Questions on Confession

[moo5009]

I’m becoming Catholic soon, and I have a few questions to ask first. About 7 months ago I discovered mortal sins. So, does that mean I only have to confess the mortal sins I committed after I found out about them? Or do I have to tell everything I’ve done? How detailed do I have to go into it? Can you confess ANY sin to a priest, and you’ll be forgiven, no matter what it was?

 

[John92]

I’m becoming Catholic soon, and I have a few questions to ask first. About 7 months ago I discovered mortal sins. So, does that mean I only have to confess the mortal sins I committed after I found out about them? Or do I have to tell everything I’ve done? How detailed do I have to go into it? Can you confess ANY sin to a priest, and you’ll be forgiven, no matter what it was?

Since you’re becoming a Catholic, so I assume you’re in RCIA, I’d say you should generally direct your questions to a Priest rather than us; they’re specially chosen by God for this very purpose and are generally very friendly and helpful

I’d say you should try to confess all your mortal sins, including the ones you committed before you found out about mortal sin. You need full knowledge, but there’s the question of whether you “should have known”, and some things you surely knew were very wrong even if you didn’t know about mortal sin per se; so better to confess everything to be on the safe side.

As for detail, be sparse: “I swore at my mother, I masturbated”, etc. If the Priest wants additional details he’ll ask for them. I know that there’s a big temptation to try to explain your actions a bit but that’s the reason for sparsity: it helps you to be humble, to remind yourself that the sin was wrong regardless of the circumstances.

You can confess any sin. Even if you did the most unspeakable things, God would still forgive you, and most Priests really have “heard it all”. I’ve made some very hard confessions before and I’ve never had a Priest be mean to me. The worse you sinned in the past, the more you will love Christ for forgiving you Really do confess everything, even your darkest most secret sins (and everybody has those). The feeling you have after confession is indescribable.

Good luck man, and God bless you!

 

[CopyKat]

Well when you get baptized you’ll be washed of sin so it’s pretty cool actually because you get the very special opportunity to have a clean slate so-to-speak. AFTER that when you begin going to confession you will confess sins that have taken place SINCE being baptized. I’m of course assuming you aren’t baptized yet so this may be for not!

 

[LilyM]

Well, sins that are committed without full knowledge, as you may have been taught, cannot be mortal. Full knowledge would include knowledge of the serious nature of the particular sin.

Now I don’t think you could get away with not confessing something like murder or adultery - it should be pretty obvious even to non-Catholics that such things are serious, no? Unless there are factors like mental illness involved or something.

At the same time, ‘should have known’ doesn’t, in my opinion, apply to non-Catholics in regard to some of the finer points of Catholic theology. Although it may apply to those who have been raised Catholic, since really we should at least know to ask our priests about things, or look up the Catechism.

 

[Christ_Imitator]

AFTER that when you begin going to confession you will confess sins that have taken place SINCE being baptized.

Why in the world would people even bother doing that?? I mean, if there is a Puragtory, then why would you need to confess anything if you’re going to be “cleaned” of all the sin anyway after you die (before entering Heaven)?

Confession=it makes you feel like you’re a good person
Purgatory=washes away your sins
Jesus=Already washed away all past & future sins by dying on the cross… hmm, interesting.

 

[CopyKat]

Well how about this for a reason, Christ Imitator?

If you die with a mortal sin on your soul (having not confessed it) you risk going to HELL. Good enough reason for me!

 

[John92]

Why in the world would people even bother doing that?? I mean, if there is a Puragtory, then why would you need to confess anything if you’re going to be “cleaned” of all the sin anyway after you die (before entering Heaven)?

Confession=it makes you feel like you’re a good person
Purgatory=washes away your sins
Jesus=Already washed away all past & future sins by dying on the cross… hmm, interesting.

There’s a “non-catholic religions” board where you can argue about this stuff.

Please restrict your posts in this vein to there and leave the rest of us alone, we don’t need this.

 

[Christ_Imitator]

I am not arguing…
I was simply trying to better understand it; showing you what I already know & how I understand it as of right now.
If you were agood Catholic who wanted to teach me more about the Catholic faith, you would inform me.

If you could explain, I will give you a promise: I will not start any arguments on this thread. If I feel the need to (which I doubt) I will immedietly take it over to a new thread.

 

[Claire_from_DE]

Why in the world would people even bother doing that?? I mean, if there is a Puragtory, then why would you need to confess anything if you’re going to be “cleaned” of all the sin anyway after you die (before entering Heaven)?

Confession=it makes you feel like you’re a good person
Purgatory=washes away your sins
Jesus=Already washed away all past & future sins by dying on the cross… hmm, interesting.

By his obedient suffering and death on the cross Jesus made it possible for us to be reconciled to the Father. But we can’t be reconciled to God until we turn to him and repent of our sins. We are then baptized into Jesus’ death and resurrection. Through baptism God forgives our sins (which we have committed up to that time) and the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in us. By Baptism we become a new person. But we still have to struggle against the effects of original sin in us; we still have a tendency to sin and follow our own will. When we sin we repent and confess our sins to God in the presence of the priest, and Jesus is faithful to his promise (whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven) and forgives us through the words of his anointed priest.

Confession may make us feel good because we are assured of God’s forgiveness and our relationship with him has been made strong again. But it doesn’t make us ‘feel like a good person’. It makes us feel like a person who Jesus loved enough to die on the cross for so that we could be forgiven.

