Penance and Reconciliation

Choose an option and you are told at once whether it was right. The answer and the reason wait behind “Show the answer”.

A watercolor of a lamb praying with closed eyes at a latticed confessional screen, a lamb priest in a purple stole beside it, and an open door full of light

In the sacrament of Penance, who is it that forgives sins?
1. The priest forgives by a power that belongs to him
2. Being sorry in your heart is all it takes; the priest is only a counselor who listens
3. God is the one who forgives, and the priest hands that forgiveness on through the ministry Christ entrusted to the Church
4. The gathered community decides to take the person back
Show the answer
Answer ③ God is the one who forgives, and the priest hands that forgiveness on through the ministry Christ entrusted to the Church
Forgiving sin belongs to God alone. But Christ entrusted that forgiveness to the apostles and to those who follow them in apostolic succession, so the priest is an instrument passing on a forgiveness that is not his own. The first choice makes the priest the owner of forgiveness; the second reduces the sacrament to a counseling session.
Catechism of the Catholic Church 1441-1442, 1461
Penance is the sacrament Christ instituted so that sins committed after baptism could be forgiven.
1. Yes
2. No
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Answer ① Yes
Yes. Baptism washes sin away, but it does not carry human weakness off with it. So this sacrament was given for those who fall again after baptism.
Catechism of the Catholic Church 1425-1426, 1446
What are the three acts of the penitent in the sacrament of Penance?
1. Contrition, confession and satisfaction
2. Prayer, fasting and almsgiving
3. Self-examination, resolution and service
4. Silence, meditation and an offering
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Answer ① Contrition, confession and satisfaction
Being sorry, saying it out loud, and putting right what went wrong — those three steps are the penitent's part, and the priest's absolution is added to them to make the sacrament. The second choice names penitential practices the Church has kept for centuries, but they are not the acts that make up the sacrament, which is exactly what makes it the most convincing wrong answer.
Catechism of the Catholic Church 1434, 1450
What has to be present for a wrong to be a mortal sin?
1. Whether other people found out, whether it was done often, whether the person failed to repent
2. Whether the matter is grave, whether it was done in full knowledge that it was sinful, whether it was consented to freely
3. Whether it weighs heavily on you, whether it harmed somebody, whether it broke the civil law
4. Whether it was confessed, whether satisfaction was made, whether it was never repeated
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Answer ② Whether the matter is grave, whether it was done in full knowledge that it was sinful, whether it was consented to freely
Grave matter, full knowledge and deliberate consent have to be there together before a sin is mortal. So it is not measured by how badly you feel about it, or by whether anyone else knows. Leave that standard blurred and you will either condemn yourself recklessly or wave everything off as nothing much.
Catechism of the Catholic Church 1857-1859
Which of these is true of “perfect contrition”, which rises out of love, and “imperfect contrition”, which rises out of fear of punishment?
1. Sorrow that comes out of fear is a fault in itself, so it is worth nothing
2. With perfect contrition there is no need to go to confession, even after a mortal sin
3. The two are really the same thing and only the names differ
4. Imperfect contrition is also a prompting given by the Holy Spirit, and it is the beginning that carries a person toward the sacrament
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Answer ④ Imperfect contrition is also a prompting given by the Holy Spirit, and it is the beginning that carries a person toward the sacrament
Sorrow that starts in fear of punishment is a gift of God too: it does not take mortal sin away by itself, but it brings a person as far as the confessional. Perfect contrition does obtain forgiveness even of mortal sins, though only when it carries with it the resolve to confess as soon as possible — which is why the second choice is half right and no more.
Catechism of the Catholic Church 1452-1453
Someone with no grave sin to confess cannot go to the sacrament of Penance.
1. Yes
2. No
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Answer ② No
No. Confessing venial sins is not required, but the Church strongly recommends it. Small faults left unrepented pile up, the conscience grows blunt, and the road toward grave sin opens.
Catechism of the Catholic Church 1458, 1863
What has to be confessed in the sacrament of Penance?
1. Of the sins you remember, it is enough to pick out the ones that are easy to say
2. You have to name the people who sinned along with you
