But what if the person confessing is a total stranger?It means that sometimes a habit of sin has such a hold on a person that his freedom to choose is compromised and he may not be actually capable of committing a mortal sin. Or that a person has not sufficient maturity to make a free decision. Or that a person is influenced by anxiety or other psychological factors that reduce his freedom. This is not for the sinner to decide, however. It is for his confessor.
To form an equitable judgment about the subjects’ moral responsibility and to guide pastoral action, one must take into account the affective immaturity, force of acquired habit, conditions of anxiety, or other psychological or social factors that can lessen, if not even reduce to a minimum, moral culpability (part of CCC 2352)
He asks a bit more questions to have a better idea of the person’s adherence to the sin he is confessing.But what if the person confessing is a total stranger?
To form an equitable judgment about the subjects’ moral responsibility and to guide pastoral action, one must take into account the affective immaturity, force of acquired habit, conditions of anxiety, or other psychological or social factors that can lessen, if not even reduce to a minimum, moral culpability (part of CCC 2352)
The first part of this section speaks to the need for forming and “equitable judgement”. I tis not speaking of a situation in a confessional or at least not in a single instance of confession. Therefore the “Pastoral Action” that it is intended to guide vairly precludes the idea os it being a “stranger”.But what if the person confessing is a total stranger?