Pornography and Confession

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Let me start by saying I’ve become quite scrupulous as of late so please bear with me. Secondly, some people may be rather disturbed by what I say so please forgive me and secondly you may want to not read this thread.

Right… Essentially before I became a Catholic (I was baptised but in another Church) I used to use pornography all the time. When I confessed it the first time round I just confessed it generally as ‘having viewed impure images and videos, both inumerable times’ (or words to that effect). I haven’t viewed any since (intentionally) and certainly don’t intend to. And I have no real desire too. In all honesty I find it rather disgusting

However, recently I’ve been feeling that that wasn’t enough, as there were other sins involved. So I confessed having viewed porn that contained sodomy, homosexual acts of both sexes, oral sex, masturbation on self and others, etc. etc.). I’m really not sure as to whether I needed to go into this much detail.

Anyway, past sins I committed long ago keep coming up and I feel, especially with regard to this area. One of these things that came up (and this is where it really gets bad) was that I viewed porn featuring pregnant women, and another was so called ‘incest porn’ where the actors would pretend to be related (but obviously weren’t). Now, my question is, do I need to re-confess these and explicitly mention that I viewed pregnancy porn and incest porn, and then mention the different types that were involved (some was lesbian for example), or were my previous confessions enough. I should add that I don’t have a regular confessor that I can discuss this with.

Any help most welcome, and again, sorry for the awful nature of these sins. I hope and pray you will forgive me.
 
You’ll probably get other answers from more knowledgeable people but – for what its worth – here’s mine. I think that confessing to “having viewed impure images and videos on many occasions” is quite sufficient for a good and sincere confession. You have to be cautious about scandalising the priest and going into detail about the nature of what you looked at might do just that.🙂
 
dividus said:
You’ll probably get other answers from more knowledgeable people but – for what its worth – here’s mine. I think that confessing to “having viewed impure images and videos on many occasions” is quite sufficient for a good and sincere confession. You have to be cautious about scandalising the priest and going into detail about the nature of what you looked at might do just that.🙂
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Yes, I must admit when I came out of confession after the first detailed confession (which went on for ages. I got about a third of the way through and he asked if I was finished… My reply: ‘oh no, there’s loads more’) I felt bad coming out and realised it might have been just a little too detailed
 
I agree with dividus!

I think it’s great that you are brave enough to even say things that are hard to admit. Now that you have literally entered the light, they are sources of humiliation and the intention to honestly, plainly and without pretense put it out there- is GOOD. But even if the intention is good, if the end result could lead to scadanalizing the priest or anyone you talk to, OR if it could paint an image in their mind that could lead them to temptation (the devil is freakishly good at trying to get us in anyway he can), then it is not helping your soul or the person encountering the information.

I think taking that stuff to the Blessed Sacrament and revealing it in detail there is okay, if it helps YOU to also shake off the shame and if it helps you better accept and trust in the absolution you received during confession from God via his priest.

If things from the past pertaining to the already confessed sin come up, keep in mind the devil could be trying to make you feel ashamed! You confessed it! If it has not happened again since, then just pray whenever the thought arises AND maybe make yourself say "Thank you Lord for absolving me…I trust in your mercy! "

I leave with you a website I stumbled upon that has helped me greatly! It goes beyond listing the steps on how to confess. It gets deeper, into how to make authentic confessions. It is a wonderful read. It is lengthy, but well worth it.

thirdorderofsaintdominic.org/Examination.html

Peace !
 
dividus said:
You’ll probably get other answers from more knowledgeable people but – for what its worth – here’s mine. I think that confessing to “having viewed impure images and videos on many occasions” is quite sufficient for a good and sincere confession. You have to be cautious about scandalising the priest and going into detail about the nature of what you looked at might do just that.🙂
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I agree. You’ve said enough and have been forgiven. Trust in God’s mercy.
 
Just a couple of points:

(1) You don’t have to go into details. Say you viewed pornography, and state how many times or how frequently you did so. This sort of thing – filing your mortal sins under one broad category – is perfectly acceptable, and if the priest wants to or needs to know more, he will ask you.

For example, a person might confess that they, in anger, threatened to kick their elderly father out of the house. They need not provide a script of what was said, why it was said, what the father thought, how they felt, why they think it’s wrong, whether or not their father is a pain in the neck, or any other bits of context.

In the case of pornography, the only qualifier I can think of is if you committed some other mortal sin to acquire said pornography, such as burglarizing a house to steal a DVD collection. Ditto if the pornography is in any other way illegal for you to possess.

(2) The priest’s capacity to judge your words in confession and determine whether you are (a) contrite and (b) giving enough information, is something that, I understand, all priests have a great deal of training in. Allow yourself to have confidence in this, along with confidence in God’s mercy.
 
