Is it a valid confession?

[Chewy66]

I have a general confession question. Is a confession considered valid if you don’t mention certain mortal sins? If it is invalid does that mean that all your sins that you confessed are not absolved?
I just converted a year ago and I’m trying to understand the whole sacrament of reconciliation.

 

[MarkMcClendon]

If you are conscious of mortal sins and deliberately withhold them in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, then to the sins you’ve already committed you’ve now added the sin of sacrilege. (You’re being dishonest in a sacrament of ultimate honesty.)

 

[RedDuke]

If you purposely don’t mention a mortal sin in Confession, your Confession is rendered worthless and none of your sins will be absolved. You will also be guilty of the sin of sacrilege because you withheld a mortal sin in Confession. You will have to return to Confession and confess all the sins you already confessed as well as confess the sin of sacrilege and the sin you didn’t confess last time.

On the other hand, if you simply forget to confess a mortal sin, all of your sins (including the forgotten sin) will be absolved. The next time you go to Confession, you just have to mention the sin you forgot to confess if you should happen to remember it. Here’s a link to the Baltimore Catechism’s lesson on Confession which should give you a good basic understanding of the Sacrament of Penance.

 

[thistle]

I have a general confession question. Is a confession considered valid if you don’t mention certain mortal sins? If it is invalid does that mean that all your sins that you confessed are not absolved?
I just converted a year ago and I’m trying to understand the whole sacrament of reconciliation.

If you deliberately withhold mortal sins then any absolution would not be valid. You might be able to fool the priest but you can’t fool God.

 

[HeDa]

OP. Vinny Flynn has written a very good book about confession called 7 Secrets of Confession . Simple to read and it helped me a lot before I went to Confession the first time. It is a book I can recommend to both converts and all those who would like to learn more about the Sacrament. Focus is more on how to make Confession part of your everyday life than a heavy theological thesis.

 

[Vico]

I have a general confession question. Is a confession considered valid if you don’t mention certain mortal sins? If it is invalid does that mean that all your sins that you confessed are not absolved?
I just converted a year ago and I’m trying to understand the whole sacrament of reconciliation.

It may not be possible to remember them all or the exact number of them, with reasonable effort, which is an excusing impossibility. It won’t be valid if the proper disposition of sorrow and intention not to repeat them is not present, for all mortal sins since baptism. The absolution given is never partial for mortal sin.

Canon Law (CIC)

Can. 960 Individual and integral confession and absolution constitute the only ordinary means by which a member of the faithful conscious of grave sin is reconciled with God and the Church. Only physical or moral impossibility excuses from confession of this type; in such a case reconciliation can be obtained by other means.

 

[TTLE127]

You would also have to reconfess the mortal sins from invalid confessions again.