Was this a good confession?

[Pray4Life]

Hi all, I kind of feel like a twit to be asking this but yes, I have trouble with a scrupulous conscience and though I thought I’d been doing better with that lately, I had an experience this afternoon that really threw me for a loop. I went to confession and thought everything went OK until the priest was giving me some advice at the end, when he concluded with a comment about me being “the major caregiver” of my father with dementia, who I had mentioned during my confession.

Well, I don’t agree that I’m the major caregiver, I guess thinking over what I told him I can see where he would come up with that, I just think there’s a lot more to caregiving than what I personally do, only it would have taken a lot more time to go into all that and I didn’t want to argue with him when he was clearly wrapping things up at that point and we had already been talking for several min., so I just didn’t say anything. Of course, thanks to the scrupulous conscience part, I immediately started fretting that I did something wrong by not correcting him, even though I did not intend to deceive him or do anything wrong or anything like that, and have been worried that I somehow invalidated my own confession by not speaking up. Can anyone set my mind at ease here, or did I actually screw up?

 

[Student09]

Well, I don’t agree that I’m the major caregiver, I guess thinking over what I told him I can see where he would come up with that, I just think there’s a lot more to caregiving than what I personally do, only it would have taken a lot more time to go into all that and I didn’t want to argue with him when he was clearly wrapping things up at that point and we had already been talking for several min., so I just didn’t say anything. Of course, thanks to the scrupulous conscience part, I immediately started fretting that I did something wrong by not correcting him, even though I did not intend to deceive him or do anything wrong or anything like that, and have been worried that I somehow invalidated my own confession by not speaking up. Can anyone set my mind at ease here, or did I actually screw up?

The bolded part indicates that it was not a sin, since there was no intention to deceive. Your confession was perfectly valid. I’m scrupulous too, so I know what you’re going through. It is usually easier to apply these rules to another person’s situation than one’s own. I hope this helps.

 

[Marie5890]

Student09 is absolutely right.

Your confession is completely valid. I say we all smile, offer up a prayer of gratitude for God’s loving and abiding mercy, and enjoy our Sunday tomorrow!

God Bless both of you.

 

[Student09]

Student09 is absolutely right.

Your confession is completely valid. I say we all smile, offer up a prayer of gratitude for God’s loving and abiding mercy, and enjoy our Sunday tomorrow!

God Bless both of you.

Thanks. May He bless you, too.

 

[HCC]

Confession doesn’t generally allow for much interactive dialog and therefore there isn’t time to go into great detail about situations or to correct a priest’s assumption. If he had asked you something directly and you had denied it, or you withheld information that would have altered his understanding of your culpability in a grave matter, there might be reason to have concern. It does not sound like either of those were the case in this situation.

Your confession was valid.

 

[Pray4Life]

Thank you all for replying, I feel much better! I think this experience was a good lesson in humility for me…I can’t let myself get over-confident when it comes to my scruples, much as I would love to declare myself cured and call it a day.