Was this a bad confession

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grace

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I didn’t say how many times the mortal sins were committed in confession. I was so nervous and I knew I was supposed to say the number of times the sin was committed while I was confessing my sins, but I didn’t. Is this considered a bad confession? (By the way, I don’t know the EXACT number of times the sins were committed, but I know that it was well over one.)
 
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I think he assumed that the sins were done once since I gave no number. So is it a bad confession?
 
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Lord Have Mercy. RCIA 101. You simply must remember the number of times. It is mandatory!
 
You say you didn’t mention the number because you were nervous, I suppose it depends what this means exactly.

I can’t say what exactly happened in your situation, as it may have not been fully intentional (like if you were having an anxiety attack and couldn’t think or something, I have no idea). Anyway, if I deliberately and knowingly withheld the number of times I committed a mortal sin, I would go back and confess that I made a sacrilegious confession (and maybe how, noting that it was deliberate), and then confess my mortal sins again with the numbers, or approximations if the numbers are unknown. Since it’s essentially withholding mortal sins (i.e. skipping Mass three times is three sins, not one).

If on the other hand it was not intentional, one would need to mention the forgotten sins (numbered) at the next confession, but the previous one retains its validity and the sins are forgiven.
 
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Any sincere Confession ending with absolution is a good Confession.
 
I would say you had a good Confession alright. Don’t worry about it. If it is any comfort for you, there are many threads here about people forgetting during Confession. Forgetting and purposely concealing sins during Confession are two different things. The first is alright; the latter isn’t.

Be blessed by the Sacrament and bask in the forgiveness of God that has washed you as white as snow. Have a blessed Easter, which is around the corner.
 
Doesnt matter as long as you made a good confession. It is not mandatory as said above. Ignore that.
 
^ If by that you mean unintentionally leaving it out doesn’t invalidate a confession, then yeah. So a confession like that can still be “good”-- the forgotten parts would just have to be mentioned at the next one. If it was sincere in that nothing was purposely left out that was known to be necessary, then it was valid.

But if one were to make the deliberate consented choice to not give an indication of the number or at least an approximation, then unless one was unaware of the requirement (Can. 988) it would count as leaving sins out. As noted above, some factors may remove the deliberate consent in this case; we just can’t say.

Again not making any judgments on OP’s confession.
 
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Joseph159 said:
What if you forgot (ie if the sin/sinning was long ago) ?
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You’d just approximate it as best as possible, such as about how frequently it was committed (i.e. about twice a week for a year) or just your best estimate, probably noting that it was an estimate. If you have nothing but a vague idea, you could probably just go with “a few times,” “several times,” “many many times,” etc. You’re never required to do the impossible.
 
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