Rev. Mueller on Protestants and confession

 

§ 10. S. O. on Confession

 

He continues to quote from our Explanation of Christian Doctrine, dishonestly suppressing five questions and answers that are in immediate connection with those he quotes, namely:

"Q. Are Protestants willing to confess their sins to a bishop or priest, who alone has from Christ power to forgive sins? ‘Whose sins you shall forgive they are forgiven them.’ 

Ans. No, for they generally have an utter aversion to confession, and therefore their sins will not be forgiven them throughout all eternity. 

Q. What follows from this? Ans. That they die in their sins and are damned."

"To which I, S. O., say that, as long as Protestants honestly believe, (and we have no right to question their honesty in the matter,) that God has not appointed priestly absolution as the outward and visible sacramental sign and instrument of His forgiveness to the truly penitent sinner, it is not at all strange that they are unwilling to confess their sins to a priest or seek his absolution. When they are instructed to know, and by God's grace led to believe, that the Catholic religion is the true religion of Christ, they will, be just as willing to go to confession as we Catholics are, and will have no more aversion to it than we have."

You see, S. O. never states clearly and precisely any point in question. He speaks here of those Protestants who honestly believe that they have not to go to confession to obtain forgiveness. We suppose he means those who live in inculpable ignorance of the divine law of confession. But such inculpable ignorance, as we have clearly proved, is no means to obtain the forgiveness of their sins. "And we have no right," he says, “to question their honesty." Alas! Tell Protestants that they can be good Catholics without confessing their sins, and there will be thousands and thousands of them whose honesty we need not question.

But have we no right, no duty, to instruct those honest Protestants and heathens and show them the true road to heaven? 

Why, then, did St. Francis de Sales and so many other holy priests expose their lives so often to reclaim honest Protestants from their heresy and bring them back to the true Church?

As to those Protestants who have been instructed in our religion and are willing to confess their sins, they no longer belong to the number of those who are in question.

He continues his answer. "But who told this explainer of Christian doctrine (the Rev. M. Muller) that no sinner will be forgiven throughout all eternity, or that he will die in his sins and be damned, if he has not confessed those sins to a priest and received his absolution? That is not Catholic Christian doctrine, and he had no right to say it is, or to write in such a manner as to be so understood."

Here, you see, S. O. wants to know where we learned the divine law of confession. Well, we learned it from the infallible teaching of the Catholic Church, from Holy Scripture, from the Fathers and Doctors of the Church. Strange, that S. O. does not know what every Catholic school-boy knows. He must have learned a bad catechism. But, in the name of common sense, where did S. O. learn that every sinner, especially every Protestant sinner, will be forgiven throughout all eternity, or that he will not die in his sins, though he is not willing to confess his sins to a Catholic priest? 

He says that "to assert that no baptized sinner will be forgiven unless he is willing to go to confession is no Catholic Christian doctrine; that we had no right to say it is, or to write in such a manner as to be so understood." Now this assertion of Sir Oracle is quite heretical, because it is an article of faith, declared by the Council of Trent, that the sacrament of penance is as necessary for the salvation of those who have fallen into mortal sin after baptism, as baptism is for those who have not received spiritual regeneration. Sir Oracle's assertion, therefore, is directly opposed to the divine law of confession, which must be complied with in reality, if possible, or at least in true implicit desire, if confession is impossible.

S. O. is rather incorrect in stating all the conditions of forgiveness which God has made for those who after baptism, have committed grievous sins. “These conditions," he says, “are the three following: A sincere sorrow for sins, a firm purpose of sinning no more, and, under ordinary circumstances, an honest, humble confession to God's appointed ministers."

This is not a full statement of the conditions of forgiveness. We will give them, as every school-boy knows them who has learned a good catechism:—

I. Contrition, or sorrow, which is good only:

1. When it is interior, or sorrow from the heart or will;
2. When it is sovereign, or sorrow above all other sorrows;
3. When it is universal, or sorrow at least for all our mortal sins;
4. When it is supernatural, or sorrow for having offended God, joined with the hope of pardon.

There are three kinds of contrition:—

1. Perfect contrition, or sorrow for sin on account of the injury offered to God's goodness;
2. Imperfect contrition, or sorrow for sin on account of the injury done to our souls, which, by offending God, lose heaven, and deserve hell;
3. Natural contrition, or sorrow for sin on account of the injury done to our temporal welfare.

The effects of sorrow are:—

1. Perfect contrition, as an act of perfect love of God, joined with the desire of confessing our sins, cancels them before confession;
2. Imperfect contrition disposes us to receive the grace of God in the sacrament of Penance;
3. Natural contrition cannot dispose us to receive the grace of God by absolution, because it is a sorrow, not for offending God, but only for temporal injury.

II. Purpose of amendment is a firm resolution, by the grace of God:—

1. To avoid all mortal sins, and the proximate occasions of sin;
2. To make use of the necessary means of amendment;
3. To make due satisfaction for our sins;
4. To repair, whatever injury we way have done to our neighbor.

III. Confession, which is good only:—

1. When it is entire, or a confession of at least all our mortal sins, with the necessary circumstances;
2. When it is sincere, or a confession of sins without concealing or excusing them.

He who is in danger of death and cannot make his confession, must earnestly wish to confess his sins to the priest, and try to be very sorry for having offended so good a God.

This last point S. O. has omitted, and yet the sincere (at least implicit) desire to confess his sins is as necessary for him who is not able to confess them, as real confession is for him who is able to make it, in order to obtain forgiveness.

"But to say or imply," continues S. O., “that every Catholic who dies without having been able to confess his sins to a priest is therefore damned for all eternity, is nonsense." Did S. O. dream that we or any Catholic ever said such nonsense? Why then does he mention such nonsense?