I went to make a general confession and was stopped. Is that fine?

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Gabrielle

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So I decided I wanted to make a General confession of all my life because I wasn’t sure if I’d confessed correctly in the past. I had a good 10 pages written, but the priest stopped me before I could finish reading everything off. He absolved me and when I asked him if it was fine that I hadn’t read all the pages to him, he said yes, that he saw a pattern and that’s God knew what was in my heart. I had the full intention of reading everything off to him, but am wondering if it’s fine since I didn’t get to say everything on my list. Should I just forget about the renaming pages and accept this as a good confession, or should I find another priest to go to confession too who may listen to the whole thing? Am I able to go to communion? He said I was, but he also mentioned that even people who thought they were in the state of sin could make an act of contrition receive and make it an intention to go to Confession as soon as they could, which to me seemed wrong. Either way, what should I do?
 
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Right, maybe just go for the essence of it, few examples as needed. Keep it general, to the point - what is it you are guilty of and trying to heal. Don’t pound him and yourself over the head with all the gut wrenching detail. If you have prayed on it and are genuinely contrite that will get you quite far down the road by the time you get there. Maybe that is what he was trying to express. He may understand you better than you think. Might have been charity.
 
If you were stopped, I feel like the confession was valid i.e. you were absolved & forvigen, but I believe you would need to mention the other (mortal) sins (if they have not been confessed correctly before) in your next confession as per Canon 988 (“not yet remitted directly through the keys of the Church nor acknowledged in individual confession”).

Perhaps keep things concise, only number and kind are required, as well as any details that change the circumstances so as to alter the nature of the sin/incur a new sin (i.e. stealing from the church would add sacrilege to theft), or increase its gravity (going with the theft example again, I’d probably mention approximately what I stole, like a car or whatever, to give an idea of the gravity).
Gabrielle said:
He said I was, but he also mentioned that even people who thought they were in the state of sin could make an act of contrition receive and make it an intention to go to Confession as soon as they could, which to me seemed wrong.
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As far as I understand, one would go to confession first even if the sins had been forgiven by an act of perfect contrition (#1452), unless there is a grave reason for receiving immediately.

But if you made a valid confession (even if you weren’t able to confess everything, as long as you intended to), you’d be in the state of grace and therefore can receive.
 
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There is nothing as “freeing” as setting my list of sins on fire when I’ve come home from confession. I have heard my sins are forgiven and then I see them gone and returned to ashes.
 
Did you schedule this General Confession with the priest? Or did you try to read off your list during regular Saturday Confession without an appointment?
 
You should respect the priest and listen to him. You asked , he answered. That’s it.
 
Arwing said:
I feel like the confession was valid
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The confession was valid. Every time you confess, you are absolved of all sins, even the ones you forgot to mention.

The purpose of a general confession is not to dredge up sins that you may have forgotten during previous confessions, but more for things like coming back to the Church after a long absence, or a long absence from the sacrament reconciliation, or as part of coming to terms with a sinful tendency that one has that may have hurt yourself and many people along the way.

Gabrielle, this confession was valid, and absolved you of all your sins. I suspect a hint of scrupulosity in your post, and suggest that you make and appointment with a priest to learn more about the sacrament and how it works, and to learn how to avoid falling into the sin of scrupulosity, which eventually leads to despair, which is the devil’s favourite trick.
 
Listen to your Priest, they go to Priest school to learn exactly how to absolve us fellow sinners.

And I also suggest going to Divine Mercy Sunday , the Sunday after Easter. ( starting to get those Divine Mercy Sunday reminders in )
 
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Thanks for all the replies guys. I now see that it was a valid confession and I am at peace with that now. I guess my only question still remains, what should I do about the remaining pages? Should I just forget about those? And yes, I do struggle with scruples, but it really isn’t easy to find a confessor. I think the scruples part also makes it a thing that makes them a bit hessitant to take one on . I’m not complaining or saying anything bad. This makes total sense to me. It’s a draining thing.
 
You could create a private and secure blog, upload the material and grant only your confessor to have access. Then, ask him to review the material before your next confession. That way, he come prepared to help you and will not feel rushed.
 
I’m not sure that this is really helpful. I know that as a priest, I wouldn’t really find it useful to review someone’s list before confession, it would just create an unnecessary extra step. Besides, the priest wouldn’t be bound by the seal for any information obtained in this way. So she’d basically be giving up the information outside of the protection of the seal. And there’s no guarantee that a private blog would even be secure.

-Fr ACEGC
 
I would think that with the right security settings, the content would be secure. However, if a priest refuses, he refuses. A priest not allowing the penitent to finish confessing is quite problematic.
 
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Not necessarily. If it’s clear that the person is just rehashing dozens of venial sins out of scrupulous impulses, or telling a long and convoluted story with tons of unnecessary detail, then the priest is well advised to cut the person off. This not only is done because the confession could be unnecessarily long, but especially because it would likely only feed the penitent’s compulsions to allow them to continue in that manner.

-Fr ACEGC
 
It’s unfortunate that a priest would presume to know what else was on the list. The approach certainly left this penitent feeling quite ill at peace. Surely, that result is not worth saving a few minutes.
 
I don’t think it’s fair of you to judge the priest’s intentions here. He might well have seen what was going on and then, very appropriately, cut the penitent off to prevent her from getting too wound up like this. I am a priest and I’ve heard several thousand confessions. I have learned in my limited experience how to deal with scrupulous tendencies, and it simply isn’t helpful to feed such impulses.

-Fr ACEGC.
 
Why don’t you, if you have the time, give some advice directly to @Gabrielle instead of me? You haven’t done that yet, I see.

I have a good and patient confessor who never interrupts. So, I’m not the one in need of your advice on the matter.
 
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I was trying to offer a reason why the confession might have been cut short, and offering you an additional perspective on the matter so that your advice to the OP might be tempered somewhat by the experience of someone who actually hears confessions and is acquainted with these sorts of issues. I can’t say I appreciate your tone in response. You seem to be implying that I’m not a good and patient confessor, seeing as I did offer you the circumstances under which I might interrupt a penitent quite rightly.

-Fr ACEGC
 
I have no idea about your style in the confessional. Its not a concern of mine. It is rather puzzling you visualize a judgement from me about you when none was made. At any rate, I’ll leave you to advise the original poster if you’d be so kind.
 
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