Would this be forgiven?

[js_cat3391]

Let say you are guilty of a mortal sin in the eyes of God.

It is grave matter objectively such as robbing a bank, or through other circumstances such as stealing a homeless man’s last $20. AND you are guilty in God’s eyes of full consent of the will and full knowledge as well. If you were to die before sufficient repentance, you would go to hell.

So you go to confession and you sufficiently confess it, and everything about your confession is good, but although God knows it is a mortal sin, the priest, in his imperfection and for whatever reason, does not think it is a mortal sin OR he does not think it is a sin at all. After your confession is complete, he absolves you. Is it forgiven?

The reason I ask, is the Jesus said John 20:23 - Jesus says, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven. If you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

How can a priest can forgive something he does not think is a sin or how can he forgive a mortal sin, if he judges it not mortal? I do not understand. What does the church teach on this?
Thanks.

 

[1ke]

Yes it is forgiven.

Confession is not restricted to mortal sins nor is the grace of the sacrament bound by what the priest thinks about what we have confessed.

 

[Joe_5859]

As 1ke said, yes, it would be forgiven.

The Latin theological term is that the sacraments work ex opera operato. It doesn’t matter what the priest thinks or whether he is himself in a state of mortal sin. If he follows the form and uses the matter, the sacrament will be valid.

Imagine if that were not the case. No one could ever be sure that any sacrament was ever valid. How terrible would that be! God doesn’t want to leave us in a perpetual state of uncertainty.

 

[js_cat3391]

ok thanks.

 

[Iron_Donkey]

Let say you are guilty of a mortal sin in the eyes of God.

It is grave matter objectively such as robbing a bank, or through other circumstances such as stealing a homeless man’s last $20. AND you are guilty in God’s eyes of full consent of the will and full knowledge as well. If you were to die before sufficient repentance, you would go to hell.

So you go to confession and you sufficiently confess it, and everything about your confession is good, but although God knows it is a mortal sin, the priest, in his imperfection and for whatever reason, does not think it is a mortal sin OR he does not think it is a sin at all. After your confession is complete, he absolves you. Is it forgiven?

The reason I ask, is the Jesus said John 20:23 - Jesus says, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven. If you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

How can a priest can forgive something he does not think is a sin or how can he forgive a mortal sin, if he judges it not mortal? I do not understand. What does the church teach on this?
Thanks.

As others have said, it would be forgiven.

As to your question: confession forgives sins you don’t even mention, so long as you yourself did not omit them on purpose (making the whole thing invalid) - in which case the priest would not be aware of them either. Confession isn’t just going down a check list forgiving what you mention and the priest happens to think is a big deal, but rather absolving you of sin entirely. He doesn’t have to do it sin by sin, so to speak.

 

[bzkoss236]

To put it simply, in the Sacrament of Confession, any and all sins are forgiven as long as the one confessing is contrite ( that is, sorry for having sinned).

 

[englishredrose]

also Gods Love for us is very different to the Love we have for each other and is confusing especially in such circumstances as we tend to think quite naturally, in human terms and cannot comprehend how God loves us for all our failings too. It it why on another thread I was opposed to the idea of confession being role play out by each other because we cannot guess what the priest says to us in confession. We can only know what we have heard ourselves and we cannot use that in judgement to what may be said to a similar circumstance though it may appear the same.

But it is hard to comprehend how God loves us because we do tend to think in terms of human love rather than Gods Love.