You don’t have to give details. You only have to give enough information to discriminate one sin from another. So you can’t say “I committed a sin of a sexual nature.” That’s too general. Just say: I looked at pornography everyday or twice a week or whatever.
 
I just want to add to the very good advice already given, by contributing the Ask An Apologist answer to a similar question.

How specific in confession?
You need to name the sin. But you don’t have to go into detail.
For example, just saying “fornication” is enough. One would not have to explaine more about it–unless the priest asks for clarification. When I hear Confessions, if the person confesses having stolen, I always ask what it was that was stolen. It could be five dollars or a Honda SUV. The sin needs to be clearly stated.
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The questioner asked about the kind of pornography, so this was included in Father’s response.
 
The basic sin is impure lust for people you are not married to. I don’t think the details are important. I think you need to pray for faith in the sacrament of confession, and stop worrying about whether your confession was “full” enough, or “complete” enough.
 
You were BAPTIZED! 🙂

All your sins commited before you were baptized were washed away during your baptism! I’m pretty sure you don’t even need to confess them anymore! 🙂 Confession is for sins commited AFTER baptism.
 
Greenblitz31 said:
You were BAPTIZED! 🙂

All your sins commited before you were baptized were washed away during your baptism! I’m pretty sure you don’t even need to confess them anymore! 🙂 Confession is for sins commited AFTER baptism.
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Yes, I was Baptised as a baby, and only received confirmation and Communion as an adult… So all those sins count…
 
AquinasFan123 said:
Yes, I was Baptised as a baby, and only received confirmation and Communion as an adult… So all those sins count…
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Obviously, your first confession that you made about pornography was valid because you didn’t hold anything back. As long as you didn’t intentionally hold any grave/or serious sin back, have a contrite heart, and have a firm purpose of amendment all of your sins that you committed are forgiven. Forgive yourself and go in peace.
 
You shouldn’t have to go into detail especially on that kind of stuff. You don’t want to turn your confession into an occasion of sin for the priest
 
RileyG said:
Obviously, your first confession that you made about pornography was valid because you didn’t hold anything back. As long as you didn’t intentionally hold any grave/or serious sin back, have a contrite heart, and have a firm purpose of amendment all of your sins that you committed are forgiven. Forgive yourself and go in peace.
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Well yes true, but the Council of Trent does say that if we remember things we should confess them
 
One of the most beautiful things that I’ve ever heard about the sacrament of Confession is that it’s not about being forgiven. Yes, that’s definitely part of it, but it’s primarily about healing. More specifically, it’s a step towards healing spiritually by reconciling us with God and the community/Church (those we’ve hurt by our actions). Forgiveness of our sins is part of the healing process, and when we are done we may need more time to heal, but the confession is an important part of that process that’s on going.

With that said, I look at sin like this - I know the big ones that I shouldn’t do (like adultery, murder, etc) well enough to know that hate and lust are those things and most of the big ones I know that I’ve messed up when doing them. I would confess my sins of those things for sure.

However, perhaps I’ve done some grave sins that I didn’t realize they were bad. These most likely are considered venial sins which are washed away via the Eucharist. Though if I have enough piled up, I should confess them anyway.

Then there are things that I wonder if they are sinful, and I don’t worry about them because I’ll look for an answer or forget about looking into it. If they are sins, they’re venial at worst I’d assume and I won’t regularly worry about confessing them all the time.

With that said, I went to Confession and simply said “I used impure images and videos to lust/misuse God’s design for sex with impure acts”, or something very close to that wording. That covered 10 years of porn use that spanned a wide variety of types. So I think I come from a similar view on this topic as you do, and I don’t think you need to confess it anymore unless you did something wrong that made the confession invalid.

A big part of reconciliation is probably pretty hard for all of us sometimes - forgiving ourselves so we can be healed inside too.

God bless, and I hope you have peace in these things and all areas of your life .🙂
 
I don’t think you should be explicit in your confession. I’m sure God has forgiven but now you also need to forgive yourself.
 
Just an update on this, and a further question.

I didn’t mention it in Confession as I realised it was just scruples and was probably damaging myself. Anyway, it started to bother me again the other day and I resolved not to mention it again, lest I give in to scruples. I found this difficult not to do, and fee like I’d made a good confession. But I did do it and then received Communion at the Mass afterwards.

Anyway, a few hours later I picked a sermon to listen to which was about Corpus Christi. Anyway, my computer was being slow so kept stopping and starting, but one bit which did go on long enough started with the priest saying (I want to talk about making a sacreligious Communion). Of course my stomach dropped out the bottom of me and now I’m worried that maybe this is a sign that I did make a bad confession, and thus a bad Communion. Any help welcome 😦
 
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