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There has been a thread going about kids and first communion. Then there was an answer about kids and needing to go to confession in the ask an apologist section. Here is a clip from the ask an apologist:
So, is it true that if you are locked up in a hole somewhere with no access to confession, that you are guaranteed to have perfect contrition if you repent and not just the boring kind of contrition that suffices for reception of the sacrament? Or is the apologist only saying that it is guaranteed for children under the age of, say, 18, or what here? Please offer some (name removed by moderator)ut.
The way I have of understanding what is being said is that the person who truly can’t get to confession is **always **given the grace of perfect contrition if he can summon up any type of repentance.Even if a young child did commit a mortal sin, he would be forgiven his mortal sin the instant he repents. For Catholics, such forgiveness is dependent upon sacramental confession as soon as is reasonably possible, but if access to confession is impossible through no fault of one’s own then the sin is still forgiven. That means that a child who committed a mortal sin, repented, but could not get to confession because of his parents’ unwillingness to take him to confession, would still be forgiven. Only if he himself refused to go to confession, knowing full well that he must in order to be forgiven, would he be held accountable.
So, is it true that if you are locked up in a hole somewhere with no access to confession, that you are guaranteed to have perfect contrition if you repent and not just the boring kind of contrition that suffices for reception of the sacrament? Or is the apologist only saying that it is guaranteed for children under the age of, say, 18, or what here? Please offer some (name removed by moderator)ut.