If you are genuinely unsure if your confession was valid, should you re-confess just to be safe?

[Oregonblueberry]

I cannot stop thinking about my second-to-last confession, where I am honestly unsure if I fully repented of all my sins. I feel like I did, but I also feel like I can’t prove it to myself. I said the Act of Contrition beforehand, but I can’t prove to myself that I meant it. I told the priest I was sorry, but I can’t prove I wasn’t just saying the words that were expected of me.

I can’t get it out of my head and I’m pretty sure the only way for me to feel confident in the state of my soul is to just redo everything. There is an argument to be made that I definitely repented fully, and an argument to be made that I might not have. I’ve been over both arguments in my head over and over and over and I truly, honestly cannot decide.

I have been to confession one more time since then, and I did mention the situation to the priest. But I also told him that I definitely repented and I was confident in my repentance, so what could he have said? At the time I had decided it was valid, but I’ve begun questioning things again. I feel like I’ve just been insisting to myself that my repentance was valid just so I can move on and I don’t have to go to the trouble of redoing a confession. But I cannot for the life of me ignore the little grain of uncertainty that’s lodged itself in my brain.

I’m at the point where I am so distressed that I really do want to redo everything just so I can stop thinking about it. Should I? Must I? What would you do if you were truly uncertain?

I would love to talk to a priest about this, and I actually have reached out to several priests over e-mail, but have not gotten any responses. So I am here again

 

[Lou2U]

Hi, @Oregonblueberry. You’ve mentioned in the past that you struggle with scruples, so my advice to you is not to reach out to any more Priests, or ask (well-meaning) strangers online. Let your parish Priest know you’re scrupulous and follow his guidance.

Unfortunately posting here on CAF often makes scruples worse. This is because to fully tackle them, you need to rely on people who know you and who are trained to help you. Sadly, we here aren’t that. So please talk to your Priest, and I would also encourage you to talk to a health professional. Intrusive thoughts are a component of OCD, please get yourself checked out for that.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

Reading your post, I’m concerned that you possibly are suffering from scruples, and you really do need to talk to a priest about that. We are discouraged from responding to scrupulous posts.

Regarding you having e-mailed some priests, it is highly likely that they are very busy at this time dealing with COVID-related issues, and also that their office staff who helps them deal with email might not be working. I would recommend that you reach out by telephone and if you cannot reach a priest that way, try again when things start to open back up in your area and priests have more time.

 

[Fuerza]

Scrupulosity is an exhausting condition. Speak to a priest in person when possible (call and schedule an appointment-he may be able to meet with you in a way that respects social distancing guidelines), pray for relief from the condition, and don’t post questions like this in CAF. Trust me, you will get no relief from doing so. A resource that helped me immensely is this article: https://fatherdoyle.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/scruples-and-their-treatment.pdf

It directly addresses your concern, as well as many others. This is not the opinion of only one priest either. There are many sources bearing imprimaturs that state the same thing, but this is the most concise and thoroughly explained that I’ve found.