I’m writing a novel, and this may be a pertinent question for it.
Would a Catholic have to confess a killing in self-defense as a sin to receive absolution?
I tried to research the internet on this, admittedly briefly, and didn’t really get a straight answer. There was a lot of talk about grave duty and those with responsibility to society, and so on. Apparently, it’s something like self-defense killing is not a sin, but there are exceptions.
Self-defense killing in Catholicism, sin or not? Does anybody know?
There’s always the angle of being concerned you used too much force, and wanting a little reassurance from the priest. Based on what the OP describes, that’s probably the way I’d go. And I’d have the priest explain the catechism in layman’s terms.
Of course, I’m not really a writer. I’m just saying what I would accept in reading.
What if your character knew the priest? He’s used to going into confession and “confessing” any number of problems. In fact, the minute he says “I killed a man”, the priest says “Shit, Joe, you serious?”
:dubious: What if he does? A priest may not reveal what anyone has said in the confessional, even under pain of death (there are several martyr saints that died rather than reveal a confession). And I’m betting that most priests of relatively small parishes know exactly who’s sitting in the other side of the booth most of the time.
There’s the joke about the tenage boy who goes into the confessional and tells the priest he did impure things with a girl.
“Who was it?” Says the priest. “Wast it Betty-Lou Smith?”
“No”, he replies.
“Was it Mary Jones?”
“No… I’m kind of embarrassed.”
“Was it Jane O’Reilly then?”
“I’d rather not say, father…”
He leaves the confessional, and says to his buddies “I got three more hot tips.”
Seriously, confession is absolution for your sins. Self-defence is not a sin. If you feel you did something wrong, which is not surprising if someone ended up dead - generally, the priest would probably be more involved in deep counselling instead of “gimme your list and here’s your Hail Mary’s”. Of course, what’s discussed in a counselling situation could still be considered confession if that was the approach taken by the participants.
The answers above are right on the money. Self-defense that results in a death is not a sin, but it’s highly likely that a penitent would discuss the event with his confessor, not to seek absolution, but just to unburden.
Heh…it’s been a good 20 years since I’ve gone to Confession, so that must have slipped past my radar. I know that it was an option back when I was being taught by the nuns (the 70s/80s), but it didn’t seem to happen too often.
Since the late Sixties/early Seventies, even observant Catholics don’t go to Confession all that often. Ask even people who go to Mass every week, and you’ll find that many haven’t gone to Confession in YEARS. Only elderly Catholics tend to go to Confession regularly. If an ordinary Catholic DOES confess sins to a priest, it’s a good bet that either the sin is a doozy or that the penitent thinks he/she may die soon.
Killing someone certainly IS a doozy of a sin. Now, if it were 100% clear and obvious that the killing was done as a last resort, in self-defense or in defense of someone else, that would not be regarded as a sin, but it would still weigh heavily on many people’s consciences! And let’s fact it, it’s NOT always 100% clear and obvious. A devout Catholic woman who shot a man she THOUGHT was going to rape and kill her might have second thoughts. She might not be SURE what the victim was planning, and might wonder if what she did was a sin. So might a Catholic man who shot an intruder into his house (“What if the intruder just meant to steal a few things and run for it… would that STILL be self-defense if I’m not sure the victim was going to try to kill me?”).
So, if your story shows a Catholic who’d killed someone in self-defense, you might want to show either that the confessor feels terribly guilty DESPITE the fact that what he/she did wasn’t a sin… or that the confessor isn’t sure that he/she acted completely in self-defense.
Self defense killing is not a sin. Catholics can go to war and kill and it is not a sin.
However - it could be a sin if, for example, you killed someone in self defense when you didn’t need to kill him…and you can murder during wartime…
Most Catholics would confess it to the priest and then discuss it with them to see if it was truely a sin. However, I am a weird duck now and was a weird duck then. Many Catholics I found out use the confession as some sort of ritual. Makes sense as that is the way young Catholics are taught. However, I used confession as a 2-way conversation…asking for thoughts and advice/what should I have done differently etc. I never had a priest complain or scold me for doing so. I fully embraced face-to-face confessions when they started doing them while virtually all friends and family stayed with the traditional secretive way.
In short, back when I was Catholic and if I killed someone in self defense, I would go to confession and lay it out for the priest and abide by his determination.
I mean really, priests are sitting in that dark little closet hearing routine stories of masturbation and debauchery, things they are well acquainted with. It behooves the person with a real story to spice up the cleric’s live a bit and even embellish it a bit. Tell him that you realize it was self defense, but you actually enjoyed the process and were thinking of joining the law enforcement community in hopes of repeating the event. If you could produce the sound of a magazine being loaded and a bullet being chambered, that could be a hoot. You might end up talking to yourself at that point.
Really? When I was a practicing Catholic, it was nice knowing that your were pretty much anonymous in the Confessional. I’m not sure I’d be comfortable confessing my sins face-to-face.
But then, I was an alter boy when the Mass was in Latin. So, let’s just say that it’s been awhile…
The booth is still an option, if you’d prefer that. It’s just that more folks nowadays are choosing to go face-to-face. Another thing that some parishes are doing now is bringing in priests from other parishes for confession services, in case people would be more comfortable with a priest they don’t see on a regular basis.
You’re not so anonymous as you think. Unless your priest has a bad memory for voices, he prolly knows exactly who you are. The booth is more to make people more comfortable. It may be easier to talk if you can’t see the person. Face-to-face may have a better effect and be more useful, however.
