protestant but want confession

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LoobyLoo as you have mentioned a vicar I’m assuming you are Anglican (at least nominally) what I would suggest to you in getting in touch with the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. These are Catholics who converted from Anglicanism. Our last Pope Benedict created a way for whole communities of Anglicans to enter the Catholic church (because they had been constantly asking for a way to enter as communities!). Therefore they are completely Catholic as any other but they have kept some of their pastoral and liturgical traditions. You might well feel very comfortable therefore in one of their groups or parishes. I think also they will be delighted that your’re contacting them and will help you move forward in the spiritual place you find yourself.

I can’t pull up the website as I am on a mobile but just Google Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. They have around 40 groups around the UK. The Ordinariate is a new chapter in the church and is only about 2 or 3 years in existence. Their parishes in London are Most Precious Blood by London Bridge station or Our Lady of the Assumption and St. Gregory which is more central in Warwick St. close to Regent St. If you’re in another part of the UK let us know and we can see if we can find someone. Also look on their website under “groups”.

It’s important to recognize that as much as God wants us to forgive others we also need to be merciful and forgive ourselves. However I am a convert to the faith and also really, really wanted to go to Confession - it was definitely one of the ways that I was brought into the church. So I understand your desire.

I will pray for you, I am also English and converted when I was 19. I’m now 44 so I guess it stuck!
It is also noteworthy that the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham is an Anglican holy place with chapters of devotion even in America among Episcopalians.
 
I have been raised protestant but have a Catholic Partner. I don’t feel like I know enough about Catholicism to convert but when I listen to my partner, I understand and know that he has been sent to me to guide me in my life. I have made several mistakes when I was younger that I have undergone counselling for and I have had many years of spiritual searching, none of which has helped in any way…I’ve only really felt that I’ve been offered acceptance about my actions which for some reason I cannot accept. My question is that I want to be able to go to confession but know that I can’t be accepted by the church as I am not Catholic. Can I at least speak to a Priest?
Confession is the greatest relief for the troubled soul. I know it has relieved mine countless times. If you do eventually become Catholic and go to confession, here’s a tip. What I do is follow St. Phillip Neri’s sage advice, “When confessing, accuse thyself, so God won’t have to.”
 
I have been raised protestant but have a Catholic Partner. I don’t feel like I know enough about Catholicism to convert but when I listen to my partner, I understand and know that he has been sent to me to guide me in my life. I have made several mistakes when I was younger that I have undergone counselling for and I have had many years of spiritual searching, none of which has helped in any way…I’ve only really felt that I’ve been offered acceptance about my actions which for some reason I cannot accept. My question is that I want to be able to go to confession but know that I can’t be accepted by the church as I am not Catholic. Can I at least speak to a Priest?
You are more “ready” than you think… I will pray for you and your family.
 
From the article
. Regarding the sacrament of confession, a Protestant who believes in it could receive it in a grave situation since virtually none of the Protestant churches have the sacrament of confession, making it impossible for him to approach one of his own ministers for it.
Key word is “virtually”, which doesn’t mean “all”. Lutherans can approach their pastor for the sacrament of confession. And anointing if they wish.

Jon
 
It is also noteworthy that the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham is an Anglican holy place with chapters of devotion even in America among Episcopalians.
EvangelCatholic

Our Lady appeared in Walsingham, Norfolk, England in 1061 and Walsingham was a place of pilgrimage for many centuries. It attracted various religious orders to pastor the many thousands of pilgrims that came from throughout Europe. Henry VIII had a devotion to Our Lady and visited Walsingham on pilgrimage himself until his break with the Pope and the Catholic church. It was at that point that Catholics started to be called “Roman” Catholic by the English. Henry VIII went on to sack and destroy Walsingham. Per the Catholic shrine: “In 1538, the Reformation caused the Priory property to be handed over to the King’s Commissioners and the famous statue of Our Lady of Walsingham was taken to London and burnt. Nothing remains today of the original shrine, but its site is marked on the lawn in “The Abbey Grounds” in the village.”

It therefore became illegal to go on pilgrimage and people did so secretly. As a result Walsingham sank into a time of hiddenness and neglect. We then enter the time of British history when it was against the law to go to mass and Catholics were persecuted for about 230 years. It wasn’t until 1791 that it was legal to go to Mass. Catholics were eventually emancipated in 1829 and the Catholic hierarchy was restored in England in 1850.

Catholics began to go on official pilgrimages again to Walsingham with the blessing of the Pope in 1897 with a shrine in the nearby town of King’s Lynn and in 1922 the Anglican vicar decided to reestablish a shrine to Our Lady also. This is the history of why sadly there are two shrines to Our Lady in Walsingham, one Catholic and one Anglican (although pilgrims often visit both). Neither is original as it was destroyed in the Reformation and the Anglicans neglected to reestablish a shrine until almost 400 years after it was destroyed.

Our Lady Of Walsingham invokes great devotion from English Catholics and those Anglicans that consider themselves Anglo-Catholics (most consider themselves Protestant like LoobyLoo).

Here is a link to the shrines at Walsingham walsingham.org.uk/

For the Ordinariate ordinariate.org.uk/
 
Thanks, Real Julianne.

Scruples are an intitial form of obsessive compulsive disorder, pretty common in my neck of the woods.
 
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