Case 11. Full and Specific Confession

Titius, a confessor, notices that some penitents do not sufficiently distinguish the different species of sins when they confess fornication although they ought to say adultery. Hence, when he hears the confessions of adults who confess fornication, he is accustomed to ask whether they are joined in marriage; nevertheless, he remains uncertain whether or not he ought to ask whether they are betrothed, for if betrothed persons sin with someone other than the betrothed, they violate the fidelity of betrothal, which obliges from justice. Titius is likewise uncertain whether he ought to ask those confessing incest about the degree of consanguinity or affinity. To furnish Titius with some light, it is asked:

1. Whence is the specific distinction of sins derived?

2. What circumstances must necessarily be expressed in confession?

3. What is to be said of the case?

1. Whence is the specific distinction of sins derived?

Sins are specifically distinct when their formal objects are specifically different, or when they are opposed to specifically distinct virtues, or when they are transgressions of formally distinct laws.¹

2. What circumstances must necessarily be mentioned in confession?

Those circumstances which change the moral or theological species of the sin must be mentioned in confession. There is a controversy among divines as to whether circumstances which notably increase or diminish the malice of a sin, but which do not change its nature, should be mentioned in confession. The negative opinion is probable and safe.¹

1 Manual of Moral Theology, vol. ii, 165.

3. The case. If Titius has learned by experience that in a certain place penitents do not sufficiently distinguish between adultery and fornication, he does well in general to ask those who confess fornication whether they are married. He will not be obliged to put this question in every case of such a sin being confessed; without doubt the confessions of some penitents will be so minute and descend to particulars in such a way that he will be able to rely on the theological accuracy of the terms which they use. There is no necessity for Titius to ask those penitents who confess fornication and deny that they are married whether they are betrothed. Some theologians, it is true, teach that the circumstance of betrothal changes the species of a sin of fornication committed with another woman, but others deny it, on the ground that betrothal is only a promise to give marital rights; it does not actually give them.

Titius should not ask questions about the degree or kind of relationship when incest is confessed, for it is probable that incest committed with any relation is of the same species, unless it is committed with a relation of the first degree of consanguinity in the direct line, and as this sin is very rare and asking about it might give scandal to the penitent, the confessor should not ask about it, unless in a particular case he has good reason to suspect that in fact such a sin was committed.