3. You have to go through every sin of your past life again with nothing left out, including what you have already confessed
4. You have to confess every mortal sin you can remember after examining your conscience, and confessing venial sins is recommended as well
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Answer ④ You have to confess every mortal sin you can remember after examining your conscience, and confessing venial sins is recommended as well
A sin forgotten after an honest examination is still gathered up in God's mercy; a mortal sin deliberately hidden out of shame is not. It is like a wound you will not show the doctor — the medicine cannot reach what is kept hidden. Take the third choice, that everything must be told over again with nothing left out, and the sacrament turns into an ordeal to be dreaded.
Catechism of the Catholic Church 1456, 1493
Someone who knows they have committed a mortal sin may receive Communion without going to confession first.
1. Yes
2. No
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Answer ② No
No. Anyone conscious of grave sin goes to the sacrament of Penance for absolution first, and only then receives the Eucharist. An exception is allowed only where there is a serious reason and no opportunity whatever to confess, and then on condition of perfect contrition and the resolve to confess as soon as one can. The Church's rule that we confess at least once a year comes from the same care.
Catechism of the Catholic Church 1385, 1457
What is the penance the priest gives?
1. A remedy that heals what the sin damaged and trains you in the steps of a new life, accomplished with the help of Christ's grace
2. The price we pay to settle God's anger
3. A kind of fine the priest fixes according to the size of the fault
4. The condition that has to be completed before the sin is forgiven at all
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Answer ① A remedy that heals what the sin damaged and trains you in the steps of a new life, accomplished with the help of Christ's grace
The sin is already forgiven by the words of absolution, and the penance is the work of setting right what the sin knocked over. What was stolen is given back; a good name that was torn down has to be restored. Read it as a price or a fine, as the second and third choices do, and the sacrament turns into a transaction; the fourth pushes the moment of forgiveness back behind the penance.
Catechism of the Catholic Church 1459-1460
Which of these is true of the secrecy a priest keeps about what he hears in confession?
1. He may disclose it if it concerns a serious crime
2. There is no exception in any case at all, and he may not put what he learned to use in any way
3. As a rule he keeps it unless the penitent permits otherwise, but it can be settled differently as circumstances require
4. With another priest he may name whose case it is and talk it over
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Answer ② There is no exception in any case at all, and he may not put what he learned to use in any way
The seal of confession admits no exception. A priest may not repeat what he heard, and he may not even let what he knows shape his own judgments or the way he behaves. Cut a single hole for “circumstances”, as the first and third choices do, and nobody will ever confess with an easy mind again.
Catechism of the Catholic Church 1467, 2490
An indulgence remits the temporal punishment still remaining for sins that have already been forgiven.
1. Yes
2. No
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Answer ① Yes
Yes. Even after the guilt is forgiven, the attachments soaked into the heart and the traces the sin left behind remain. That part still waiting to be purified is what temporal punishment means. An indulgence is neither a permit that turns a blind eye in advance to sins not yet committed nor an exemption bought with money.
Catechism of the Catholic Church 1471-1473
Which of these best describes what the sacrament of Penance brings about?
1. Reconciliation with God and nothing else; how we stand with other people has nothing to do with the sacrament
2. It also makes the consequences the sin left in the world as though they had never happened
3. It reconciles us with God and restores the communion with the Church that sin had wounded
4. Its main purpose is the comfort of getting a weight off your mind
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Answer ③ It reconciles us with God and restores the communion with the Church that sin had wounded
Sin wounds not only God but the body of the Church, so forgiveness accomplishes both reconciliations together. That is why the priest absolves not only in God's name but in the name of the Church as well. If, as the second choice has it, the consequences were wiped away too, there would be nowhere left for penance to stand; the fourth shrinks the sacrament down to a question of how you feel.
Catechism of the Catholic Church 1443-1445, 1468-1469