The
Sacrament of Penance Without
a
Priest Available
+++
What Any Catholic
Must Know (and Do!) When Faced
With the Dilemma of Being in Mortal Sin
and
No Licit Priest Available to Absolve Him
A
NOTE TO THE READER:
This short article is an excerpt from Chapters 11 to 13 of the
longer article,
This Is the Great Apostasy... Now, How Do We Make Sure Our Souls
Survive It?, also
found in the Books & Articles section of The Epistemologic Works website.
The text is unchanged, apart from a reference to earlier chapters changed to be
accurate in Chapter 2, and one tweak near the end of Chapter 3 to speak in the
third person to the reader. It solves the following dilemma:
With no
truly Catholic priests available to whom those, who are real Catholics,
may, of a good and fully aware conscience, go to when they have fallen into
the state of mortal sin, what are we to do?
The Roman Catholic Church gives us the answer, especially in Her greatest of all infallible councils thus far, the Holy
Synod of Trent. Please read on to see the evidence and logic. Indeed, to find assurance
of salvation whilst trying to obey God during the Great Apostasy.
+++ 1. The
Sacrament of Penance +++
A real Catholic knows he needs a
priest in order to have his mortal sins absolved. A well-informed Catholic also
knows he can’t go to a non-Catholic priest to get this absolution. After
all, in doing so --- and even if, religiously speaking, a non-Catholic priest
could actually absolve those mortal sins that are confessed to him --- such a Catholic then incurs, as he
confesses to a non-Catholic priest, the new mortal sin of going to a
non-Catholic priest whilst knowing better, which puts him right back into
the state of mortal sin that he (supposedly) was getting out of by
confessing his mortal sins to this non-Catholic priest!
Yet what if there’s no other option?
What if there are no Catholic priests
available for him?
The Council of Trent gives us the clear
and infallible solution. For the Tridentine Fathers
via the Solemn Magisterium assure us regarding the Sacrament of Penance:
“Whence it is to be taught [therefore,
given that what the Council of Trent has just said is infallibly true, it is to
be taught] that the penitence of a Christian after his fall [into sin] is very
different from that [penitence that he experienced and practiced] at [the time
of] (his) baptism; and that therein are included not only cessation from sins
[that is, the Catholic no longer does these sins] and a detestation thereof
[that is, he now hates these sins that he no longer does], or a contrite and
humble heart [that is, his heart is sorrowful for these sins that he did and he
is humble before God because of this sinfulness], but also the sacramental
confession of the said sins [but such a Catholic, too, confesses his sins to a
priest] --- at least in desire and to be made in its season [yet
if there is no priest he can go to for the time being, he at least wants to
confess these sins to a priest and
plans to do so just as soon as a priest is available to whom he may go]
--- and sacerdotal absolution [the priest to whom he confesses then
absolves him of the sins confessed]…” (Translated from the
original Latin into English by Canon Waterworth as of
1848, from Chapter 14 of the Decree on Justification, Session 6. Published by Devin-Adair Company in 1912 in
And also:
“If anyone saith [says] that faith alone
is a sufficient preparation for receiving the sacrament of the most holy
Eucharist; let him be anathema [if anyone claims that just being Catholic is
enough to make him worthy to receive the Eucharist without having to confess
his mortal sins and be absolved from them, let him be excommunicated from the
Catholic Church and cursed and damned forever if he does not change from this
heretical opinion and reconcile himself to God’s Church]. And for fear lest so
great a sacrament may be received unworthily [out of concern that no Catholic
takes the Eucharist in the state of mortal sin], and so unto death and
condemnation [and thus this Catholic in mortal sin ends up in hell tormented
even more horribly due to taking the Eucharist unworthily], this holy synod ordains and declares [the
Council of Trent infallibly teaches us] that sacramental confession, when a
confessor may be had, is of necessity
to be made beforehand, by those whose conscience is burdened with mortal sin
[when a priest is available, then
a Catholic who is in mortal sin must confess to him this mortal sin before he
dares to receive the Eucharist], how contrite even soever
they may think themselves [and this crucial rule of confession of mortal sins
before getting the Eucharist is binding no matter how perfectly contrite the
Catholic is, when a priest is available, to whom he may make a confession].” (Ibid., p.84. From Canon 11 of the Decree
Concerning the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist, Session 13.)
