Well, this sucks

[Mark_Robert]

Maybe you need to confess in the sacrament of penance that sin specifically and not in the general sense of “I committed an impure act”. I mean you should confess directly that “you touched your cousin” those years ago. It sounds like your conscience is not letting you forget it because it hasn’t been adaquately confessed. Some sins need special clarification because their sinfulness goes beyond the general status of “I commited an impure act” e.g. impure thought or masterbation. That was a sexually abusive act that probably needs to be stated clearly for what it was. Masking it in confession through a general statement apparently isn’t enough.
However, if you have confessed clearly and specifically this sin then you should put it out of your mind. You’ve rightly confessed, you were obviously sorry, and you’ve been forgiven. In this instance, you should forget about it and sin no more. I just don’t know which scenario is true so I stated both cases.

 

[BarbaraTherese]

Maybe you need to confess in the sacrament of penance that sin specifically and not in the general sense of “I committed an impure act”. I mean you should confess directly that “you touched your cousin” those years ago. It sounds like your conscience is not letting you forget it because it hasn’t been adaquately confessed. Some sins need special clarification because their sinfulness goes beyond the general status of “I commited an impure act” e.g. impure thought or masterbation. That was a sexually abusive act that probably needs to be stated clearly for what it was. Masking it in confession through a general statement apparently isn’t enough.

However, if you have confessed clearly and specifically this sin then you should put it out of your mind. You’ve rightly confessed, you were obviously sorry, and you’ve been forgiven. In this instance, you should forget about it and sin no more. I just don’t know which scenario is true so I stated both cases.

Agree with all your comments. Something else has occured to me and that is that if our sin in any way at all involved another person, then we need to tell Father this in Confession and we are obliged to do so if our sin does involve another and not just ourselves. If the sin is not fully confessed and as involving another person, then tell The Lord you are sorry to have involved another, and go to Confession and confess the sin in full as soon as you can.

And I underscore what you say above, that if this sin under discussion has been confessed specifically and as involving another person, then one should strive to put it out of one’s mind as it is totally forgiven by the Confession.

Blessings - Barb

 

[m134e5]

I am curious about still feeling sorry for a sin I am certain I was forgiven for. Basically, before I was a catholic, when I was about 14 or 15, I touched up my little cousin. I want to blame it on hormones, but I don’t know, it was years ago.

In confession, I tend to say ‘I commited sinful pleasures’, but that refers to masturbation, and once or twice I said that, but with the above sin in my heart, so the sin has the ‘mask’ of sinful pleasures, but it doesn’t lose any information to God, for he knows my heart.

What I want you to know, is that I am sorry for it, and it still haunts me to this day. When I was confirmed (I was christened an anglican), I went to confession and all of that (man that was scary) and since then in confession this sin genuinely went out of my mind, and thus was lumped into the category ‘and for any that I cannot now remember’.

I still feel horrible about what I did, and I should think if I can resolve it, all will be well. What should I do?

As Puzzleannie said, some things should not be discussed outside of confession- this is one of them. If you confessed it, it is forgiven, but it may help you to mention it to a priest in confession again more specifically.

 

[Kathrin]

I think what I would do, probably, is tell the priest in confession at the beginning how much this has been on my mind, and bothering me, and the feelings I have about not being forgiven… Don’t be afraid that the priest will be judjmental, I think he will be much more likely to feel joy for you that you were finally able to confess this.
(Besides that he has probably heard much worse!)

Kathrin