Q. On a couple of occasions at our church, we’ve had a "general confession." The priest told us to examine our consciences and then proceed to one of several priests in different parts of the church. He then told us to confess one of the sins we’d committed to the priest and return to our pew. All of our sins were forgiven.
Also, twice when I was sick and in the hospital, a priest came to my bedside and did not ask me to confess my sins. He simply gave me absolution saying, "your sins are forgiven you." — A.M., Plattsburgh, N.Y.
The answer to this questions by The God Squad was rather lousy and did not address at all the serious aspects of this question. I assume it was Fr. Tom Hartman who answered the questions in part by saying.
Only mortal sins that imperil a person’s soul need be confessed, and only mortal sins of which the person is aware. Smaller sins, called venial sins, are not generally the object of confession.
While what he says is mostly true, I don’t know why so many discourage confession of venial sins. Do they really want the only persons in line to be ones confessing mortal sins? If this was true than in some ways the privacy of the sacrament would be removed since you could automatically assume the people in line had committed grave sins. Spouses would instantly come to the conclusion that if there spouse when to confession that they had committed a mortal sin. The Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church says:
The confession of venial sins is strongly recommended by the Church, even if this is not strictly necessary, because it helps us to form a correct conscience and to fight against evil tendencies. It allows us to be healed by Christ and to progress in the life of the Spirit.
Now as to what is the "pick a sin, any sin" to confess this is just wrong on so many levels it is hard to take seriously. Let’s see I murdered someone and also felt uncharitable thoughts about someone. I guess I will confess the uncharitable thoughts and get forgiven for the whole thing. Exactly how is the priest suppose to choose the penance based on the confession of only one sin? All sins forgiven for the confession of one is not exactly the package deal the Church offers.
Last but not least was the absolution without confession which seems to me to be a serious sin for the priest in a circumstance such as this. Absolution without confession could occur in the case of General absolution where there is danger of death and not the time for individual confession.
Update: Fr. Timothy Finigan has some thought on my post and the subject of confession, along with a Curt Jester like graphic.
23 comments
On venial sins: There’s a commercial on TV (forget the product, ha) where a woman is confessing what seems like hundreds of “little sins” like forgetting to put a coin in the meter and getting away with it, taking 12 items into the 10-item line in the grocery store, spitting into her bitchy co-worker’s coffee, etc, and the poor priest is obviously been there some time, judging from the look on his face. Is the point knowing not just how much to confess, but when to stop?
To my mind this attitude unfortunately reflects the lack of sacramental faith in the liberal Church.
Apparently fiddling with HTML is bad on this site. I was prevented on commenting on you previous article for “spamming” because I was trying to post an image of the LA Cathedral.
Not knowing when to stop would fall under scrupulosity, wouldn’t it?
Venial sins do need to be confessed as part of regular confession, and I’ve found that even confessing temptations I was struggling with to even be helpful. I will acknowledge to the priest that I know that the temptation is not a sin, but in admitting that it’s a repetetive thing, the priest has a wonderful opportunity to provide some advice in how to overcome that particular temptation. One of the great blessings of the Sacrament!
One of our priests, during Advent, gave a wonderful talk about the Sacrament of Confession, and he summed it up using the adage:
“Be blunt, be brief, be gone”. In confessing mortal sins, just say what it is, be direct about it (Don’t sugar-coat), and this same thing if you dont’ have mortal sins to confess.
General Absolution stuff is so amazing to me; it’s so abused, when the Sacrament itself is so beautiful if people would only take the time to understand the GRACE! And if they would be taught that what is happening is WRONG, WRONG, WRONG, when they go to these illicit services.
I’m often amazed by the advice or comments made to me in the confessional; it really is the Holy Spirit speaking, we really ARE going to Jesus directly, and who would not want to experience this???? Once you understand what is happening, it’s worth getting through the worst storms just to experience this Sacrament.
I could go on and on….
I remember being asked in the confessional at a liberal parish to concentrate on the “radical presence of Christ”. I am sure the priest did not want me to think about the image that popped into my head at the time: Jesus the Sandinista fighting for workers’ rights and the Communist way.
I keep hoping they will assign me pushups for penance but they never take requests for penance (so far (thankfully)).
In my area, most group penance services I’ve gone to are really just “give people time to get up the nerve to get in line, and preach to them about it since we seldom do” services. You confess individually to an individual priest (albeit most having to sit somewhere on a chair rather than in a box, and you have as much time as you like. Somebody even got the bright idea of constructing a “porta-Confessional” so there’d be one more confessional available for those who like that better.
The last time I found myself being group-absolved (without danger of death, I mean – we aren’t soldiers going into battle!) was at college more than fifteen years ago. People weren’t warned that we weren’t going to get to go to Confession, and nobody was happy about it. So the next year, individual Confession was back.
Spitting into somebody’s coffee isn’t a venial sin, I’m pretty sure. Assuming you’re not ten years old, anyway.
