- Oct 31, 2008
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I like some of the posts I see in r/Catholicism and felt like they're worth reposting here as conversation starters. Here's the OP's question from there:
This is something I think about a lot at Mass. Sometimes I even question my own family's choices to go forward, because they go to confession less often than I do (I don't say that to sound pious, I just have reason to go as often as possible, perhaps they don't). It might be the most important area of catechesis a priest could do from the pulpit since who knows how many people are wrongly coming forward to receive, even just by mistakenly identifying a sin as venial when maybe it's mortal.
I often wonder about this. Before I knew much about Church teaching, I didn’t know you couldn’t receive Holy Communion if you hadn’t been to confession for a mortal sin committed. Because the catechesis is so poor in some places, I’m guessing many Catholics are currently where I was. I even heard one woman say that confession was “Not a thing anymore,” I’m guessing the priests are probably aware of how poor things are, so I wonder if they should be responsible for instructing people about this? 1 Corinthians 11:29 speaks on the importance of discerning before partaking in the Eucharist and the judgement that occurs if not done. I know the majority of people in my parish probably haven’t been to confession in months, maybe years. I’m not trying to judge, it’s just the truth and in some cases may not even be their fault because they just don’t know they have to go. So what do you think, should the priest announce that anyone with a mortal sin cannot partake in communion or not?
This is something I think about a lot at Mass. Sometimes I even question my own family's choices to go forward, because they go to confession less often than I do (I don't say that to sound pious, I just have reason to go as often as possible, perhaps they don't). It might be the most important area of catechesis a priest could do from the pulpit since who knows how many people are wrongly coming forward to receive, even just by mistakenly identifying a sin as venial when maybe it's mortal.