Yes He has. To his Bride.
Actually, the keys to heaven have to do with the binding and loosening of sin.
There is something called paying one’s debt to society. Since this person is not a Catholic and therefore can not validly turn to a priest for penance, he should seek out the victims and make reparation to them. That’s what one does when one is TRULY sorry for their actions – they try to do whatever is possible to correct the wrong that they have done. Better for this guy to “join a prison gang or be another inmates ***** to survive one single day inside” than to spend that time in purgatory making amends since the church teaches us that we’ll be able to pay our debt in this life with pennies on the dollar compared to what will be expected of us in the next life. Of course, if the person were Catholic, then it would be up to the priest to decide the penance.
If it was a “victimless” crime or where the victims could not be identified or found, then doing what was suggestion is the proper course of action to take for scripture has it that charity toward others atones for a multitude of sins.
And advising someone on what the best course of action to take to avoid or minimize their time in purgatory is far from “casting the first stone”. On the contrary, it is a most charitable action. Doing otherwise would be uncharitable.
Long story, in my youth I once set a church on fire. Being about 10 or 11, I didn’t understand various scientific conceptions and didn’t realize that a fire would result from my actions. So while my actions were intentional, the end result was not. To make matters worse, I lied about my involvement in the matter.
Decades later, this forgot sin came back to memory and I had thought of making amends to the church for the damage that my actions had caused. I estimated the value of the charcoal destroyed and even factored in the time value of money to arrive at a figure that I should contribute to the church in reparation for my sin.
However, I was deciding my own penance in the matter. What if this self-imposed penance did not properly atone for my actions? So I went to a priest and confessed my sin. He was more disturbed about me lying to the original priest than about the fire since the only damage was a box of charcoal.
For my penance, I was told to find the original priest and if I was successful, I was to confess to him and perform whatever penance he gave me. If the original priest was no longer around or I was unsuccessful in locating him after an honest and reasonable effort, then my penance was the attempted search.
After some searching, I found the original priest and confessed to him. He was a bit perplexed in the beginning when I started my confession saying that my last confession was X days ago and for my penance I was told to go to confession with him but once I was done, everything was clear and for my penance I was told to pay to the original parish for the cost of two boxes of charcoal. I looked up the cost on the web and sent them a check for that amount with “donation” written in the memo section.
Would my self-imposed penance have properly atoned for my sins? It MIGHT HAVE since the dollar amount for one box of charcoal adjusted for the time value of money for 35+ years was actually greater than the cost of the two boxes of charcoal that I was told to pay. Or, it may have not. There would have been no way for me to know. But since my penance came from a priest who has the authority to bind & loosen and in my particular case it also came for the original priest that I had lied to in my youth, I
know that proper reparation was made – no room for doubt.
That’s the point that I am making with regards to self-imposed penances – they MAY atone for the sin or they may not. Why take the chance IF other alternatives are possible? If other alternatives are not possible, then that is a different story.
Thank you!
