Confessing by Kind and Number?

Today on Catholic Answers Live a caller said that his priest was discouraging from confessing his mortal sins by number because this was a “pre-Vatican II” thing.

I assured him that it was not and that I would follow up on the blog with a post-Vatican II, authoritative source, so here goes.

From the Code of Canon Law (CIC 1983):

Can.  988 §1. A member of the Christian faithful is obliged to confess in kind and number all grave sins committed after baptism and not yet remitted directly through the keys of the Church nor acknowledged in individual confession, of which the person has knowledge after diligent examination of conscience.

§2. It is recommended to the Christian faithful that they also confess venial sins.

So there you have it.

Kind and number.

Obviously, there are exceptions to this requirement. For example, if you don’t know how many times a sin was committed then do the best you can in giving an idea (e.g., “I think this happened around X number of times” or “Since my last confession I think I did this about once/twice/etc. a [time period]”).

In some cases–for example, when trying to provide an estimate would itself stir up temptation (e.g., the temptation to have impure or blasphemous thoughts)–then the need to confess number is removed.

However, barring an extenuating circumstance, it is necessary to confess mortal sins by both kind and number to the best of one’s reasonable ability.

Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."