Minneapolis, Minn., Nov 30, 2008 / 02:05 am
In a recent series of teachings on the Sacrament of Reconciliation, Archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis John C. Nienstedt discussed how sin affects our relationship with God and related his personal experience as a confessor of 13 years.
Justifying the Catholic practice of Penance, he described confession from a priest’s point of view and also warned against the abuse of General Absolution.
“From the very beginning of his public ministry, then, Jesus calls all men and women to conversion from sin,” the archbishop wrote in the November 5 issue of the Catholic Spirit.
He then cited paragraphs 386-387 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which note that without Revelation “we cannot recognize sin clearly” and that we try to explain it as “merely a developmental flaw, a psychological weakness, a mistake, or the necessary consequence of an inadequate social structure.”