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.
