.
For the record, I think this only applies to mortal sins. For
a thread like that on the Internet, which was not very
appealing (as my post on it said from the beginning - it is
a good example of a thread that should be deleted), but
was not so serious as to be of that really bad category of
"mortal," it would hardly qualify. It was obviously meant as
a sort of practical joke or something but it was still not
becoming of Catholic behavior, more like a low-level, such
as "oddly suspect" or "perhaps offensive to pious ears."
I was speaking in general terms, not specifically about this
incident, but in reply to the principle that made it seem, if
misunderstood or misapplied: such as that it's beneficial to
plan on getting more graces by confessing a sin later, even
if (and it most likely was not) it was not InDominoSperavi's
intention to say that. I was just clearing the loophole, as
it were.
And I only made the cautionary post above because it is
something that too many, including myself, often forget,
that when confessing a mortal sin, if during the commission
of the sin the penitent was planning to go to confession
afterwards, this raises the sin to a new, more serious
category, and it really ought to be explained to the
confessor, "When I stole the $2,000 car" or "as I was in
the act of committing murder" or "while I deliberately
typed lies that would defame the character of a good
person, I had it in mind that I would later confess this and
so thereby be forgiven."
Under certain conditions, the confessor might judge such
an admission of anticipated penance as a sign that the
penitent is not really sorry for the sin, but even might go
out soon and commit the same sin again, and in extreme
cases, could qualify for impenitence, for which absolution
might well be withheld, until such time as a more
convincing evidence of true contrition is given.
Nor are most confessors likely to ask this question unless
the penitent has provided some indication that it is the
case. How many times have you been asked by your
confessor if you had intended to later confess that mortal
sin at the time when you were committing it? For it is a
practice they are trained not to do, to suggest to a
penitent that what they have done is actually worse than
what they think it is -- unless, like I said, there is some
kind of matter in the confession as it was that would make
that to be likely the case.
How much simpler it would all be if confessors all had the
power to see the condition of souls, like Padre Pio did.......
Fr. Pfeiffer recently related a story of a woman who had
confessed to Padre Pio and at the end he asked her if she
had remembered all her un-confessed sins, and she replied
that she thought she had. Then the saint told her, No, you
have not, for you have not confessed the sin you committed
before you were married, when you conceived a child out of
wedlock and being bothered and afraid of the consequences,
you had an abortion. He then went on to explain to her, that
child would have been born a boy, and he would have grown
up to be ordained a priest, and that priest would later be
consecrated bishop, and then that bishop would have been
created Cardinal, after which that Cardinal was going to be
elected Pope, and finally, that Pope was going to reform the
Catholic Church.
Topic: Please forgive me? (Read 2896 times)