Chapter I. On Contrition

440. Contrition is sorrow of soul and detestation ¹ for a sin committed, with the purpose of not sinning henceforth. Thus the Council of Trent, sess. 14, ch. 4.

¹ The Doctors dispute, as can be seen in St. Alphonsus (bk. 6, no. 435), whether contrition consists in sorrow or in detestation, and what order obtains between these two. But this matters little; nor is it to be feared that either one will be absent. For they mutually presuppose one another, and one is necessarily joined to the other. For, as St. Alphonsus says, he who detests his sin, that is, would wish that he had not sinned, necessarily grieves over it; and, in turn, he who grieves over a sin necessarily detests it. Moreover, detestation appears to extend more widely than sorrow. For sorrow properly can be referred to sins committed by oneself, whereas detestation can be referred to one's own sins and those of others, and both to past and to future sins.

The detestation of sin, in which contrition principally consists, regards the past; but the purpose is concerned with the future. This definition abstracts from the new law, under which contrition can have no efficacy without the desire of confession. The same Council of Trent adds a little below: with the desire of performing the remaining things ... which are required for rightly receiving this Sacrament (of Penance). Hence the definition of St. Thomas, Supplement, q. 1, art. 1, agrees: Sorrow undertaken for sins, with the purpose of confessing and making satisfaction.

Hence we must speak: 1. of contrition strictly so called; 2. of the purpose.