Note 232 — Chapter III · CONFESSION

The following well-known definition is much like the above: the confession is materially entire in which nothing is wanting which per se loquendo ought to be confessed, i.e. when nothing is wanting which de se forms the necessary matter of confession; the confession is formally entire when nothing is wanting in the accusation through the fault of the penitent. Cf. Konings, l. c. n. 1359.

Moralists are not of one mind on the definition of formal and material integrity; some understand by material integrity the avowal of all mortal sins not yet confessed which occur to the mind (after a careful examination of conscience, as Müller expressly adds, l. c. 120), since they form the materia necessaria sacramenti et confessionis; formal integrity, on the other hand, consists in the avowal of all mortal sins which here and now (hic et nunc), taking all the circumstances into consideration, can and ought to be confessed. Thus Gury, l. c. Edit. Romana (Ballerini) et Edit. Lugd. (Dumas), n. 468 (where, however, the author is not quite consistent, cf. n. 470); while on the other hand the Edit. Ratisb. as also Laymann, De Pœnitent. cp. 8, n. 5, and Stotz, l. c. Lib. I. P. III. Q. II. art. IV; Scavini, l. c. Tom. IV. Tract. X. Disp. I. cp. II. art. II. n. 38, have the above definition. We give the preference to it on grounds which will appear in the course of the treatise; moreover, it is more common and is in harmony with the teaching of the Council of Trent. The words which St. Alphonsus employs in the definition of material integrity seem to favor the latter view. Cf. Lib. VI. n. 465.