me to thinking, what if someone committed a mortal sin right before having traumatic brain damage that caused retrograde amnesia? Obviously, that person would have to go to confession to be absolved of the mortal sin. The problem would be that, shortly after confession, he/she would have literally forgotten that he/she even went to confession over this sin! If you were the person’s caretaker, how would you reassure the person that he/she has already confessed the sin, and therefore he/she was forgiven for it?
Click to expand...
Something like this needs the help of a priest. Hopefully they were already sorry for the sin even if one hadn’t been to confession . God Bless, memaw
 
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