(October 4, 2022 at 11:58 am)arewethereyet Wrote:(October 4, 2022 at 7:34 am)Jehanne Wrote: That is not what Catholic theology teaches, not in the slightest. In Protestant Christian theology, one has neo-Calvinism ("Onced Saved, Always Saved") versus Arminianism, which believes that an individual, once saved, can lose his/her salvation.
The Church makes a distinction between venial versus mortal sins, and the simple act of confessing one's sins does not necessarily remit those sins.
Going to confession and doing the assigned penance is the get out hell free card. The key there is that you have to do the penance...ours was typically something along the lines of saying an Our Father, a few Hail Marys, and an Act of Contrition.
And yes, there is a distinction in the 'level' of sin. The worse the sin, the more you have to pray.
Of course, it helps to have received all the sacraments along the way.
It's difficult to know what the Church teaches these days, and I cannot help wonder why anyone, myself included, would even care. In any case, the official teaching is as follows, from the Catechism of the Catholic Church (2nd edition -- Ha!!):
1456 Confession to a priest is an essential part of the sacrament of Penance: "All mortal sins of which penitents after a diligent self-examination are conscious must be recounted by them in confession, even if they are most secret and have been committed against the last two precepts of the Decalogue; for these sins sometimes wound the soul more grievously and are more dangerous than those which are committed openly."
