Thursday, October 11, 2007

The Second Precept of the Church

Kathy and I noted an apparent discrepancy between the CCC and the CIC.

In the CCC it say:
2042: The second precept ("You shall confess your sins at least once a year.") ensures preparation for the Eucharist by the reception of the sacrament of reconciliation, which continues Baptism's work of conversion and forgiveness.83

In the CIC it says:

Can. 989 All the faithful who have reached the age of discretion are bound faithfully to confess their grave sins at least once a year.

Kathy grew up with the first version and therefore thought the obligation was absolute. But the CIC says only grave sins must be confessed once a year, which is the way I learned it and have always taught it. I think the CCC should match the CIC on this. Interestingly, the footnote in the CCC cites the CIC canon 989!

1 comment:

Joe said...

Perhaps it is an oversight in the catechism? On a related note, I met with my priest yesterday and we discussed many things. One topic we discussed was confession and communion. Many of the folks from the "old world," especially the Greeks and Arabs were taught that they had to confess and commune at least once a year. They took this to mean that they should only commune once a year and go up for confession once a year. Interesting and strange, but many of them do not confess sins, they just come up for the prayer. Apparently this can be frustrating for parish priests. This does not seem to be the case with younger Orthodox though, only those over 60.