The Lay Confession - Cath. Encylo.Any good?

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Lay confession(From the Catholic Encyclopedia.)

This article does not deal with confession by laymen but with that made to laymen, for the purpose of obtaining the remission of sins by God. It has no practical importance, and is treated merely from an historical point of view.
My words follow.

The Church has said this is not practically important. But during the Middle Ages and beyond it was known.

Here are my thoughts followed by a question. It could be that a dying soldier told his most pressing sins to a friend when a Priest was not present. The friend was to carry these sins in the name of the dying man to a validly ordained Priest.

My question is this: Would you think the practice would gain the dying man forgiveness of his sins?
 
no time to search that link for the article you reference. It was a practice in early Irish monasteries to confess to a soul friend, who might be a lay person, which is part of the origin of personal confession. Because this became a source of abuse, using such confessions for blackmail, revealing secrets etc, confession became reserved for the priest alone. In monasteries in the middle ages infractions against the rule and discipline of the monastery were to be confessed in general to the entire group, or individually to the abbess or abbot. Some feminists have taken that to imply that women had the power to absolve sins, but this is not the case.

In the case of the dying soldier by the act of confessing he is demonstrating genuine contrition and the intent to confess, which at the moment of death is enough for his sins to be forgiven. The binding requirement to report that confession to a priest and to hold it confidential of course applies. There are at least 2 other active threads that talk about this and give canon law explanations.
 
Puzzelannie,

Thankyou for your excellent post in answering ny question. It was written with - what can say - but with much class. I have asked two local people that question and they agreed with you.

I was told I was odd to think that the confession of a dying man had to be told to a Priest for it to be a valid confession. Thats the way the human mind works sometimes. Thanks.
 
the way i understand it, again with my stupid little mind, the only way to go to hell is unrepented defiance, rejection of God. ( c s lewis) i have thought that i have been close to death a number of times. i make my act of contrition and put my trust in my God.

by the way, i am still alive…
 
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