Should I confess this?

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Arturo_Ortiz

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So a while back before I got close to my Catholic faoth I had done some things that I am not proud of. I confessed these sins and at the end of confession I said to the priest please foegive me from all other sins that I have forgotten to mention. The thing is that yesterday night I remembered some past sins that I don’t think I mentioned. One of this sins inludes having had watched porn. Should I confess these sins that I don’t think I might have specifically mentioned, or should I not, knowing that I did tell the priest to forgive me from any other sin that I may have flrgotten to mention? After all it’s not that I held myself from mentioning these sins. It’s just that I didn’t remember about them during confession.
 
I sometimes forget too in confession. I would go this Wednesday and just tell the Priest you forgot to mention it and be done with it. Though I’m pretty sure your forgiven I wouldn’t mess around with the mortal ones…it is your soul were talking about. It may help to write things down when you go to confession. I write the mortal ones in a “code” only I understand.
 
sins of the sexual nature are hard to disclose to someone so i understand. you alone know whether you honestly forgot to mention them or intentionally did. if it was a honest mistake (and dont lie to yourself), your confession is valid and you are forgiven. But if you did deliberately as I know it is tough to mention those sins, you are not and need to go confess again, the priest is there to help so do not worry about confessing those things.
 
I refer you to Fr Serpa’s answer to a similar question
Dear friend,
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Since you did not deliberately hold back any sins, they have all been forgiven. The next time you go to Confession, you need to mention the one that you meant say as an expression of your sorrow and repentance, even though it has been forgiven. Welcome home!
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Fr. Vincent Serpa, O.P.
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Also, Jimmy Akin, [Forgotten and Forgiven Mortal Sins](Forgotten & Forgiven Mortal Sins)
You are forgiven if you meant to confess all your mortal sins and just forgot one. Having been forgiven of the one you forgot, you are still obligated to confess it the next time you go to confession. It’s not that your forgiveness of it is conditional on you adopting the intention to confess it next time. That sin has already been forgiven. It’s that you incur a new sin if you refuse to adopt the intention of confessing it.
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Note that both say you should confess it “the next time you go to confession”, rather than “as soon as possible”. The choice of words is deliberate and significant. You are not obliged to make a special visit to the confessional soon, in order to confess these sins. Specifically, you may receive communion until then.

Fr Serpa also addresses the problem of someone who continues to remember sins which they forgot to confess, in Will my confession of a checkered past ever end? (and the answer is to just keep doing the same thing with each remembered sin).

BTW, when I joined the Catholic Church and made my first confession, afterwards I was a bit like you, thinking that because I had intended to confess all my sins, that was sufficient and I didn’t need to confess any I had forgotten in that first confession. It was only many years later that I discovered that I did need to confess those sins. So, thanks for asking - you have done the right thing!
 
About 6 months ago I returned to the Church after 50+ years of wandering in the wilderness. Everytime I went to confession I was bringing up sins I had forgotten in ealier confessions. After approx my 4th or so confession, my confessor told me “Quit beating yourself up over this, when I absolve you, ALL your sins are forgiven”. When he absolved me that day he specifically said “I absolve you of all your sins including those you have honestly forgotten…” I do miss hearing “Ego te absolvo”!!!
 
Golf_Zulu said:
About 6 months ago I returned to the Church after 50+ years of wandering in the wilderness. Everytime I went to confession I was bringing up sins I had forgotten in ealier confessions. After approx my 4th or so confession, my confessor told me “Quit beating yourself up over this, when I absolve you, ALL your sins are forgiven”. When he absolved me that day he specifically said “I absolve you of all your sins including those you have honestly forgotten…” I do miss hearing “Ego te absolvo”!!!
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The same thing happened to me when I tried, on several occasions, to complete the confession of all forgotten sins from the distant past*. I have never had to actually go through all of them. However, I always recommend that people who ask this question here do attempt to confess them to a priest, and allow him to tell them to let it go (or not).

I have had one priest who used Latin, and it was lovely to hear “Ego te absolvo”. 🙂

Note: “distant past”. For the recent past, for me it has just been a simple matter of “Father, in my last confession I forgot to mention …”. Finis.
 
Thanks for your replies.

Should I recieve communion or wait until I confess those sins that I may have forgotten to confess.
 
Golf_Zulu said:
About 6 months ago I returned to the Church after 50+ years of wandering in the wilderness. Everytime I went to confession I was bringing up sins I had forgotten in ealier confessions. After approx my 4th or so confession, my confessor told me “Quit beating yourself up over this, when I absolve you, ALL your sins are forgiven”. When he absolved me that day he specifically said “I absolve you of all your sins including those you have honestly forgotten…” I do miss hearing “Ego te absolvo”!!!
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Thanks for the advice it’s just that it is a sin that I think I should confess
 
Arturo_Ortiz said:
Thanks for your replies.

Should I recieve communion or wait until I confess those sins that I may have forgotten to confess.
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Yes, you can receive communion.

I addressed this. Perhaps you missed it 🙂
Note that both say you should confess it “the next time you go to confession”, rather than “as soon as possible”. The choice of words is deliberate and significant. You are not obliged to make a special visit to the confessional soon, in order to confess these sins. Specifically, you may receive communion until then.
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I was in a similar situation as you and I agree with those persons posting that you should “mention it in your next confession.”

For me, when I recalled my past sins later (and they were equally bad and worse than watching porn), I wanted to confess them to show Jesus that I was truly sorry for them and I did not want fear to hold me back from confessing them.

I actually had to confess these sins to a priest who I knew and I found it embarassing to do so. However, I confessed anyway. I wanted to be free from scruples and free from caring what others thought of me. God gave me the courage to do so and now I am free.

I now confess every week and if anything even approaches a sin of impurity, I confess (only willful stuff where I let my thoughts get carried away - not temptations which suddenly appear and I dismiss).

The power of the Sacrament of Reconciliation is tremendous. Satan and his legion cannot conquer a repentant sinner. By frequent confession, I undercover the wiles he uses against me.

I hope this helps.

houston1

“There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.” - 1 Jn. 4:18.
 
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