The Papists

Yes. The priest cannot give any identifiable information about a person from a particular confession. Priests take the seal of confession extremely seriously, because it is an extremely serious matter! Breaking the seal of confession is grounds for excommunication and being stripped of one’s duties as a priest for life. 

As a side note, I have heard that priests often have a difficult time remembering what people confess to them, likely one of the graces of the sacrament. And they hear so many confessions, there’s almost no way they would remember who said what. 

When talking about things they hear in the confessional, the most I have ever heard a priest say are things along the lines of, “People who struggle with anger and lust usually are dealing with an underlying problem, which just manifests itself in that way,” for example.

Thank you for your question!

Refraining from admitting a sin in Confession is actually committing another sin. 

I first learned this from Nuns when I was in CCD and I didn’t want to believe them. But when you think about it..who are you going for Confession? You’re confessing to God! If you refrain from admitting a sin you are still trying to hide from God. Does He know your sin? Well yes of course He does. He also knew Adam’s sin, but Adam still hid:

The Lord God then called to the man and asked him: Where are you?

He answered, “I heard you in the garden; but I was afraid, because I was naked so I hid”.

Genesis 3:9-10

God went looking for Adam even though He knew Adam sinned. It is just for us to go before God and admit we failed so that He can smile at us and say “Your sins are forgiven, go and sin no more”.

-Javi

Code of Canon Law 844 §4 says:

If the danger of death is present or if, in the judgment of the diocesan bishop or conference of bishops, some other grave necessity urges it, Catholic ministers administer these same sacraments licitly also to other Christians not having full communion with the Catholic Church, who cannot approach a minister of their own community and who seek such on their own accord, provided that they manifest Catholic faith in respect to these sacraments and are properly disposed.

If you’re a baptised Christian (baptised with water and in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit), you may licitly receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation provided it is a grave circumstance (it’s usually the case that death is imminent) and you truly believe in the Sacrament (i.e. you must believe that the priest who is hearing your confession has the authority to forgive sins in persona Christi, and that forgiveness only comes with true guilt and a resolve to sin no more). 

God bless.

-Olivier

Start here. And here.

In a nutshell, you’ll be able to break from this addiction most easily through dedicated prayer (especially to Mother Mary, and Saint Philomena and Saint Maria Goretti, patronesses of purity), frequent reception of the sacraments (Reconciliation and the Eucharist), and having an accountability partner (this is where X3watch comes in).

We will be praying for you, or whomever on behalf of you’re sending this message!

-Olivier

Yes, we do. As long as they are cognizant (have an eternal soul) and want to be baptised, then we baptise, catechise, and minister sacraments to them!

Brother Guy Consolmagno, from the Vatican’s astronomical observatory, says more in these articles. 

(Ignore the part where it says “The discovery of aliens would raise huge theological problems for the Roman Catholic church that would make the debate over women priests, clerical abstinence and contraception pale into insignificance.” I don’t see what “theological problems” there are, and it’s funny that they didn’t point any of them out…)

Pax vobiscum!

-Olivier

I don’t think it’s so much an outright rejection as it is just a lack of knowledge. Even Jesus’s disciples didn’t understand the teaching, because it is a very difficult teaching to understand. 

I think somewhere in time people weren’t taught well enough what the Eucharist is, or maybe they forgot. I personally never really believed in the true presence of the Eucharist until I was about 16 or 17 (I’m currently 19). The only reason I began to believe is because God ignited a desire in me to know Him so I searched for Him and learned from a talk on a disc that the Eucharist is not a symbol. Had it not been for my own effort to seek the Truth, who knows when or if I would have believed in it. 

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t blame the Church, it’s not their fault. But I do think in light of the growing trend, the Church should try and do something about it. Maybe not the whole Universal Church, but individual Parishes should address the situation in their community. Thank God we have people like Scott Hahn and Matthew Kelly who have devoted their lives to bringing lukewarm Catholics back to the Church. 

