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Reverend Father Angelo,

When confession could be administered to the believer only once in a lifetime, I imagine that it could happen to the believer to fall back into mortal sin. If then he had repented with a sincere heart of his offense against the Lord and had the intention to lead a life in accordance with God’s law, how would he have to act in order to gain access to the sacraments again?

Then the believer of that age, having fallen a second time into mortal sin, although honestly repentant and determined not to sin again, could not have achieved eternal salvation?

And yet, is not the Christian who repents of his guilt and is firmly determined to change his life in an evangelical direction entitled to receive the blotting out of sins? I have always heard the Church teach that the penitent should always be welcomed if repentant with a sincere heart and determined to behave in the future in accordance with God’s commandments.

I cannot understand how the Church could deny confession to a sincerely repentant faithful who thus could not be saved, even though he was in fact ready to be reconciled with God and with her. Are all Christians of that time who have twice relapsed into mortal sin now damned?

I beseech Your blessing and prayer for me, an unworthy sinner, for my family and loved ones, especially during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

Dear friend,

1. If one fell a second time into sins for which public and canonical penance was required, he continued to be a member of the Church.

He sanctified himself by living as a penitent.

Exclusion from the sacraments (confession and Eucharist) was not the same as saying, “You are in mortal sin”.

For grace is not bound to the sacraments (gratia non alligatur sacramentis), even though they are the ordinary means of it and infallibly communicate it if no obstacles are put in its way.

2. It is well understood then that those who could not access the sacraments were not ipso facto excommunicated.

They continued to be members of the Church.

They were saved and sanctified by living in the Church and for the Church, even if they could not receive sacramental absolution and Holy Communion.

3. This is also the solution that some hypothesize for the divorced and remarried who in and of itself cannot receive the sacraments unless they cease to live “as married,” because they are not.

4. For the “divorced and remarried” for whom it is a duty to be together (e.g. because of the children born of the new union or for other causes) and who at the same time do not feel like breaking off the sexual relationship, the path of penance remains.

In this way they “cultivate the spirit and practice of penance and thus implore, day by day, God’s grace” (John Paul II, Familiaris Consortio 84).

5. Similar expressions are read in Reconciliatio et paenitentia: “For all those who are not at the present moment in the objective conditions required by the sacrament of penance, the church’s manifestations of maternal kindness, the support of acts of piety apart from sacramental ones, a sincere effort to maintain contact with the Lord, attendance at Mass and the frequent repetition of acts of faith, hope, charity and sorrow made as perfectly as possible can prepare the way for full reconciliation at the hour that providence alone knows” (RP 34).

6. I believe it is appropriate for the Church to recapture what were once the public ways of penance, which remind everyone, even the so-called “regulars,” that there is a need for penance on the part of all and that holiness is not measured by the number of Holy Communions.

7. It should also not be forgotten that the Sacraments, while necessary and highly sanctifying, are still in the order of means.

Whereas charity, indeed an ever-increasing charity, is the goal of the Christian life.

It is by virtue of charity, which is the life-giving principle of grace, that one is saved.

Sacraments alone, without charity and grace, do not save.

Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to me, «Lord, Lord», will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, «Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? Did we not drive out demons in your name? Did we not do mighty deeds in your name?» Then I will declare to them solemnly, «I never knew you. Depart from me, you evildoers»” (Mt 7:21-23).

8. A public path of penance would force everyone to remain more humble.

If it were established, I am convinced that many so-called regular faithful, while continuing to access the sacraments, would willingly walk it, and it would be for them, and thus for everyone, an ongoing exercise of humility.

I say goodbye to you now, I remember you to the Lord and I bless you.

Father Angelo