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    Fr. Joseph Jenkins

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Forgiveness after Fornication

downloadQuestion

Does God really forgive fornication? I cannot believe that I went all the way with it.  I have repented and brought it to Confession, but I am still deeply troubled.  I cannot forgive myself.  I have many difficult thoughts about going to hell.

Response

You should not question the efficacy of the sacrament of Penance and the priest’s absolution. If we come to the Lord with contrite hearts then we are disposed to divine mercy. Christ can forgive anything. If almighty God can forgive us our sins, then who are we to doubt his power and not to forgive ourselves?

2 Responses

  1. What you say is quite right. But the immediate question I answered was whether God can forgive such sins? God can forgive anything. We need to know this, even if the process of healing can take some time.

  2. Father Joe, I offer, as one who has struggled similarly from the male point of view, only that the temporal effects of carnal sin, sense impressions indelibly graved in memory, recognized as an irreversible loss of physical purity, especially traumatizing in the heart of a woman, can be slow to conform to the spiritual reality of absolution. The loss generally needs to be grieved in the embrace of Holy Mother Church.

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