Appendix II. On General Confession

A general confession is a repetition of several confessions. It can be a repetition of the confessions of one's whole life, or of some period, for example, of one year or of several years. Briefly, it must be said: 1. concerning the necessity or suitability of general confession; 2. concerning the method of making it.

A general confession can be either necessary, or useful only, or useless, or even harmful. Hence the following rules must be established.

517. First Rule. A general confession is to be judged necessary whenever the preceding confessions were morally certain to have been invalid or sacrilegious, either on the part of the penitent because of a defect of contrition or integrity, or on the part of the Confessor lacking jurisdiction; but in other cases it can never be prescribed. The reason for each is evident from what was said above concerning the repetition of confession.

Second Rule. It can be counseled when, although the invalidity of the preceding confessions is not established, nevertheless a grave doubt concerning this can be had ¹.

¹ The end of this counsel is not that eternal salvation be provided for, but that anxieties which are enemies of the peace of souls, diminish vigor in the exercise of good works, and especially bring troublesome distress at the point of death, may be removed.

Third Rule. A general confession, although not necessary, is to be permitted, or even prudently counseled, when, after the circumstances have been considered, the penitent will obtain notable spiritual fruit from it, for example, by reason of humility, devotion, fervor, knowledge of himself, manifestation of conscience for more perfect direction, or greater purity of soul, for obtaining divine helps more efficaciously, etc. ²; because the Confessor ought, from charity, to promote the greater spiritual good of the penitent when he can easily do so.

² You have the principal fruits excellently expressed in the third meditation of the first week of the Exercises of St. Ignatius, namely: 1. that we may feel an intimate knowledge and detestation of our crimes; 2. that, recognizing and abhorring the perverse order of our past life, we may apply ourselves to our amendment; 3. that, having inspected the wickedness and frauds of our enemies, we may guard ourselves against them.

Fourth Rule. In other cases it is to be prohibited as useless, and even harmful, when other inconveniences besides a loss of time are prudently to be feared, namely, scruples, anxieties, disturbance of conscience, etc.; for if so great a burden for the Confessor and penitent is not to be undertaken without hope of notable fruit, much less is it to be undertaken with fear of notable harm.

518. Resolutions. - 1. A general confession is readily to be permitted, indeed counseled, at the principal epochs of the Christian life, namely, before first Communion, before the choice or assumption of a particular state of life, for example, before the Priesthood, religious Profession, or even before matrimony; likewise when someone resolves to lead a more perfect life.

2. Besides the confession made at the time of first Communion, generally speaking, another general confession of one's whole life is readily to be permitted; but a second would be conceded only with the greatest difficulty when the former was made sufficiently accurately, in good faith, and with good will, unless perhaps it was made at a youthful age, for example, before twenty years of age. Hence penitents who ask the Confessor for permission to make a general confession are to be asked for what cause they request it, whether they have already confessed generally at another time, from what time, and how often; and from the replies the Confessor will judge whether this confession is expedient or not.

3. A partial general confession, namely, of one year, or from the time of the last general confession, according to the custom observed among most religious families, is readily to be permitted to devout persons. Likewise, pious penitents can sometimes be permitted to repeat summarily, in a few words, the principal sins of their life; nevertheless, attend to the various circumstances of persons.

4. Above all, however, Confessors ought to beware lest they compel penitents too readily to a general confession; and those are greatly to be rebuked who exact this from all new penitents under the pretext of necessity, or by reason of direction, etc. ³.

³ Confessors of this kind plainly show themselves destitute of judgment when they indiscriminately enjoin a general confession upon all who, by ill fortune, approach them; nor do they understand that the consciences of penitents are thereby sometimes most gravely disturbed, and that scandal is not rarely given to them, just as though Confessors, abusing the sacred ministry, were to exact without cause, with grave burden and trouble to penitents, a narration of their whole life in order to satisfy their own curiosity.

5. A general confession is not to be permitted even when there is doubt concerning the validity of preceding confessions, where notable inconveniences are to be feared from it by reason of scruples, disturbance of conscience, etc.; because grave and certain inconveniences are not to be undergone on account of a doubtful obligation.

6. A general confession is never to be permitted to the scrupulous or fearful; because if one is permitted, as soon as this is completed, they will wish to make another, and after the second they will also ask with importunate entreaties to undertake a third, with the greatest detriment to the soul, etc. For it is established by experience that a general confession generates many more scruples than it destroys.

A general confession can be made in many ways; but, generally speaking, it will be more expedient if it is made according to the following rules.

519. • First Rule. Before confession: the Confessor ought to endeavor to know explicitly the state of the penitent and the various circumstances from which he can be directed toward questioning prudently and fruitfully. Hence:

1. Let him examine whether there is question of a necessary confession or not; for if it is necessary, the penitent will have to be heard, questioned, and assisted with much greater diligence and care. But if it is not necessary, the penitent must be warned expressly: 1. that diligence of this kind is not required, indeed that he is free to withhold whatever sins he wishes; 2. that he ought not afterward to be anxious because through forgetfulness he omitted more or fewer of them ⁴.

