Question about incomplete confession

[schaeffer]

Is it still efficacious to go to confession if one has a sin they are not ready or willing to confess?

They confess other sins but hold this one back.

Or does one only get grace if every sin is confessed and absolved at once?

 

[Bookcat]

If it is a mortal sin that one holds back - the confession is invalid (and there can be additional mortal sin involved-which would need to be confessed- if one does so with full knowledge and deliberate consent). (one would need to repeat the confession of all the mortal sins).

One must confess all mortal sins.

One ought to go talk with a Priest and seek help in repenting of mortal sins and making a good confession.

Venial sin never “needs” to be confessed.

So one may choose what venial sins to directly confess in confession. Venial sins can be “withheld” without effecting the validity of the Sacrament. Such would not be an “incomplete confession”.

Though let us seek to repent of all our sins.

 

[TheDoctor]

Is it still efficacious to go to confession if one has a sin they are not ready or willing to confess?

Bookcat’s answer is spot on. If I may ask - and you don’t need to answer but just for your own reflection:

Are you not ready or willing to confess because you don’t think God will love you enough to forgive you?

Are you not ready or willing to confess because you think the Priest will judge you?

Are you not ready or willing to confess because you don’t understand why it’s a sin?

Are you not ready or willing to confess because you don’t want to stop doing it?

Are you not ready or willing to confess because you don’t think you can stop even though you want to?

 

[Caldey]

As i see it, you should confess all known sins. Why hold any back? Why go to confession if you hold any back?

 

[porthos11]

As i see it, you should confess all known sins. Why hold any back? Why go to confession if you hold any back?

Because in the case of venial sins, one may not necessarily be sufficiently sorry for them. As venial sins need not be confessed, to falsely mention them, claim to be sorry for them but without resolving to not commit them again is an abuse of the confessional and can be sinful. These are best withheld (of course, this leaves the penitent incapable of receiving a plenary indulgence, but that’s another question entirely).

Of course, this does not apply to mortal sin. Intentionally withholding a mortal sin results in an invalid confession, none of one’s sins are forgiven, and the additional mortal sin of sacrilege is incurred.

Since mortal sins are ordinarily forgiven in Confession, one should not stay away from the confessional if one has mortal sin, even if he has venial sins he may not be completely sorry for. This is why some venial sins can be withheld.

 

[Bookcat]

As i see it, you should confess all known sins. Why hold any back? Why go to confession if you hold any back?

See my post above.

 

[Bookcat]

but without resolving to not commit them (venial sins) again is an abuse of the confessional and can be sinful. .

Note that the purpose of amendment needed for venial sins (we all commit venial sins even daily and have various habits of doing so…) is different than for mortal.

The later involves “resolve not to commit mortal sins” the former can be such as “to commit fewer…to improve…to work on them…etc”

(but yes if one is not contrite for a venial sin - one would not mention it).

 

[Neofight]

If it is a mortal sin that one holds back - the confession is invalid (and there can be additional mortal sin involved-which would need to be confessed- if one does so with full knowledge and deliberate consent). (one would need to repeat the confession of all the mortal sins).

One must confess all mortal sins.

One ought to go talk with a Priest and seek help in repenting of mortal sins and making a good confession.

Venial sin never “needs” to be confessed.

So one may choose what venial sins to directly confess in confession. Venial sins can be “withheld” without effecting the validity of the Sacrament. Such would not be an “incomplete confession”.

Though let us seek to repent of all our sins.

The “confession” in not invalid, but it is incomplete. The sacrament may be invalid.

Technically, confession is only one of the components of the sacrament of reconciliation.

 

[Bookcat]

The “confession” in not invalid, but it is incomplete. The sacrament may be invalid.

Technically, confession is only one of the components of the sacrament of reconciliation.

Confession meaning there the *“Sacrament of Confession” *(CCC 1424)

And even from the point of view of the parts - it can also be said to be invalid n a sense- for one must repeat it (because they knowingly withheld a mortal sin) not just supply the incomplete part.

 

[PJM]

=schaeffer;12906182]Is it still efficacious to go to confession if one has a sin they are not ready or willing to confess?

They confess other sins but hold this one back.

Or does one only get grace if every sin is confessed and absolved at once?

One MUST Confess Alll Mortal sins [1John 5:16-17 & John 20:19-23 for it to be a valid Confession and for forgiveness and grace to take place.

Form our Catholic Catechism:
**1457 According to the Church’s command, “after having attained the age of discretion, each of the faithful is bound by an obligation faithfully to confess serious sins at least once a year.” Anyone who is aware of having committed a mortal sin must not receive Holy Communion, even if he experiences deep contrition, without having first received sacramental absolution, unless he has a grave reason for receiving Communion and there is no possibility of going to confession. Children must go to the sacrament of Penance before receiving Holy Communion for the first time."

