"Penance" and our Obligation

[Tannhauser]

This has troubled me recently.

I was given a Penance, at which point I realised that what was suggested was unreasonable and certainly I would have been unable to have committed to it… so I immediately raised this with my Priest, and even spoke to him later on the telephone to assure that what had been suggested was indeed not a part of my penance.

So this is my question: if we are giving a Penance, and only realise after agreeing to it that we are unable to perform it, is it possible for a Priest to “retract” or dissolve our Obligation to perform the Penance?

What is Church teaching on this?

My conscience has felt quite binded recently, and I’ve been a little fearful of finding myself bound and obligated to something that I could not perform, and thus mired in mortal sin… really quite worried and want to get back to loving God and not being vexed over this.

Please help.

 

[RosaryFan]

This has troubled me recently.

I was given a Penance, at which point I realised that what was suggested was unreasonable and certainly I would have been unable to have committed to it… so I immediately raised this with my Priest, and even spoke to him later on the telephone to assure that what had been suggested was indeed not a part of my penance.

So this is my question: if we are giving a Penance, and only realise after agreeing to it that we are unable to perform it, is it possible for a Priest to “retract” or dissolve our Obligation to perform the Penance?

What is Church teaching on this?

My conscience has felt quite binded recently, and I’ve been a little fearful of finding myself bound and obligated to something that I could not perform, and thus mired in mortal sin… really quite worried and want to get back to loving God and not being vexed over this.

Please help.

If possible, speak to the priest who gave you the penance. You can request another penance if the one you received is unable to be performed. I know you can do this while in the confessional, so I don’t see any reason why you couldn’t request another penance after the fact. Someone else may be able to give you a better answer, but I know you can request a different penance during confession.

 

[Mintaka]

Of course the priest can take back a penance laid on you, or change it. Similarly, I’m pretty sure that another priest can “commute” the penance if needed.

Here, I found a reference in ewtn.com/library/liturgy/zlitur114.htman old EWTN column:

"On the other hand, if unforeseen circumstances have made fulfillment of a previously accepted penance excessively burdensome, the penitent may explain the difficulty to either the same or another confessor, who may substitute the original penance for another one which is possible to fulfill.

“In the same way, if, at the moment of confession, a priest were to impose a penance which a person would find impossible to fulfill — for example, fasting to a person suffering from diabetes — then the person should explain the circumstances so that the priest may change his mind.”

See? You’re fine.

 

[Jehoshua]

better that in my opinion than getting a mere six hail mary’s. A penance should be truly penitential in my opinion.

As to the actual topic, if a penance is impossible for whatever reason a commution or change is possible as has been said. I would argue for the change of penance, for the above reason, commuting it seems like a total cop-out to me and not in accord with the ideal of repentance in the face of our degradation from sin.