As well:
“Contrition, which holds the first
place amongst the aforesaid acts of the penitent [contrition for sins is
the most important thing a sinful Catholic does in getting these sins
forgiven], is a sorrow of mind and a detestation for sin committed, with the
purpose of not sinning for the future [the sinful Catholic, who is good despite
the sin, is sorry for these sins and hates them, not wanting to do the sins
again]. This movement of contrition
was at all times necessary for obtaining the pardon of sins [contrition
for sins has always been necessary for these sins to be absolved and
forgiven]; and, in one who has fallen [into sin] after baptism, it then at
length prepares for the remission of sins, when it is united with confidence
in the divine mercy, and with the desire of performing the other things
which are required for rightly receiving this sacrament… The synod teaches [the Council of Trent infallibly teaches us],
moreover, that although it sometimes happen that this contrition is perfect
through charity, and reconciles
man with God before this sacrament be actually received [sometimes a
Catholic may be perfectly sorry for his sins out of a love for God as the
best reason of all, which perfect
sorrow makes him at peace with God even before he is absolved by
a priest], the said reconciliation, nevertheless, is not to be
ascribed to that contrition, independently
of the desire of the sacrament which is included therein [nevertheless,
even though perfect sorrow and contrition for sin may make a sinful Catholic at
peace with God, we cannot believe that this happens without this Catholic actually wanting to get the Sacrament of
Penance from a priest and intending to do so when the opportunity arises].”
(Ibid., pp.92-94. From Chapter 4 of
the Doctrine on the Sacrament of Penance, Session 14.)
+++ 2. Perfect
Contrition and the Intention to Confess +++
What does this all mean?
My dear soul, it means a Catholic person can have perfect contrition for his
mortal sin and seriously intend to
confess this mortal sin to a Catholic priest as soon as such a man is available
for him to do so, while, in the meantime… God
forgives this mortal sin and
counts it as if it were already absolved
by one of His priests.
Period.
Absolutely
amazing?
Truly.
And we have the infallible and adequately
clear assurance of
Nevertheless, we are not alone.
Because our shepherds at
The forgiveness of our mortal sins without a priest
to whom we may turn.
And, again, how is this accomplished?
Via perfect contrition and an intent to
confess.
Yet what is perfect contrition?
Sorrow
for your sin not merely
because the sin is so ugly or you’re afraid of going to hell for it, but because you love God above all
things and you are sorry to have offended him by your commission of this ugly
& hellish sin.
And what is an intent
to confess?
It means you
seriously and honestly intend to
confess your mortal sins to a truly Catholic priest as soon as such a
man is reasonably available for you to go to --- and even though you have
already confessed them privately to God in the Sight of Heaven. Without this serious intent to
confess later on to a priest, no
amount of perfect contrition in the world will suffice in God’s Sight to
forgive you your mortal sins in the meantime. It also means all mortal sins
forgiven in this way will go back to being unforgiven
if a Catholic priest becomes reasonably available and yet you, while knowing
this to be true, nonetheless refuse
to take advantage of the opportunity available and remain as you are, without
sacramental confession and thrown back into the state of mortal sin due to rebellion.
So how does a Catholic confess privately
to God without a priest?
The
same way you confess with a priest… you simply accuse yourself in prayer of all
of your sins, naming them and describing them so as to adequately take
responsibility for them, adding ameliorating circumstances that may lessen or
increase your guilt.
Is there any convenient guideline to
assist in doing this?
Any
Catholic, who understands how to make a good confession to a priest, can make a
good confession privately to God without a priest available. The exact same
process is followed. Certainly, one should make an Act of Contrition when doing
so. But if one desires further help, there is a long Contrition Prayer to assist
a Catholic in covering everything necessary to assure one’s self of forgiveness
in God’s Sight. Both the Act of
Contrition (a holy prayer of ancient origin) and the long Contrition Prayer (a
much more thorough prayer of recent origin) can be found on The Epistemologic
Works website in the Prayers section. Scroll down this section to the
subsection entitled Prayers of Contrition & Penance. There you will find
links for both An Act of Contrition and A Thorough Contritional
Prayer.
Excellent.