Being Catholic vs. Being in Communion with the Catholic Church

There’s a lot of talk about this issue on Tumblr today, so I thought I’d post Fr. Shane’s commentary on the issue:

What makes us Christians is Baptism. It’s the only way that we can draw a clear black/white line between who is or who isn’t Christian.

But things get blurrier after that. Vatican II’s Lumen Gentium talks in terms of communion: You’re in “communion” with the Church in differing degrees. If you read #14-15 of that document, you’ll see how the different intensities of communion are described for Catholics living in grace, Catholics in a state of grave sin, catechumens who desire to be united to the Church, Orthodox, Protestants, and even those who aren’t yet Christian.

Let’s look at the “Catholic” part:

The bonds which bind men to the Church in a visible way are profession of faith, the sacraments, and ecclesiastical government and communion.

So if any of us choose to disagree about an element of our profession of faith, our communion with Christ’s Church is imperfect; it’s not what it should be, and it’s not what God desires for us. Ultimately, of course, it’s not really about our “opinions,” but about God’s will for us. Our attitude with our Heavenly Father has to be one of desiring ever more to fulfill his will, and seeking that our desires be aligned with his more than the other way around.

So the question about becoming a nun is a complicated one for you right now. If you don’t feel that you’re ready for that full communion yet, it’s probably better to take some time to reflect on it. Don’t assume that your views are immutable; we’re never that “calcified.” I’ve found, for example, that a lot of my views have changed during my own faith journey, hopefully for the best.

God bless you!

- Father Shane

Praise God! In order to return to full communion all that’s necessary is to go to Confession. It would help if you scheduled one by calling your local parish priest; that way you wouldn’t be restricted by time restraints. Then, lead a regular sacramental life!

Be holy! Be happy!

- Phillip

Excellent question! Sorry for taking so long to answer it.

Christopher West provides a more accurate English translation than what we usually render “hardness of heart” in his book Theology of the Body Explained:

In the Hebrew, what we translate “hardness of heart” actually meant “non-circumcision of the heart.” Since circumcision was the sign of the Old Covenant, John Paul notes later in his catechism that non-circumcision meant “distance from the covenant with God” and “expressed indomitable obstinacy in opposing God” (TOB 34, n. 47).

Knowing this, we can suppose that one can harden their heart by sinning and not seeking repentance, by not following the will of God, and by ignoring God’s moral law written on their heart.

St. Augustine said, “You have made us for Yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.” We all want to be happy and we all want to calm that restlessness of our hearts. So we fill ourselves up with worldly pleasure, and money, and honor, and material goods, but we find that these things can never finally satisfy us. Only God, as St. Augustine said, will give us perfect rest.

You asked how you can tell if you have a hardened heart? Look within yourself, and ask yourself honestly: are you pursuing God or are you pursuing those things that will not make you happy?

Finally, the hardened heart is cured through perseverance in prayer and frequent reception of the Sacraments, especially Confession and the Eucharist.

I hope this helped. Be holy! Be happy!

- Phillip

Confirmation and baptism make an ontological change in a person’s soul which permanently marks them as Christ’s, forever “ordered towards God.” So in one sense, yes, you will always be Catholic.

However, it is equally accurate to say that someone who rejects the teachings of the Church and does not live as a Catholic is not, in fact, Catholic. The sacraments, including baptism and confirmation, are gifts from God; living them is our gift back to God; both are needed to be “fully Catholic.”

It is completely possible to “be Catholic” in one way but not another, as the many who have fallen away from the faith show.

I wouldn’t worry about it (not that you are necessarily)—if you don’t believe what the Church teaches, then there’s no need to believe that your soul, if you believe you have one, has been so affected.

Hope that clarifies! God bless you.

P.S. Should you ever decide to come back to the Church, it’s as simple as going to the Sacrament of Confession. God is always ready to forgive and rejoices at the return of every sinner. That’s why He established His Church.