No mortal sin. no confession

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Someone very close to me has not gone to confession in over a year. They say they do not commit mortal sin. Do you think this is possible? He is an older retired man but, I know we all fall short very often, at least I do.
 
Christian life is often compared to the stages of human development. We are born into Christ, we grow as children, we then mature from milk to meat.

Think of an infant talking to someone who runs marathons and saying “how can he say he runs for miles and miles, I fall down every time I take a step!”

Maybe ask your friend what things helped him grow in grace to reach this point in his spiritual life.
 
Yes I could do that but I wonder how is it that St John Paul ll would go weekly to confession and St Francis would ask for God’s Mercy on his death bed?
 
Well the grace of confession sure can’t hurt him! So then why doesn’t he want God’s absolution?
 
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I’d hope we would all ask for God’s mercy on our death bed!

About who goes to Confession how often, when JPII went to confession was about his own personal spiritual life. I’ve read that he went to confession daily.
 
He says he has nothing to confess, I believe this is not uncommon, I knew a lady that told me she had never committed a mortal sin ever. She told me she would go to confession and make sins up!
 
He says they’re close. Presumably he isn’t asking random strangers about their sins. And he’s not using this persons name.

I’m not sure he’s being inappropriate here.
 
I have never asked anyone how often they sin, they brought it up when the subject of going to reconciliation has come up.
 
jinedo58 said:
Someone very close to me has not gone to confession in over a year. They say they do not commit mortal sin. Do you think this is possible? He is an older retired man but, I know we all fall short very often, at least I do.
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Yes some people do not commit mortal sins. The dogmatic teaching of the Church is that one that has sanctifying grace can remain free from mortal sin.
 
Theoretically, if someone legitimately didn’t sin (I doubt that anyone except Jesus and Mary ever pulled this off, but just suppose) what would that person be confessing? They can’t just go in and make stuff up.
 
Pius XII went to confession daily. John Paul II went to confession weekly. Padre Pio encouraged everyone to go to weekly confession.

If people of that stature went to confession that regularly—!

It’s probably a bit like bathing. I tell my kids, “You need to get a bath!” and my kids say, “Awww! I’m not THAT dirty!” And I’m like, “You skipped your bath two days in a row! It doesn’t matter how dirty you think you are-- you need a bath!!!”

We all know people who ought to bathe more frequently than they do! Confession is the same thing.

But just like we can’t Febreze other people when they don’t bathe themselves, all we can do is focus on keeping ourselves clean… and if the subject comes up, we can say, “Well, bathing regularly is a nice habit to cultivate…”
 
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When I talked to my sponsor, who is in her 80’s now, about the Sacrament of Confession, she said “I just confess the same sins again and again as if I haven’t learnt anything!”. My jokingly respons was “Hmmm, I think the priest would be concerned if you suddenly started to confess that you murdered someone and are beating up old age people on the streets and robbing them.” Her comment: “Well seeing it that way, then I prefer to stick to the same old sins.” We both had a good laugh and then I went to my first Confession.
 
I remember a quote from the late Fr Benedict Groeshoel when someone complained about confessing the same sin, he used that funny New York accent and would say “what do you want new sins!” LOL
 
jinedo58 said:
He says he has nothing to confess
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Venial sins can be confessed. One who is unaware should try to make themselves aware.

Besides, as far as I know, we are required to go to Confession at least once a year. His lack of doing so is something to confess.
 
ZMystiCat said:
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jinedo58:
He says he has nothing to confess
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Venial sins can be confessed. One who is unaware should try to make themselves aware.

Besides, as far as I know, we are required to go to Confession at least once a year. His lack of doing so is something to confess.
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No, we are only obliged to go in the case of having committed mortal sins.

See Canon Law 989.
 
I said that we can confess them (and are in fact encouraged to), not that we are obligated to.
 
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