Indulgences - Can I ever be detached from sin?

[TerrierGuy]

Without going into a lot of messy details, I have a past history of addiction that led me to do a lot of very bad things. My family doesn’t know all of it, just enough - though if they knew the extent of it, they might have cut me off. I’ve gotten my life back together and tried to be a good person and a good catholic since then. But if my wife or kids were to ask me about that past period of my life, i think for the sake of preserving my family and homelife, I would lie.

Now in light of this - can i ever really claim to be totally detached from sin and able to obtain a plenary indulgence?

 

[PureChaos]

Without going into a lot of messy details, I have a past history of addiction that led me to do a lot of very bad things. My family doesn’t know all of it, just enough - though if they knew the extent of it, they might have cut me off. I’ve gotten my life back together and tried to be a good person and a good catholic since then. But if my wife or kids were to ask me about that past period of my life, i think for the sake of preserving my family and homelife, I would lie.

Now in light of this - can i ever really claim to be totally detached from sin and able to obtain a plenary indulgence?

Are you referring only to the thought that if asked about your past life, that you would lie? If so, then I think you can feel at ease knowing that it is no sin or lie whatsoever to simply not speak of or reveal our past sins, you can speak of your past and still leave out those details you do not want to reveal. You can also use mental reservation for some things…
I do understand that it would be hard getting around certain questions, but I think for the rare amount of times you might be faced with such questions, it’ll likely be easy to avoid… although in my opinion, a family which loves each other, would not be destroyed or even shaken by the knowledge of a parents sins which were overcome and forgiven by God.

Well, sorry I cannot give better advise, but I hope this helps anyways.