Thank you,
I’d also like to ask you if you could write me everything that the catholic religion mentions for saving your soul. This is very important to me, like the scapular of S.Simeon which I wear, and of the utmost importance is knowing whether I can remotely confess with you, because right now I can’t go to the Church and I would like to do a full confession which includes very grave sins.
Thank you so much.
Mario

Priest’s answer

Dear Friend,
1. The essentials for salvation consist in obeying the commandments and receiving the sacraments.
Nothing more.

2. For the commandments it applies what you read in the Gospel: to a person who asked the Lord what he should do to enter into eternal life, Jesus answered: “If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.” (Mt 19,17).
Within the commandments is held everything we are called to.
Obeying the commandments is essential for the salvation of everyone, including non-Christians.

3. For all the sacraments it applies what Jesus said about baptism, which is the door to all the other sacraments. “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved ” (Mc 16,16).
They are all sacraments of salvation: each is necessary in its own way to draw upon it, to recover it, to increase it, and to bestow it.

4. There are other important practices too, like the one you mentioned: the scapular of Saint Simeon, best known as the carmelitan scapolar.
Those are precious because they invite you to obey the commandments, to practice the sacraments and to increase your sanctity.
Along these lines, we also find other devotional items such as the Holy Rosary, the so-called Miraculous Medal, the crucifix of St. Benedict…
Though, it is necessary to remind that those practices pertain to what is defined as popular piety, which is important, but that can’t be put on the same level as the sacraments and the liturgy of the Church.

5. The sacraments are, in fact, sanctifying in themselves because they impart grace.
All other practices do not replace the observance of the commandments and the celebration of the sacraments.

6. On the importance of the practices pertaining to the popular piety, there is a beautiful page on the Directory on popular piety and the liturgy from the Congregation for divine worship and the discipline of the sacraments.
It reads:  “The Magisterium also highlights the importance of popular piety for the faith-life of the People of God, for the conservation of the faith itself and in inspiring new efforts at evangelization.
It is impossible to overlook “those devotions practised in certain regions by the faithful with fervour and a moving purity of intention”; that authentic popular piety “in virtue of its essentially Catholic roots, is an antidote to the sects and a guarantee of fidelity to the message of salvation”; that popular piety has been a providential means of preserving the faith in situations where Christians have been deprived of pastoral care; that in areas in which evangelization has been deficient, “the people for the most part express their faith primarily through popular piety”; that popular piety is an important and indispensable “starting point in deepening the faith of the people and in bringing it to maturity”” (n. 64)

7. Regarding the online confession with me, the confession without physical presence is impossible.
On March 20 2020 – in the most crucial time of the coronavirus pandemic – bishop Krzysztof Nykiel, Regent of the Apostolic Penitentiary, answers this question: “In this emergency situation, can the telephone or email be considered, in exceptional cases, suitable means for confession? “Is it possible, in some cases, to go to confession without the mediation of a priest, inwardly and directly with the Lord?” He replied as follows: “Sacramental Confession cannot take place by telephone, email, or other means of communication for reasons related to the protection of the sacramental seal. Above all, the physical presence of the penitent is required.”
Through these means of communication, however, the priest may offer useful spiritual guidance to the faithful, console them, or renew their hope, but he cannot grant sacramental absolution.
As for the possibility of making an interior confession, without the involvement of a priest, the Church has always affirmed that the individual and complete confession of sins, accompanied by an equally individual absolution, constitutes the only ordinary means by which the faithful, aware of having committed a grave sin, are reconciled with God and with the Church. (Reconciliatio et paenitentia, 33).

I wish you all the best for the holiday season; I send you my blessings and keep you in my prayers.

Father Angelo

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