Seems too many priests don’t “get it” as far as the solemnity of this sacrament goes.
About a year ago the really wonderful priest of our small parish was sick. The stand-in for him was hearing my Confession. Because of the lighting and the less than perfect screening between us I could see he had a crossword puzzle on his lap. It wasn’t for the “slack times”, the Saturday line for hearing Confessions was always long enough to cause the priest to go overtime.
Really gave me a warm & fuzzy, let me tell ya!
It’s a running joke in our household that everyone gets the same penance: spend two minutes praying about this in front of the Blessed Sacrament. You can tell when Father is tired because there’s a line at the confessional and a bunch of people all praying at the front.
My favorite was the time I confessed that I was allowing a minor concern to eat up waaaaay too much of my prayer life, to the point of obsessing about it, and he told me for my penance to go pray about it in front of the Blessed Sacrament. I did, but I did comment on the irony to God.
[snark on] Hey! We’re Resurrection People! You folks who do that whole enumeration-of-sins-thing or go to confession more than once a year need to loosen up! Do Be a Do-Be; Don’t Be a Pharisee! [snark off]
Thank you for quoting the Cathechism on the benefits of Confession, here. I had never read that particular section. All this time I’ve wondered if my experience of having my conscience straightened out via Reconciliation (I’m always sorry on both sides of every question) was due to my particular daftness. No one else to whom I’ve ever mentioned this much needed benefit seemed to have noticed that particular sort of healing as a result of the sacrament.
I have heard more than one priest (eg., Fr Groeschel last night on EWTN) say that priests are “looking for big fish”. I know they’re trying to encourage folks to go to confession who haven’t in years but for a long time I took it to mean that I didn’t have anything ‘worthy’ to confess.
Finally, I started going to a parish where the priests hear confessions the old fashioned way. When the pastor said something like: “I can see your serious about your spiritual growth by coming to confession each month & I want to encourage you in that”, I almost fell off the kneeler. It was an affirmation of what I felt, that monthly confession of even venial sins helps me alot!
The Church officially encourages frequent confession. Anyone who suggests that the minimum is “Pharisee – like” needs to take some time to study Church teaching as opposed to the popular dissident parish’s mis-teaching and deflection of the Truth.
I’ve heard it said that Pope John Paul II went to Confession EVERY DAY.
A Saint, A Doctor of the Church, although I can’t remember which one, said that we cannot help but offend God 7 times per day. Thus the need for an Examination of conscience every day, maybe more than once per day.
If a Mortal Sin is committed, we are REQUIRED to go to Confession as soon as possible, and refrain from recieving Holy Communion until that sin has been Confessed with a firm purpose of amendment.
Once per year is just not enough…and once one gets into the habit of frequent confession, it’s amazing how life-changing it can be.
Great post – this is a very important issue. I have added some thoughts over on my blog in a post Confession Lite with a “Curt Jester style” graphic which I hope you like.
John Paul II confessed every day? Call me a heretic, but what would he confess to?
John Paul II WAS human…and as such, he likely did offend God from time to time. There are legitimate complaints about what he handled and what he did not handle in his reign…and we will never know his own private sins, just as I will never know yours nor will you know mine.
You are only a heretic (in the context of this conversation) if you deny that PJP II suffered from the same concupiscence that we all do.
And since most of us consider him to be a Saint…well, then, we have NO EXCUSE for not going to Confession monthly. At least.
“John Paul II confessed every day? Call me a heretic, but what would he confess to?”
Even past sins already confessed can be confessed again. They are “sufficient matter” for confession. USually, this is advised to those who practice frequent confession as a devotion.
i’ve been going to confession w/my spiritual director on average 3-4 times per month for the last year, and i can definitely tell the difference in how i approach life now. i’m certainly a work-in-progress, but some lions i struggled with 18 months ago are little kittens now.
For me,
Going to confession frequently, allows more room for graces in my soul. I find it a lot easier to chunk a venial sin into a pile of other venial sins. So I find that like a home, it is easier to just keep it clean than to wait until it is full of clutter.
One thing that makes frequent Confession difficult is the conviction that you’re wasting the confessor’s time with something that he may not consider significant. What gets me over that obstacle (though rarely more than once a month!)is the knowledge that Jesus loves to forgive sins. (He actually DOES! This is mind-bogglingly true.) So even if I’m sure I’m driving some poor priest crazy, that’s not as bad as refusing to allow Jesus love me as He wants to.
Besides, that “poor priest” is sure to be greatly rewarded for his patience!
joanne, that was a great comment. i needed to read something like that today. thanks.
Well, I’ve received a lot of insights into confession, and one less excuse for not swimming the Tiber. With John Paul II I admit I was thinking of stuff like “I cheated by using phony Latin words in Scrabble” or the like.
Kevin, I am definitely guilty of letting the clutter pile up in my house, at least the physical stuff.
Maybe he confessed kissing the koran, desecration of Fatima, Assissi, who knows, I think a good theologian could draft a list a mile long
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