I have a question about confession?

[thephilosopher6]

When confessing the sin of lust, do you have to specify what the object was? For example, “I have had (this many) lustful homosexual thoughts” or “I have had (this many) lustful incestual thoughts” or “I have had (this many) lustful thoughts of the opposite sex.” Or do you just say, “I have had (this many) lustful thoughts”?

 

[fredystairs]

I think it would be better if you did mention the object. The priest would counsel you differently if it was homosexual versus heterosexual lust.

 

[thephilosopher6]

But is the object required?

 

[fredystairs]

Probably not. Again it would help the priest with counseling the one confessing.

 

[Duckling]

Not necessarily, I suppose that would be something for you to consider, and it would depend on your own personal convictions.
This is important too:

Again it would help the priest with counseling the one confessing.

 

[Mary_Ellen]

Well, oftentimes the object does make a difference so in general, probably you’d want to include that information. Were the lustful thoughts about a priest? nun? your mother, father, sister, brother? someone of the same sex or opposite sex? a stranger or a friend? You don’t have to name names but yeah, probably some specificity is called for.

 

[thephilosopher6]

I’m hoping @FrDavid96 jumps in here. I admit that I have had a series of really embarrassing and not so great sexually lustful thoughts as of late and I’ve been really anxious about confession.

 

[anikins]

It depends on the priest. Some will ask you to elaborate. Others may not. It’s fine to start with simply “I have had listful thoughts”.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

I have never had the priest ask me about the subject of my lustful thoughts. To be honest, in the climate of priests committing sex crimes in recent decades, I would have been leery of any priest pressing me for details. At the same time I am not one to have any unusual lustful thoughts such as incest, bestiality, or SSA beyond a momentary crush or two when young that I didn’t act on. My lustful thoughts have been 95 percent plain vanilla stuff. I have confessed it by saying “I’ve had some lustful thoughts twice” and left it at that.

I tend to think if you just have a stray thought once in a while and put it out of your mind quickly, it’s not worth giving details. If on the other hand you have a pattern of say, incestuous thoughts going on, this may be something to take to the mental health counselor as well as mentioning it to the priest. Keep in mind that the priest is not there for mental health help and if you are having repeated thoughts of a disturbing nature, you should be getting some psych help for that, not just expecting the priest to take care of it all.

 

[gfvh]

I understand that you need to state if it is homosexual, incestual, or for example, the object of your lust was a religious person. You need to state it, as it changes the species of the sin. (I think it is the species I don’t recall what the technical word was)

 

[Mary_Ellen]

I tend to think if you just have a stray thought once in a while and put it out of your mind quickly, it’s not worth giving details.

If you have a stray thought, it’s not even sinful; it’s even laudable to put it out of your mind quickly. Lustful thoughts to be confessed are those that are harbored, savored, even enjoyed for a while. We cannot control every thought that comes to mind but we can control what we do with them once we realize they are in our minds.