Confession. Who needs that silly old thing anymore?
Confession is the only earthly means of regaining sanctifying grace after committing mortal sin. I say earthly means, because God is not bound by the sacraments, and He can grant pardon if your contrition is perfect; that is, repentance out of sheer love for God, and not just fear of eternal punishment. Since you can never really know how perfect your contrition is, it’s a lot more comforting to get your sorry ass in the confessional, often. It’s the only way to be sure.
The council opened amid a rapid escalation of the Loss of the Sense of Sin, and the continued secularization of western society. The Modernists had been kept at bay for over 50 years, but they were only in hiding, and they saw this was their chance. Aggiornamento!
The Smoke of Satan entering the Church took many forms. Marxist and sodomite infiltrators, moral destruction of seminaries, the Novus Ordo and its immediate openness to abuses, etc, etc. But Satan’s central point of attack was on Sacramental Confession. Why? Go back and read the first paragraph.
The CARA Survey (this one is 2008) shows that 75% of Catholics go to confession less than once a year or never at all, and that 54% of Catholics who attend Mass every week think there is no need for confession at least once a year. Follow the link for tons more data.
So OF COURSE this is the most diabolical success story of the last 50 years. Can you tell me a more effective way to ensure the eternal damnation of millions of souls WHO ACTUALLY THINK THEY ARE GOOD CATHOLICS?
Oh, wait.
If someone comes to you and feels something must be removed from him, but perhaps he is unable to say it, but you understand … it’s all right, he says it this way, with the gesture of coming. First condition. Second, he is repentant. If someone comes to you it is because he doesn’t want to fall into these situations, but he doesn’t dare say it, he is afraid to say it and then not be able to do it. But if he cannot do it, ad impossibila nemo tenetur. And the Lord understands these things, the language of gestures. Have open arms, to understand what is inside that heart that cannot be said or said this way … somewhat because of shame … you understand me. You must receive everyone with the language with which they can speak.
No. No. No. Go read the article linked above to 1P5. This is explicitly forbidden, for reasons which should be obvious, and results in INVALID confession, i.e. your sins are not forgiven, unless your Indian name is Cat Got Tongue.
Does everyone remember that all the sacraments have Matter and Form to be valid? Do you know the Matter for Sacramental Confession? It’s the sins themselves, and the act of confession itself, which consists of contrition, actually confessing the sins, and satisfaction. Did you get that? Without the sins and the confession, there’s no sacrament.
So once again we are left wondering: is the Holy Father intentionally undermining the faith, resulting in a multitude of damned souls, or is he simply ignorant of Church teaching, resulting in a multitude of damned souls?
Doesn’t this mean that all the invalid “general absolution services” are okey dokey too? Why do we even need confessionals? “Everyone needing reconciliation, please don’t queue up. Sit in the pews and remain mute. Father Jazz Hands will absolve from the pulpit shortly.”
Please, God, make it stop. For the sake of His sorrowful Passion.
It’s why we say we’re practicing Catholics, no? We screw up and need forgiveness
I went to confession last night. There were two people ahead of me and none behind. When I received the sacrament of penance, in the early 1960’s), we went to confession regularly. There were long lines to the confessional. Nowadays, everyone goes to communion, very few to confession. Church doctrine is known and embraced by very few.