⁴ Unless the penitent has been firmly persuaded of these two things, it is better to omit the general confession, which certainly would produce no fruit and, on the contrary, would be a perpetual fountain of anxieties.

2. Let him inquire prudently concerning the condition of the penitent, his age, occupations or offices, and his family: namely, whether he still has parents, brothers, or sisters; and whether he lives with them or has lived with them for a long time, etc.

3. Let him ask from what time the penitent has confessed; whether he was absolved; whether here and now he is entangled in some evil habit or evil affection of mind; whether he has frequently approached the Sacraments; whether he confessed piously or sacrilegiously; whether he ever concealed sins; at what time; for how long; whether he afterward confessed them, or repeated the sacrilegious confessions.

These preliminary items of knowledge will be of very great service to the Confessor;

he will press these questions more or less according to the character of the one confessing and the nature of the replies. Second Rule. As regards the order of confession: the accusation and questions in the confession itself ought to be made in a definite order, lest all things be mixed together, to the disturbance of the one confessing and with danger of a defect of integrity, etc. But the shorter and easier way is for the declaration of sins to be made according to the order of the commandments of God, of the Church, and of the special obligations of each one's proper state.

Third Rule. As regards the manner of confession: if the penitent is sufficiently instructed, let the Confessor kindly induce him to disclose his sins according to the aforesaid order, promising that he will assist him and, as often as there is need, question him so that all things may be rightly completed.

But if the penitent is uneducated, let the Confessor assume almost the whole burden of the confession himself; let him question him in order concerning all things that penitents of the same condition are accustomed to commit, and after each sin let him inquire from the penitent whether he knows of anything to be added. Before he begins the questions, however, let him carefully admonish the one confessing that he has nothing to fear concerning the difficulty of disclosing his sins: Be at peace and of good courage, he shall say, I shall make your confession; I assuredly know all the sins which you could have committed: I shall disclose all of them to you; your part alone will be to reply clearly and sincerely to my questions and to conceive true sorrow for your sins. - Thus Salvatori, Practical Instruction for New Confessors ⁵.

⁵ There is indicated a wholly excellent little work whose title is: Practical Instruction for New Confessors... A Most Useful Little Work Also for Catechists of Uneducated People, Written by Father Filippo Maria Salvatori, S.J., etc. It was published at Rome about the beginning of this century and afterward reprinted several times, and finally again at Rome by the press of Monaldi in the year 1848. In this last edition, however, through the alteration of one little word, perhaps by a typographical error, a corruption crept in, and indeed in a sufficiently grave matter, plainly repugnant to the meaning of the Author. For where he had written concerning a sinner (Part 2, sec. 1, no. 6): If he is truly penitent and gives PRUDENT signs of this repentance of his, he must be absolved, etc., this new edition substituted (p. 143): If he is truly penitent and gives EVIDENT signs of this repentance of his, etc. This is plainly beside the point. For since evidence adds to certitude that force of light which, as it were, dazzles the eyes of the mind and compels assent, who, I ask, among the Doctors requires it as a prerequisite in order that he may think it lawful for himself to absolve the penitent? Indeed, what certitude, much less evidence, I ask, does the matter itself admit? And the mind of the Author, in this matter assuredly consonant with the most common opinion of all, was manifest from those things which are read a little afterward in the same edition (p. 150): I suppose here that the penitent has given you all the signs by which you can form a PRUDENT judgment that he speaks sincerely. In this case you fail in a duty of justice by deferring absolution for him, because the penitent, as soon as he gives you PRUDENT arguments of a true conversion of heart, has a strict right to be absolved. These things indeed suggest that this corruption of the text is in fact to be ascribed to the ignorance of the typesetters.

It is also to be lamented that this Roman edition was printed neither according to the third Roman edition of the year 1803, which had been enlarged by the Author himself with certain additions of grave importance, nor according to the Novarese edition of the year 1836, which reproduced that Roman edition and added a lucid confirmation from the Encyclical of Leo XII, dated January 8, 1826, but according to the Venetian edition of the year 1803, which lacks these additions; indeed, it even presents this Venetian edition mutilated, namely, with the testimonies of most grave men who commended the little work by their authority omitted. Most of all, however, the omission of the paragraphs which hold the fourth and fifth places in the second part is to be lamented, for they confirm the practice proposed by the Author through the doctrines and examples of the Saints, the unanimous consent of the graver Doctors, and the authority of the Roman Catechism. Therefore, it is to be desired that, if some new edition of this precious little work is to be prepared, which indeed the difficulty of finding any copy of it ought to recommend, it be reproduced not from some mutilated copy, but from an integral and perfect one.