Kind and Number

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Whenever I’ve confessed mortal sins, I didn’t ever say the number. I just stated the sin. This was because that’s how I’d been confessing sins for years.
I was wondering if it’s still okay even though the church says to confess kind and number for mortal sins? The priest never asked about the number and never told me to start doing that.
I honestly don’t think I’d be able to keep track if I did something a certain number of times… I will try to add the number or at least an estimatation like “several times” “once” or “a lot” now that I know it’s actually supposed to happen for mortal sins. I do remember being taught in Baltimore Catechism that it should be done but I couldn’t ever remember and the priests I went to didn’t say anything so I kept doing it :confused:
 
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Footprints said:
I honestly don’t think I’d be able to keep track if I did something a certain number of times…
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The very nature of mortal sins means that you’re probably aware of the number unless you commit the sin very frequently and/or don’t go to confession often enough. Even under those scenarios, though, giving as good an estimate as you can is enough.
 
@ZMysticat Well, one was a sin I’d committed very frequently and others were one’s I hadn’t remembered/known to confess from the past. Is it a sin to not confess the number? I didn’t mean to conceal anything, I just didn’t think it was really needed… but I guess it is.
 
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Well, did you inoly it was once, or did you say it in a way that implied uou’d done it multiple times? if the latter, and the priest didn’t ask for more, I’d say you’re fine.
 
It would be wrong to not mention it but probably not sinful if you aren’t aware of the requirement. If you are aware and intentionally withhold that information, then it would be a sin and (I think) render the confession invalid (someone correct me if I’m wrong on that).

Also, you aren’t required to confess sins that weren’t mentioned in a previous confession unless they were mortal and intentionally withheld. Otherwise, they are covered by the confession. You can confess them if you want, but you are no longer required to. You’ve already been forgiven of them.
 
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I just said what the sin was as in what it would be called. For example (not saying this is what it was): hypnosis, fortune telling, receiving Communion in mortal sin.
I don’t think I made it sound like it was once. It really could be understood both ways.
 
I thought it was more of a suggestion but I didn’t know it was a REQUIREMENT.
 
@ZMysticat Well then I will certainly do that to the best of my ability from now on. I will mention it in confession too but does this mean I need to confess all my other mortal sins that I had confessed in good faith that I was being repentant and was still comfessing correctly?
 
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ZMystiCat said:
It would be wrong to not mention it but probably not sinful if you aren’t aware of the requirement. If you are aware and intentionally withhold that information, then it would be a sin and (I think) render the confession invalid (someone correct me if I’m wrong on that).
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Right, if say I didn’t know the number is to be mentioned along with the kind of sin in confession, I will not have sinned by failing to confess the number-- we don’t sin accidentally. And, OP, that you were instructed on this at some point does not mean guilt of having left out the number is imputed to you, given that you lacked awareness of the obligation during your confessions.

Without making judgments on particular cases of course, I believe it would invalidate a confession if I had known of the obligation and deliberately withheld the number.
ZMystiCat said:
Also, you aren’t required to confess sins that weren’t mentioned in a previous confession unless they were mortal and intentionally withheld. Otherwise, they are covered by the confession. You can confess them if you want, but you are no longer required to. You’ve already been forgiven of them.
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Canon Law (canon 988 §1) states that one must confess mortal sins “not yet remitted directly through the keys of the Church nor acknowledged in individual confession”. So, sins that were forgiven through indirect remission (as through a sincere confession in which one unintentionally left out a mortal sin) would be mentioned at the next confession. But, remembering the sin does not put one back into the state of mortal sin (because it was still forgiven), so it is not a requirement to confess at any particular time (although it would seem to be clearly wrong to delay with the hope of forgetting it again).

See also: http://www.ewtn.com/v/experts/showmessage.asp?number=415263

I’m not really sure how number plays into this. Perhaps it might be something to ask the priest in the next confession. It will likely be a good idea to consult a priest anyway @Footprints, since things like this can probably be a common area for the kinds of worries you’ve discussed briefly in other threads to manifest.

Regardless, the OP has done the right thing in adopting the intention of confessing by number (or approximation if the number is not known) in the future.
 
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@Arwing I will mention it to the priest in my next confession! Thank you!
 
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I don’t think I have particularly done well in this department as well. To be honest for most of my sins I don’t know the number. If I am thinking about something in particular I know that but often I am confessing more about general failures.

Ex: I was rude to others and gossiped at work.

I know I was rude by my attitude but not really the specific events and I don’t know how many times I gossiped.

Could someone post some good examples of how a confession should look? When I converted back in 07 we didn’t really have a lot of training in this and no priest has every commented on my confession about it being good or not.
 
@redbaron162 I relate with this! Some of my sins, mine were mortal, happened at least 2-3 years ago and I can’t remember how often I did some of them in that time period. I just confessed them as they were and the priest never questioned it. I really don’t want to have to dig up all of those past sins that I already had been trying to remember to confess at past confessions to tell the number 😦

Perhaps @edward_george1 could offer some (name removed by moderator)ut? I’d like to know what to prepare to say at my next confession and whether or not I need to reconfess everything with the number attached.
 
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I question whether it was mortal? You have to put the mental energy into the act to make it mortal. You have to have full, the Church says FULL, concert of the will and you really have to know How wrong it is. If you do all that you will remember the number IMO. If it is just a bad habit you do without much thought it is a venial sin.
 
@Theo2 Well, the sins were definitley mortal but at the time, I did not know they were. It was a good 5 years of not confessing well and being a bit of an idiot that led to all of those sins. I know that you have to have full knowledge that those sins are grave matter but I felt so much better confessing them and getting those off my chest. So I might have had reduced culpability but I still confessed them.
 
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It sounds like you didn’t know you had to do that, so don’t worry about it. Trust your priest, and don’t dwell on what you did or didn’t do in the past. That can lead to an unhealthy fixation on past sins that can blur your vision of the mercy of God.

In the future, if you are absolutely certain something is a mortal sin, say “I did (sin) X number of times.” If it isn’t a mortal sin, or you aren’t certain (in which case it is highly unlikely to be a mortal sin), say “I did (sin) several times/many times/frequently” or some other general term like that.

-Fr ACEGC
 
Good idea to confess all that is on your mind. God loves to forgive and then He forgets!
 
I remember when I went through RCIA we did a fake communion training where people went up and received a unconsecrated host and “went through the motions” so that we would be confident in what we were doing and not too nervous for our first communion at the Easter vigil. Maybe something like this for confession for RCIA programs would be good to. Have someone go up with a pretend priest and give a pretend confession with some made up sins just so the newbies like I was can see exactly what we are suppose to do. It may seem self evident for people who have been doing to for awhile but for others seeing a concrete example get be of great help.
 
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