But how can a good Catholic be sure he
has a contrition that is perfect?
+++ 3.
Contrition Is an Act of Intellect & Will +++
As stated above, perfect contrition is
sorrow for the best reason of all:
Because you love
God above all things, and you have offended him with your sin.
This is better than being sorry because
sin is so hideous and ugly. Or because you’re going to wind
up in hell forever if you die with a mortal sin upon your soul, unforgiven.
Both of these latter types of sorrow are an imperfect
contrition, called attrition.
Imperfect contrition --- attrition ---
is not bad. It’s better than nothing.
It’s only imperfect since it’s not
perfect… and not because it’s not
pleasing in and of itself in God’s Sight, as a good and holy remorse for
the sin that you’ve done.
Indeed, imperfect contrition ---
attrition --- is so satisfactory to God that He forgives one’s mortal sin with
attrition when you confess to a priest. That is to say, when you’re imperfectly
sorry for your mortal sin, nevertheless, because this contrition is so pleasing
to God, He forgives you when you confess the sin sincerely and adequately to a
priest, who acts in God’s Stead and absolves you from the deadly transgression.
How wonderful is that?
That God is so charitable as to spare us
from hell with only attrition for our sin!
Yet without a priest, how do we make
sure our contrition is perfect?
This is where so many people go wrong.
Those who are proud, ignorant and
impatient assume that it’s impossible
to have mortal sin forgiven without a priest to confess to. Or they assume it’s
the next thing to being impossible
--- that God wouldn’t ever allow us to get into this type of predicament, and
even though they might admit, if only in theory, that the Church does indeed
guarantee us a way to be forgiven without a priest to whom we may confess.
Meanwhile, those who are afraid,
ignorant and timid assume that it’s practically
impossible to have mortal sin forgiven without a priest, due to perfect contrition
being --- so they assume --- too difficult to have. After all, isn’t it only
saints who can come up with the kind of sorrow and tears and remorse necessary
to be perfectly contrite?
The proud, ignorant and impatient we’ve
already shown are fallible and wrong about forgiveness without a priest.
The Solemn Magisterium infallibly assures
us of this.
It’s up to them to be humble enough and
patient enough to listen.
The afraid, ignorant and timid, though,
we answer now:
Yes, it is more difficult to be perfectly contrite than it is to be imperfectly contrite. Notwithstanding,
no, ‘more difficult’ doesn’t mean impossible or practically impossible!
It just means it’s harder than
attrition.
Nor do we need to be saints in order to
have it. That is to say, copious tears and heartrending feelings of sorrow and
remorse are tremendous, helpful and precious… but they are not at
the heart of what it means to be perfectly contrite.
Rather, contrition is --- at the bottom
of everything --- an act of the intellect
and the will. Tears and
feelings of sorrow are spiritually beautiful and immeasurably helpful… but they are not what makes contrition into
contrition, nor contrition something perfect!
To
the contrary, we simply need an intelligent mind to know that we ought
to be contrite, and for the best reason of all --- that we should love God above all things and that we are sorry for
having offended Him with our hellish trespass. Then, knowing this, we
exercise our free will to tell Him that we love Him above all things ---
and that we are supremely sorrowful for
offending God with our eternally deadly crime against His Law.
This is what perfect contrition is.
Tears and remorseful feelings can flow
out of this. The tears and feelings are not,
however, to be mistaken for the act of the intellect and the will that
contrition really is at the core of everything. To think otherwise is to be
subject to our ignorance and to be misled by the devil into potentially damning
our souls, if only by falling into despair.
My dear person, your immortal soul is
very precious. The immortal souls of other human beings are also very precious.
We are made in the Image of the Triune Catholic God.
This is why, in spite of my
incompetence, the words above are worth reading.
ENDNOTE:
It is the duty of any real Catholic to heed the words above that
you have just read.
Not because I, the author, have any religious authority or jurisdiction
over you, the reader.
I do not.
Rather, because it is the truth, it is logical, it is factual, and
every human being with an adequate mind has the duty to save his or her soul,
using one’s God-given intelligence to do so --- and no matter what the opposition we face from a venomous hell, a
rebellious world, or wicked leaders.