A mortal sin is a sin that is so serious that it breaks our union with God. It has to be something very serious, we have to know that it is serious, we think about that and we do it anyway because we want to follow our own desires instead of doing God’s will. We have completely turned our back on God.

If we continue on that path and don’t repent and turn back to God, we are said to be living in a state of mortal sin. If we persist in that state until we die, we will go to hell.

But if we repent and turn back to God and turn away from that sin, he again forgives us. Perhaps we sin in less serious ways, through our human weakness, sometimes out of habit but we keep trying to be close to God. If we die in that state, we have some attachment to sin, we aren’t totally holy but we love God and are trying to be better. Purgatory is the method by which God purifies us after death of our venial (less serious) sins and makes us holy so that we can come into his presence.

So, confession doesn’t make us feel like a good person; it’s the way God applies the forgiveness of sin that Jesus gained for us on the cross to us today.

Purgatory doesn’t wash away mortal sins; it purifies us of venial sin and the attachment to sin.

Jesus didn’t wash away all past, present, and future sins by dying on on the cross although his sacrifice was great enough to do so. That’s like saying because he died we can sin and God automatically instantly forgives us. We are not free to continue sinning. But if we sin and repent of it, he will forgive anything.

 

[Claire_from_DE]

I’m becoming Catholic soon, and I have a few questions to ask first. About 7 months ago I discovered mortal sins. So, does that mean I only have to confess the mortal sins I committed after I found out about them? Or do I have to tell everything I’ve done? How detailed do I have to go into it? Can you confess ANY sin to a priest, and you’ll be forgiven, no matter what it was?

You should confess all sins you knew or suspected were very serious at the time you did them. But if you were doing something you really thought was OK or not too bad and then you later found out it was seriously wrong, you weren’t guilty of mortal sin before you knew. It would be a good idea to mention to the priest that you used to do it before you knew it was wrong, but you aren’t required to tell him.

For instance, maybe you used to get falling down drunk every Saturday but you didn’t realize it was a sin, you just did it for fun. Then you find out it is a sin but you get drunk again on purpose anyway. Then you make your first confession a week later and say " I got drunk one time". It would give the priest a better idea of what is going on in your life to tell him that you were in the habit of doing this every week and just found out it’s a sin but you did it once since then. He might be able to give you more helpful advice that way.

John92 gave you good information on how much detail you should go into.

You can confess ANY sin to a priest and be forgiven. The only mortal sin that can’t be forgiven is the one you don’t confess.

 

[Christ_Imitator]

Claire from DE, thank you for answering my questions/clearing up my confusion.

So, confession doesn’t make us feel like a good person; it’s the way God applies the forgiveness of sin that Jesus gained for us on the cross to us today

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I understand that. Does that mean confessing in Church to a priest is just something people prefer doing rather than simply confessing to the Lord in prayer that we have sinned? I honestly don’t know the reason why confession is done like that for most Catholics.

Purgatory doesn’t wash away mortal sins; it purifies us of venial sin and the attachment to sin.

Alright, this I did not know. And I don’t think I have any questions on purgatory at the moment. If I do, I will take them to a purgatory thread.

Jesus didn’t wash away all past, present, and future sins by dying on on the cross although his sacrifice was great enough to do so.

Are you sure about that?

That’s like saying because he died we can sin and God automatically instantly forgives us. We are not free to continue sinning.

No, not automatically. That is what the idea of repentance is. If you are willing to change your lifestyle for the Lord, then he will be willing to allow you into Heaven. Get rid of your sinful habits in life, things that cause you to do sinful things. However, all of us do continue sinning, but if we are truly working at changing our sinful habits, and do not continue doing them, God will forgive us.
The death on the cross was to remove all sins that have ever, or will ever exist. It was done to create that one way to Heaven; and that is by living the way the Lord commands of us, and repenting of our sins.

But if we sin and repent of it, he will forgive anything

.
I agree with this.

 

[John92]

I understand that. Does that mean confessing in Church to a priest is just something people prefer doing rather than simply confessing to the Lord in prayer that we have sinned? I honestly don’t know the reason why confession is done like that for most Catholics.

We do it because Christ commanded us to. During his ministry he forgave sins (one of the things the Pharisees hated about him), granting absolution as was his right (y’know, what with his being God and all ). Before he ascended into Heaven he gave this power to his apostles (along with other things): “he who accepts you accepts me, and he who rejects you rejects me.” There are several references in Acts to the Apostles forgiving people’s sins.

The power of the Apostles was passed down to their successors through the laying-on of hands (specifically to the Priests/presbyters and the Bishops/episkopoi). This is referenced in several places; if you go to the main Catholic Answers page you can find a good explanation and defense of this view.

So we confess to the Priests because Christ commanded that we so do. Remember, Christ said “I will be with you always, even to the end of days”: note that he says always and to the end of days, a statement that would be nonsensical if the charisms of absolution etc. died with the apostles.

scripturecatholic.com/ also does a good job of defending this.

There are other reasons that verbal confession to a Priest is superior to merely “confessing to God” - it humbles us, to state all our sins baldly and without excuse, and the Priests will often have good advice to give. But the main reason isn’t just that it’s spiritually beneficial to talk about your sins, but because the Sacrament of Penance was instituted by Christ himself.