Okay, so Jimmy Akins says so, but what about the CCC? Have I not read it (CCC 1422 - 1498) closely enough? Because I find nowhere in “The Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation” section that we must confess mortal sins if we remember them at a later date.
Please, can you show me where in the Catechism, it say that we must confess mortal sins that we forgot but later remember. The reason I am asking this is because my priest has cut me off in the past when I tried to confess an “old” mortal sin that I later remembered, telling me it had already been absolved during my previous confession and to move on.
I can address that.
Catechism of the Council of Trent (Pius V) from Turin edition of 1914.* Sins Forgotten*
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.
fordham.edu/halsall/mod/romancat.html Baltimore Catechism No. 3:
Q. 793. Is our Confession worthy if, without our fault, we forget to confess a mortal sin?
A. If without our fault we forget to confess a mortal sin, our Confession is worthy, and the sin is forgiven; but it must be told in Confession if it again comes to our mind.
ourladyswarriors.org/faith/bc3-19.htm
From the Catechism of the Catholic Church:**1456 ** Confession to a priest is an essential part of the sacrament of Penance: “All mortal sins of which penitents after a diligent self-examination are conscious must be recounted by them in confession, even if they are most secret and have been committed against the last two precepts of the Decalogue; for these sins sometimes wound the soul more grievously and are more dangerous than those which are committed openly.” 54 Council of Trent (1551): DS 1680 (ND 1626); cf.
Ex 20:17;
Mt 5:28.
When Christ’s faithful strive to confess all the sins that they can remember, they undoubtedly place all of them before the divine mercy for pardon. But those who fail to do so and knowingly withhold some, place nothing before the divine goodness for remission through the mediation of the priest, "for if the sick person is too ashamed to show his wound to the doctor, the medicine cannot heal what it does not know."55
1484 "Individual, integral confession and absolution remain the only ordinary way for the faithful to reconcile themselves with God and the Church, unless physical or moral impossibility excuses from this kind of confession."95 There are profound reasons for this. Christ is at work in each of the sacraments. He personally addresses every sinner: "My son, your sins are forgiven."96 He is the physician tending each one of the sick who need him to cure them.97 He raises them up and reintegrates them into fraternal communion. Personal confession is thus the form most expressive of reconciliation with God and with the Church.
95
OP [Ordo paenitentiae] 31.
96
Mk 2:5.
97 Cf.
Mk 2:17.
By the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments Prot. N. 697/99/L (in the year 1999): “The norms in force are found in particular in the
Ordo Paenitentiae of the
Rituale Romanum and in the
Codex Iuris Canonici (cfr. cann. 959-991, and cann. 960-962, in particular) and are based on the constant doctrine of the Church, as well as the traditional practice of the Latin Church, and therefore, it is not possible to modify them or to derogate from them for any reason.”
Reference:
catholicculture.org/cultu…iew.cfm?id=973Canon Law (CIC): Can. 960 Individual and integral confession and absolution constitute the sole ordinary means by which a member of the faithful who is conscious of grave sin is reconciled with God and with the Church. Physical or moral impossibility alone excuses from such confession, in which case reconciliation may be attained by other means also.
Can 988 - 1. A member of the Christian faithful is obliged to confess in kind and in number all serious sins committed after baptism and not yet directly remitted through the keys of the Church nor acknowledged in individual confession, of which one is conscious after diligent examination of conscience.