If proud and ignorant, then you will refuse, lacking humility,
patience and curiosity. Only miraculous graces from Heaven will be capable of
smashing through your wall of arrogance.
If timid and ignorant, then you will hesitate.
It is to these poor souls that I appeal.
My dear reader, if one of the timid, first make
certain you are Catholic. A simple test for Catholicity during our time of confusion
is to answer this question:
Can a person of sound
mind, who is not Catholic, die as he or she is ---
sincerely believing in his or her non-Catholic
beliefs or practicing his or her non-Catholic
religion --- and have any hope at all of entering Heaven?
Did you say yes?
Then, dear soul, you aren’t really Catholic. You hold some form of
salvation heresy.
That is to say, you buy into the claim of the Religion of Modernism
that it doesn’t matter what a person believes when it comes to religion, either
because God doesn’t exist and there is no heaven or hell, or because God
doesn’t punish anyone since there is hardly anything worth punishing, or
because God is happy to take anyone into Heaven as long as he or she is
‘sincere’ in their non-Catholic convictions and doesn’t really know that there
is ‘no Salvation outside the Church’.
If humble enough to admit that you aren’t all-knowing, then you
need to read
For Those Who Consider Themselves Catholic
, as well as This Is the Great Apostasy... Now, How Do We Make Sure Our Souls
Survive It?, and follow all
links posted within these articles till you understand fully why I dare to say
salvation heresy is a religious lie
that will damn your soul if you die believing in it. The first link is in the
First Things First section of The Epistemologic Works, the latter link is in
the Books & Articles section.
But did you say no?
Then, dear soul, you just might be truly Catholic.
Yet do you think that you can’t live without most of the sacraments?
Do you think that notoriously & pertinaciously non-Catholic
priests are, nevertheless, somehow actually
Catholic, or that it’s okay to go to priests that you know for a fact
are not Catholic, just so long as you
get the sacraments, or as long as the Church’s Hierarchy hasn’t formally
excommunicated these notoriously & pertinaciously non-Catholic priests?
If humble enough to admit that you aren’t all-knowing, then you need to
read Should You Go to a CMRI Mass or Take Part in the Worship of
Other Traditionalists?, as well as This Is the Great Apostasy... Now, How Do We Make Sure Our Souls
Survive It?, and follow all links posted within these
articles till you understand fully why I dare to say religious unity with those
who are notoriously & pertinaciously non-Catholic is absolutely forbidden in every case --- disobedience of which,
whilst having the ability to know better, puts one in danger of everlasting
hellfire --- for all real Catholics who are aware, or who ought to be aware,
that such people are not actually Roman Catholic. Both articles are in the
Books & Articles section of The Epistemologic Works.
In either case, dear reader, I beg you to have the humility, patience and curiosity to find out what God &
His Catholic Church have to say about these things, commanding our obedience.
Today as I write is an era of horrible darkness, confusion, sin and
rebellion.
Notwithstanding, we are not
off the hook just because of that.
As noted above, we are given intelligent
minds for a reason. That reason is to
know and understand what God, through His One & Only Roman
Catholic Church, has taught
and commanded us in order to have the chance of saving our
immortal souls.
Hence, we are obligated
to use our intelligent minds to do so.
I’m doing my job, dear reader.
I’m using my God-given intelligence to help both you & I know
what to do in order to remain good Catholics during the terrible blindness of
the Great Apostasy.
Your job, when aware of what someone like me has done --- and given
the terrible threat to our souls due to the Great Apostasy --- is to pay
attention, and to humbly and
patiently think it over carefully with me, as you read what I’ve
written, so as to clearly see if I’m right.
In other words, to use your God-given intelligence to save your
soul!
The process is simple.
May the Eternally Divine King and Incarnate God, Jesus, through His
Blessed Ever-Virgin Mother, the Immaculate Queen of Highest Heaven, Mary, grant
you the graces necessary to have the humility and patience and curiosity to do
this.
Amen.
AFTERWORD:
Since this is a matter of eternal life & death, when never
there has been a greater threat of religious confusion & soulish damnation
to those who exist in this world during the Great Apostasy, here at the end of
the world as we know it (at least
unrivalled since the days of St. Noe right before the Punishment of the Great
Flood), then we add this final historical fact, demonstrating with moral
certainty what the Lord Jesus & Lady Mary both can, and will, sometimes
permit.
