I’m a Protestant, but am studying the Catholic Church and (gradually) becoming aware and accepting of her doctrines. I accept all
her teaching on sin, penance and absolution, and know that I have committed serious mortal sin. What should I do? Can?should i go to confession. I would love to.
Until you have professed your faith and have been accepted into the Church, the Sacraments are not available to you. Until such time you are limited to a sincere act of contrition.
Yes, you should go to confession - in due time. One must be Catholic to receive the sacrament of reconciliation. Keep investigating the Catholic Church.
Guys, this is not actually true.
It is normative, however take a look at this excerpt from John Paul the Great’s encyclical
Ecclesia de Eucharistia.
- While it is never legitimate to concelebrate in the absence of full communion, the same is not true with respect to the administration of the Eucharist under special circumstances, to individual persons belonging to Churches or Ecclesial Communities not in full communion with the Catholic Church. In this case, in fact, the intention is to meet a grave spiritual need for the eternal salvation of an individual believer, not to bring about an intercommunion which remains impossible until the visible bonds of ecclesial communion are fully re-established.
This was the approach taken by the Second Vatican Council when it gave guidelines for responding to Eastern Christians separated in good faith from the Catholic Church, who spontaneously ask to receive the Eucharist from a Catholic minister and are properly disposed.95 This approach was then ratified by both Codes, which also consider – with necessary modifications – the case of other non-Eastern Christians who are not in full communion with the Catholic Church.96
46. In my Encyclical Ut Unum Sint I expressed my own appreciation of these norms, which make it possible to provide for the salvation of souls with proper discernment: “It is a source of joy to note that Catholic ministers are able, in certain particular cases, to administer the sacraments of the Eucharist, Penance and Anointing of the Sick to Christians who are not in full communion with the Catholic Church but who greatly desire to receive these sacraments, freely request them and manifest the faith which the Catholic Church professes with regard to these sacraments. Conversely, in specific cases and in particular circumstances, Catholics too can request these same sacraments from ministers of Churches in which these sacraments are valid”.97
These conditions, from which no dispensation can be given, must be carefully respected, even though they deal with specific individual cases, because the denial of one or more truths of the faith regarding these sacraments and, among these, the truth regarding the need of the ministerial priesthood for their validity, renders the person asking improperly disposed to legitimately receiving them. And the opposite is also true: Catholics may not receive communion in those communities which lack a valid sacrament of Orders.98
The faithful observance of the body of norms established in this area 99 is a manifestation and, at the same time, a guarantee of our love for Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, for our brothers and sisters of different Christian confessions – who have a right to our witness to the truth – and for the cause itself of the promotion of unity. Based upon this document,it appears that GtG might be wise to approach the priest at his local parish to ask if it is possible, since he may well be properly disposed.
That is not for us to discern though. That belongs to the priest he talks to.
GtG, go for it! It cannot hurt to ask, and RCIA classes are starting soon.
The peace of the Lord be always with you.
