PENANCE 157 



not always possible because God alone knows the hearts 

 of men and can judge them infallibly. 12 



b) Confession is formally complete or entire if 

 the penitent tells all the sins he is able to remem- 

 ber and confess, thereby proving his willingness 

 to make a full avowal. 



The obstacles to material integrity are partly physical 

 and partly moral. Physical obstacles are, e. g., deafness 

 or inability to speak, impossibility of finding a confessor 

 who understands one's language, immediate danger of 

 death, inculpable ignorance or forgetfulness. Moral ob- 

 stacles are : extraordinary difficulty, grave spiritual or 

 temporal injury threatening the penitent, the confessor, 

 or a third person ; e. g., the danger of losing one's good 

 name (not, however, before the confessor), serious scan- 

 dal, violation of the seal, etc. Such obstacles dispense 

 from material integrity, provided, of course, it is morally 

 impossible for the penitent to wait or to find another 

 priest to whom he could make a full confession. Phys- 

 ical exertion, crowding of the confessionals, 13 intense 

 shame 14 or the necessity of indirectly revealing an ac- 



12 Acts I, 24; XV, 8; 1 Cor. IV, modi confessionis difficultas ac pec- 

 4. cata detegendi verecundia gravis 



13 The following proposition was quidem videri posset, nisi tot tantis- 

 condemned under Innocent XI: que commodis et consolationibus 

 "Licet sacrament aliter absolvere di- levaretur, quae omnibus digne ad 

 midiate tantum confessos ratione hoc Sacramentum accedentibus per 

 magni concursus poenitentium, qua- absolutionem certissime conferun- 

 lis verbi gratia potest contingere in tur." — Cfr. Gury, Comp. Theol., 

 die magnae alicuius festivitatis aut Mor., II, n. 377: "Nunquam ex- 

 indulgentiae." (Prop. Damnat. sub cusat difficultas ipsi confessioni in- 

 Innoc. XL, prop. 59; Denzinger- trinseca, quantumvis gravis ea sit. 

 Bannwart, n. 1209). Ratio est, quia confessio ex naturi 



14 Cone. Trident., Sess. XIV, De sua est essentialiter laboriosa, ac 

 Poenit., c. 5: "Ipsa vero huius- proinde, si difficultas gravis, v. g. 