To wit, what we have helpfully remarked elsewhere on The
Epistemologic Works twice or thrice --- that the Triune God of the Roman
Catholic Church, the Only True Creator there is!, did indeed permit St. Francis
Xavier and his fellow clergy to convert a small yet sizable contingent of
Japanese persons to the Singular Religion of Catholicism, whilst, hot on the
heels of this miraculous mercy, He then allowing the pagan Japanese rulers of
that time (so long ago, seemingly, think
we short-lived creatures…) to persecute these very courageous
Catholics with utmost cruelty, killing their clergy.
We repeat:
God permitted the poor Japanese
Catholics to lose their priests!
All of them. Every
single one. For centuries on end. Period.
Then, in the mid-1800s, the cupiditous United States literally
ramrodding its way into a Japanese port city --- forcing this land, people and
their rulers to trade with the already increasingly rich country of
‘justice’ and ‘democracy’ --- our intrepid navy found,
to the Church’s astonishment elsewhere on earth, that some very hardy
Japanese Catholics STILL EXISTED IN JAPAN, having survived all those centuries
WITHOUT PRIESTS OR OTHER CLERGY, these brave Catholic souls having CATECHIZED
& BAPTIZED THEIR YOUNGSTERS, GENERATION AFTER GENERATION, having solely but
TWO SACRAMENTS AVAILABLE TO THEM. I.e., possessing, in their
priestless existence, avoiding pagan rulers’ murderous wrath as best they
could, solely the most precious SACRAMENTS OF BAPTISM & MATRIMONY. Again…
Period.
The lesson is plain, my beloved reader.
If God allowed this to occur in Japan not so very long ago, He
permitting Japanese Catholics to endure an absence of priests for generations
& centuries… and He DID, it is a HISTORICAL FACT!...
while also enabling these poor but brave Japanese Catholics to both retain
their Catholicity and transmit it to their descendants in the snarling face of
ruthless leaders without any priests to assist them, then where in the world, prithee, do self-styled Roman Catholics get the
nonsensical & out-of-the-thin-blue-air idea that God would not allow
Catholics, during the Great Apostasy, to experience the same test?
Why are we, right now, magically exempt from this trial?
And the honest answer is just as plain, my dear soul.
WE ARE NOT MAGICALLY ‘EXEMPT’. The Great
Apostasy has been going on long enough, since the Vatican II Pseudo-Council in
the 1960s, and religious insanity following with the most execrable Antipope
Francis now afflicting us in 2020, that GOD’S SOVEREIGN WILL IS STARK.
We are being punished for our vile wickedness, and what few people are truly
Catholic are being tested & refined like the silver or gold in a WHITE HOT CRUCIBLE.
This is the deal. This is vivid reality. It is not pleasant, nor pretty, nor
humanly preferable.
IT IS SIMPLY
WHAT WE FACE; IT IS BOTH
POSSIBLE & REAL.
If in the light of the knowledge about what Jesus & Mary
required Japanese Catholics to endure, you then continue to deny what true
Catholics face today, right now, all over the earth, we having to endure
without any truly Catholic clergy, there are only a few explanations for why
you would be so brash as to defy truth.
1.)
You are scared to death and can’t admit it.
2.)
You are not truly Catholic and promote confusion.
3.)
You hate Catholicism and want souls damned.
Once more… end of sentences. Don’t like the truth?
Then you’ll pardon me, and other real Catholics, who politely
& firmly tell you, “Please get out of our way. We intend to serve
Jesus & Mary regardless of the circumstances.” Yet if you won’t
get out of our way, insisting on, like the evil Japanese pagan rulers back
then, slanderously attacking us and persecuting us, God permitting you power to
do so, then we still politely stand firm. Saying, “As for myself, and my
household, we choose to serve Our Singularly Catholic God of the
Most Sacred
& Suffering Heart of Christ Jesus, have mercy on
us!
Most Immaculate
& Sorrowful Heart of Mary, pray for us!
To the Greater
Glory of God! Long live King Jesus!
Ad Jesum per
Mariam. Long live Queen
Mary!
World without
end, forever & ever. Amen.
+
+ +
Pilate’s
query met:
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