Instructed by priest to with-hold sins during confession

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Sir_Knight

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It is my understanding that if one intentionally withholds confessing a mortal sin, that invalidates the entire confession and none of the sins are forgiven. Well, what happens if the priest himself instructs you to withhold confessing those sins?
 
Are you scrupulous? He may be couseling you that you are confessing something that to your scrupulous mind seems to be a sin, but to his objective view is actually not.

Trust your priest. His goal is your sanctification and salvation.
 
He wasn’t “counseling” me at all. He didn’t even know who I was because I was behind the screen and before I even spoke, he said that he was short staffed and in order to get in as many people as he could before morning mass, I was to confess only 1 or 2 sins. I “trusted” his instructions and intentionally withheld a couple of sins which I believe might have been mortal.

Since I intentionally withheld them, does that invalidate the confession or is it valid because it was done at the instruction of the priest?
 
Sir_Knight said:
He wasn’t “counseling” me at all. He didn’t even know who I was because I was behind the screen and before I even spoke, he said that he was short staffed and in order to get in as many people as he could before morning mass, I was to confess only 1 or 2 sins. I “trusted” his instructions and intentionally withheld a couple of sins which I believe might have been mortal.

Since I intentionally withheld them, does that invalidate the confession or is it valid because it was done at the instruction of the priest?
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I would counsel you if you feel not at peace with this, to call and schedule an appointment to Confess. That way you could take your time and not be rushed. I believe it was valid because you carried out the instructions of the priest, however Canon Law says that all mortal sins must be confessed, just confess them next time and state why you did not confess them in the last Confession.

If this happens again, I would just share with Father that you have more sins that you believe to be mortal to confess.

God bless.
 
I don’t see how it would invalidate the confession, as it was at the priest’s direction. You can’t deliberately withhold sins if the priest instructs you to be quick.

But I agree with the above poster, that I would go to confession again when you can and confess those withheld as well as an explanation of what happened.
 
I have always believed that if you are truly sorry you are forgiven. Don’t you think God knows exactly what happend during that confession? You did not, “intentionally” withhold anything. Sounds like the priest threw you for a loop when he asked you to cut it short.

Was the place swarming with people waiting to go to confession? Sorry but IMO I don’t think the priest should have said this to you…:mad:
 
Did you receive Communion at that Mass - Feeling this way?
 
I would say that you did not intentionally withhold any sins. You were simply following the priest’s direction. I don’t see how that could be imputed on you.

Now, if you intentionally made a point to confess only your lesser sins so that you could get out of confessing the more serious ones, that might change things.

I would bring it up in my next Confession, but I wouldn’t worry about this Confession being invalid.
 
I believe the priests intention was to prevent confession to turning into a counciling session. I have often seen people go into the confessional for over 30 minutes, up to nearly an hour. I believe the priest was trying to prevent that, but his message was wrong. Our priests tell us to confess mortal, and any serious venial sins (had 1 or 2 criteria for mortal sins, but not all). Otherwise you would be confession venial sins that are forgiven at Mass.

But yes your confession should be valid, and all sins (mortal and venial) forgiven since you followed the priests advice. However, if I am correct that he was trying to prevent confession to turn into counseling, always confess all mortal sins, just to be safe. 🙂

God Bless
 
Sir_Knight said:
It is my understanding that if one intentionally withholds confessing a mortal sin, that invalidates the entire confession and none of the sins are forgiven. Well, what happens if the priest himself instructs you to withhold confessing those sins?
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I understand that he was trying to minister to everyone who wanted his attention, but this seems troublesome to me. What if you had some burning desire to confess something, and his instruction intimidated you into with-holding it. Maybe the solution is to show up earlier for confession. I wonder if it would be helpful to make a suggestion, relating your concerns, and suggestion that confessional hours be expanded in order to satisfy the demand?
 
Sir Knight,
Code: 
      I would say that Jesus sees your heart and knows your intent and that you are
sorry for your sins. If under the circumstances you made the best you could do under
pressure, I believe you are forgiven by a merciful God Who knows your heart. In the
future a good practice is to end your confession with an act of contrition that includes;
“for these and all the sins on my past life, I am truly sorry.” In that way your covered.
Peace be to your heart
Code: 
                                     In the Love of Christ
                                              Tom T
                                                        KofC
 
kimmielittle said:
If I didn’t feel like I made a good confession but had un-confessed mortal sins For whatever reason ] but went ahead with Communion…

The OP here is saying

And

I think the question I asked is valid. 🤷🤷
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Valid, yes, and a good memory jogger for someone examining their conscience, I’ll give you that. 🙂 The answer, however, is IMO very personal so I hope the OP doesn’t feel like he must answer this here. 🤷

Given the circumstances it’s a good question for him to ask a priest, one that isn’t in such a big hurry!! :mad:
 
This falls under the category of failing to confess for reasons that were not under your control…although in the future you need to say, “I have more than 1 or 2 mortal sins to confess”. Then let the priest decide whether to hear you out or re-schedule you. You honestly did the best you knew to do, though, so that mistake wouldn’t be held against you.

And yes, if you really and honestly didn’t know whether or not a sin was grave, you would have still sinned by committing an act you knew to be wrong, but it would not go into the realm of willfulness required for a mortal sin. You have to give full consent with appreciation of the gravity of what you’re choosing and have enough freedom from habit to choose freely. We should not presume upon God’s mercy, but the matter of rejecting eternal life isn’t a juridical game of “gotcha!” It is a judgment that one truly made a willful decision to turn from God and the just demands of love in order to obtain the fleeting payments of evil.

You do need to arrange to talk to a real confessor about the details of what happened, though, OK? Except on the most theoretical level, this is a matter to be attended to by a physician of the soul. Don’t rely on what we say. Get your answer from a confessor.
 
Sir_Knight said:
It is my understanding that if one intentionally withholds confessing a mortal sin, that invalidates the entire confession and none of the sins are forgiven. Well, what happens if the priest himself instructs you to withhold confessing those sins?
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I wish Fr Serpa could answer this question…it’s a good one.
 
Little_Mary said:
Was the place swarming with people waiting to go to confession? Sorry but IMO I don’t think the priest should have said this to you…:mad:
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There were still several people behind me and morning mass was scheduled to begin in about ten minutes with him as the celebrant.
 
Rock_Happy said:
Maybe the solution is to show up earlier for confession.
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I got there before the priest. There were already several people in line at that point. Then, the priest arrived 15 minutes prior to the start of mass to hear confessions. I guess he wasn’t expecting so many people even though it was First Friday.
 
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