Integral Confession

Individual and integral confession with absolution is the only ordinary means by which a baptized person conscious of grave sin is reconciled with God and the Church. The penitent must confess all grave sins committed after Baptism that have not already been directly remitted through the keys or acknowledged in an individual confession, insofar as they are known after diligent examination of conscience.^[1]

Grave sins are confessed in kind and number. Circumstances must also be mentioned when they change the moral kind of an act. The obligation is to make an honest and reasonably diligent confession, not to achieve impossible mathematical certainty or to recount irrelevant detail. Confession of venial sins is not strictly necessary for integrity but is earnestly recommended.

Deliberately withholding a known grave sin contradicts the very act of submitting one's sins to Christ's mercy and renders the confession invalid and sacrilegious. Shame does not excuse concealment; the sacramental seal is inviolable, and the confessor is bound to act as both judge and physician with prudence and fidelity to the Church.

A grave sin forgotten without fault does not prevent a sincere absolution from reconciling the penitent. When it is later remembered, it should be confessed in the next confession because it remains subject to the Church's keys. This is different from repeating already absolved sins out of a fear that a valid confession somehow failed to forgive them.

Physical or moral impossibility can excuse individual and integral confession for as long as the impossibility lasts. General absolution is lawful only in danger of death or another grave necessity judged according to canon law; ordinary large attendance at a feast or pilgrimage is not by itself sufficient.^[2]

For valid reception of general absolution, the faithful must be suitably disposed and intend to confess individually, in due time, the grave sins they cannot then confess. Integrity therefore remains the norm even when an exceptional form of absolution is necessary. Contrition and a purpose of amendment are also essential acts of the penitent; disclosure alone is not repentance.^[3]