Was this confession valid? What do you think?

[tlimon]

I understand that mortal sins that were not deliberately withheld are forgiven. In other words, if someone forgets to mention a sin, then that sin is still forgiven and one could simply mention that sin the next time they go to confession.

So here’s the deal, I confessed my mortal sins and it was very hard to do. When I was going through my list of sins, I came to a sin categorized under the Second Precept of the Church, “failure to abstain on days of obligation.” I couldn’t remember what the second precept was and I could not read my hand writing on the paper. Alas after stalling for seconds that felt like minutes trying to figure out what I wrote, I put the paper aside and kept on going with the rest of my sins. I didn’t make any mention that I violated the second precept of the Church. There was one other sin that I couldn’t read too, but I’m still at a loss of what it was or even if it was venial or mortal. It really doesn’t make a lot of sense that I would want to withhold the sin deliberately because it was certainly one of the less difficult ones to get out.

Does this fall under the “forgetfulness” caveat of confession like I mentioned above? I confessed the sin of “failure to abstain” at a subsequent confession. Should I stop worrying about this? Or should I start to examine my conscience again and remember those old sins for a another confession because I couldn’t read the paper and didn’t make mention? I guess I could have said something like, “I violated the second precept”, but I didn’t. I think I just got flustered and caught up in the moment.

Thank you very much for your time!

 

[Mike30]

I think you are OK.

 

[MSSheBear]

My understanding is if you forget a mortal sin it is forgiven but you should confess it at the next confession. It would seem to me that not being able to remember what you meant would be equal to forgetting a sin. So, chill, confess it next time, as I assume you did.

I hope this list was for a confession covering a long period of time. And so subsequently you aren’t going to be bringing a written list in?:ehh: I might suggest that if you can’t remember something from the past week or month it is either something not serious or something you aren’t really contrite about. Unless, of course, you were having a really bad month.

 

[Aeden]

Well, if you couldn’t remember and couldn’t read your own writing to read it off, I’d say you are good, since it was not deliberately witholding info, but rather, was an inability to give it.

 

[Zekariya]

What matters is your intent. You intended to confess all of your mortal sins. You did not intend to hide mortal sins. You could not remember your sin and the writing on the paper was unreadable. Don’t worry. You have been absolved. If you remember a forgotten mortal sin at a later point, confess at your next confession.