To avoid such mess, go, forgot, go, forgot, I always say, “I confess all may past sins and the ones I forgot”I just went to confession last night, but today I remembered a mortal sin that I forgot to confess. Do I need to go to confession again? I am thinking no since all sins were absolved. I think I just need to remember it for the next time I go to confession.
Correct. One was not hiding it …one was sorry for ones mortal sins at least…and just forgot one. It can thus be “absolved indirectly” with the rest.I just went to confession last night, but today I remembered a mortal sin that I forgot to confess. Do I need to go to confession again? I am thinking no since all sins were absolved. I think I just need to remember it for the next time I go to confession.
If one remembers one…one later is to confess it (if it was mortal of course).To avoid such mess, go, forgot, go, forgot, I always say, “I confess all may past sins and the ones I forgot”
Greetings Catholicwoman11,I just went to confession last night, but today I remembered a mortal sin that I forgot to confess. Do I need to go to confession again? I am thinking no since all sins were absolved. I think I just need to remember it for the next time I go to confession.
Greetings Tannhauser,The formula in the missal reads “For these and all other sins that have escaped my memory” e.g., every sin is fully absolved and there is no need or obligation to confess forgotten mortal sins.
Other people on this post have said that there is an obligation to confess even** forgotten **mortal sins, and I would ask them to demonstrate where the Catholic Church teaches this. Once sins have been absolved: that’s it.
However, now here’s the source from Canon Law.If you recall some serious sin that you forgot to tell, rest assured that it has been forgiven with the others, but be sure to include it in your next confession.
This goes on and I resumeThe reference, unchanged from canon 902 of the former law, to sins “not yet directly remitted through the keys of the Church,” i.e., through the power and ministry of the Church, indicates the precise nature of the confessional obligation. The divine forgiveness may indeed have taken place, and the contrition of the penitent may have been such that he or she has indeed been pardoned by God. NEVERTHELESS, the obligation remains to submit oneself to the power and ministry of the Church in the sacrament of reconciliation. Moreover, although grave sins forgotten in confession are indirectly remitted, the canon indicates that these must be confessed when remembered and thus be submitted for “direct remission.”
This is taken from the Catechism of the Council of Trent. I use this Catechism because it has a section that is dedicated to the question you are inquiring.The norm of canon 988 #1 is expressed in the ritual in less juridic terms but to the same effect: “To obtain the saving remedy of the sacrament of penance, according to the plan of our merciful God, the faithful must confess to a priest EACH AND EVERY grave sin that they remember after a diligent examination of conscience.”
But should the Confession seem defective, either because the penitent forgot some grievous sins, or because, although intent on confessing all his sins, he did not examine the recesses of his conscience with sufficient accuracy, he is not bound to repeat his Confession. It will be sufficient, when he recollects the sins which he had forgotten, to confess them to a priest on a future occasion.
From what the OP is describing this second paragraph does not applyIt should be noted, however, that we are not to examine our consciences with careless indifference, or to be so negligent in recalling our sins as to seem as if unwilling to remember them. Should this have been the case, the Confession must by all means be made over again.
Yes there remains the obligation as per long practice in the Church and the 1983 code of Canon Law.The formula in the missal reads “For these and all other sins that have escaped my memory” e.g., every sin is fully absolved and there is no need or obligation to confess forgotten mortal sins.
Other people on this post have said that there is an obligation to confess even** forgotten **mortal sins, and I would ask them to demonstrate where the Catholic Church teaches this. Once sins have been absolved: that’s it.
I am aware that if one goes to confession and supplies the requisite contrition, then all sins which the person committed are absolved--provided that the person does not intentionally conceal any mortal sins.Also, I have been told by several priests that this means that if one remembers a mortal sin after confession, they should know that they are forgiven for it so long as they mention it the next time they go to confession.