**1456 **Confession to a priest is an essential part of the sacrament of Penance: "All mortal sins of which penitents after a diligent self-examination are conscious must be recounted by them in confession, even if they are most secret and have been committed against the last two precepts of the Decalogue; for these sins sometimes wound the soul more grievously and are more dangerous than those which are committed openly."

When Christ’s faithful strive to confess all the sins that they can remember, they undoubtedly place all of them before the divine mercy for pardon. But those who fail to do so and knowingly withhold some, place nothing before the divine goodness for remission through the mediation of the priest, “for if the sick person is too ashamed to show his wound to the doctor, the medicine cannot heal what it does not know.”

God Bless you!

There are NO new sins and none the priest has not heard before.

Deuteronomy 30:19
“I call heaven and earth to witness this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Choose therefore life, that both thou and thy seed may live”

Matthew 7:13
Enter ye in at the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat.

Luke 13:24
Strive to enter by the narrow gate; for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able.

Matthew 7:14
How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leadeth to life: and few there are that find it!

Hell is REAL and eternity is forever.

Isiah 55: 6-9 “Seek ye the Lord, while he may be found: call upon him, while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unjust man his thoughts, and let him return to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God: for he is bountiful to forgive. For my thoughts are not your thoughts: nor your ways my ways, saith the Lord”

Christ instituted all Seven Sacraments for US. They are the tools He gives us to merit heaven. Much grace if offered to assist you.

**Luke.15

[7] Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.**

God Bless you,

Patrick

 

[Neofight]

Confession meaning there the *“Sacrament of Confession” *(CCC 1424)

And even from the point of view of the parts - it can also be said to be invalid n a sense- for one must repeat it (because they knowingly withheld a mortal sin) not just supply the incomplete part.

yeah…I saw the “Sacrament of Confession” thing coming

“Reconciliation” if I am not mistaken came out of V2, but regardless of where it came from, it really was welcomed, because the archaic terms of “Confession” and “Penance” do not speak adequately of the Sacrament…just my opinion, however.

 

[Bookcat]

yeah…I saw the “Sacrament of Confession” thing coming

“Reconciliation” if I am not mistaken came out of V2, but regardless of where it came from, it really was welcomed, because the archaic terms of “Confession” and “Penance” do not speak adequately of the Sacrament…just my opinion, however.

Ya such would be an opinion…

and not mine.

All three work well and then some…

Catechism:

1423 It is called the sacrament of conversion because it makes sacramentally present Jesus’ call to conversion, the first step in returning to the Father5 from whom one has strayed by sin.

It is called the* sacrament of Penance*, since it consecrates the Christian sinner’s personal and ecclesial steps of conversion, penance, and satisfaction.

1424 It is called the sacrament of confession, since the disclosure or confession of sins to a priest is an essential element of this sacrament. In a profound sense it is also a “confession” - acknowledgment and praise - of the holiness of God and of his mercy toward sinful man.

It is called the sacrament of forgiveness, since by the priest’s sacramental absolution God grants the penitent “pardon and peace.”

It is called the sacrament of Reconciliation, because it imparts to the sinner the love of God who reconciles: “Be reconciled to God.” He who lives by God’s merciful love is ready to respond to the Lord’s call: “Go; first be reconciled to your brother.”

scborromeo.org/ccc/p2s2c2a4.htm#1424

 

[Neofight]

Ya such would be an opinion…

and not mine.

All three work well and then some…

Catechism:

1423 It is called the sacrament of conversion because it makes sacramentally present Jesus’ call to conversion, the first step in returning to the Father5 from whom one has strayed by sin.

It is called the* sacrament of Penance*, since it consecrates the Christian sinner’s personal and ecclesial steps of conversion, penance, and satisfaction.

1424 It is called the sacrament of confession, since the disclosure or confession of sins to a priest is an essential element of this sacrament. In a profound sense it is also a “confession” - acknowledgment and praise - of the holiness of God and of his mercy toward sinful man.

It is called the sacrament of forgiveness, since by the priest’s sacramental absolution God grants the penitent “pardon and peace.”

It is called the sacrament of Reconciliation, because it imparts to the sinner the love of God who reconciles: “Be reconciled to God.” He who lives by God’s merciful love is ready to respond to the Lord’s call: “Go; first be reconciled to your brother.”

scborromeo.org/ccc/p2s2c2a4.htm#1424

Yes. Very interesting.

Would make a fun poll item…I think the choice (if one was forced to select “best” description as they see it) says a lot of how one views God…with the caveat, of course, that how one see’s God may vary, but none necessarily the correct response.