I hate when this happens!

[Nuruns]

Please tell me if you think I made a valid confession today or not. I’ve been putting off going and I finally went today. Just as Father was telling me my penance I recalled one more thing I had meant to confess that I did not know if was mortal or not. Then he said ‘please say your act of contrition’. I felt uncomfortable with saying ‘I forgot something’ so I just said my act of contrition. I wasn’t trying to with hold the sin, I just felt uncomfortable bringing it up when I was already done. Was my confession valid?

 

[Cor_Jesu]

I think you’re good to go! The same thing has happened to me before when going to confession. Although it would probably have been best just to interrupt the priest and tell him the sin you forgot (for your conscience’s sake at least), I know that “deer caught in headlights”, panic feeling when the priest is trying to wrap it up and you just remembered a sin you forgot, LOL. Your intention wasn’t to conceal the sin from the priest, you just forgot to confess it. Besides that, you don’t even know if it was a mortal sin. I’m fairly certain that you are only under an obligation to confess it if you know it is a mortal sin. Let your conscience be at rest, and just confess the sin next time!

 

[otjm]

Yes.

You are more than welcome to mention it the next time you go to confession.

The bottom line is that if you have forgotten a sin during confession, and later recall it, if you would have told it had you remembered it, it is forgiven. If you later remembered it and you would not have confessed it, you are not forgiven.

God is not playing “Gotcha!” and neither does the Church.

 

[arewethereyet]

I think it is. You can always talk to God about it and you can just jot it down for next time you go to confession. Because my memory isn’t always that good after I tell the priest all my sins I usually say “plus any sins that may have slipped my mind.” I know I am being honest, God knows I am being honest…and the priest is content with this. Don’t worry about a thing! You are doing just fine.
Karen

 

[calchiquita]

Reminds me of the time I went to confession and the priest had such a thick accent that I wasn’t sure I heard the word “absolved” - I at least understood what my penance was.

 

[Andreas_Hofer]

If you remembered a sin while in confession and knew it was mortal, you would need to confess it for the absolution to be valid. From your scenario, you still had time to confess the sin and just thought this might be awkward, so if you knew it to be mortal this would have invalidated the confession.

HOWEVER, you were not deliberately withholding a mortal sin but withheld a sin of doubtful gravity, which means you did not intentionally withhold any grave sin, so you don’t have to worry. Still, I would advise that the more prudent course would have been to stop the priest and tell him you had just remembered a sin and needed guidance as to its severity - in my opinion, when dealing with cases like this it is always better to seek guidance on the gravity of sins because it is all too easy to start letting yourself off the hook by thinking of mitigating factors or technicalities of validity. I myself got into this sort of rut and when I realized I needed to get straight with myself and submit the cases to someone else’s judgment it made a huge difference in my spiritual wellness.

 

[Andreas_Hofer]

Reminds me of the time I went to confession and the priest had such a thick accent that I wasn’t sure I heard the word “absolved” - I at least understood what my penance was.

I went to a priest who said the absolution *while *I was making my Act of Contrition because I could tell he was saying something as I spoke and when I got done he had nothing left to say. I just trusted everything came out okay.

 

[RepentorPerish]

Sounds like your caught in a form of legalism . Or scruples as some say.

The Church says if you forget your still forgiven so why are you letting the Devil steal your peace?

You do realise this sort of thoughts dont come from you, but the evil one. Dont let him have a home in you , hes trying to confuse you so you will go back to sinning. Stand back from your thoughts and see that there not your own but come from the evil one.

Walk In peace , Go to Church often, Pray