(c) Sins Whose Commission, or Gravity, or Remission is Uncertain.—If the uncertainty is about the fact or gravity of the sin, there is no obligation to confess the sin, even though its commission or its gravity be probable; for the obligation cannot be proved. But if it is certain that grave sin has been committed and uncertain whether the sin has been confessed, a mere doubt or suspicion in favor of confession does not exempt from obligation; a probable opinion in favor of confession excuses according to Probabilism, but it does not excuse according to Equiprobabilism, unless the doubt is about a confession made long ago by one who was careful in making his confessions, or unless there is question of a scrupulous person (655 sqq., 708, 709).
2743. When Material Integrity Is Not Necessary.—Material integrity is not due because of real impossibility in the following cases:
(a) when there is physical impossibility, as when one is at the point of death and too weak to make confession, or is deaf and dumb, or cannot speak the confessor’s language correctly, or cannot finish confession on account of shipwreck or other great peril;
(b) when there is moral impossibility, as when material integrity cannot be had except at the expense of a great temporal or spiritual evil distinct from the inconvenience intrinsic to the confession itself, and there is some serious reason that makes it necessary to go to confession here and now (e.g., the desire of not remaining long in the state of sin). Examples are: great spiritual harm, as when a penitent is scrupulous; great temporal harm, as when the penitent has to flee to escape assassination. Some affirm, while others deny, the duty of mentioning a sin that will defame an accomplice with the confessor, and in practice it seems the duty cannot be insisted on (cfr. 2065).
2744. Completion or Repetition of Past Incomplete Confessions.—(a) Completion of past confessions must be made when they lacked material integrity, if the impossibility has ceased.
(b) Particular repetition is necessary when a confession lacked formal integrity or other essential; that is, if a sin was unlawfully concealed or unrepented of in confession, the sacrilege must be confessed and the previous confession made over, since it was invalid. But if the new confession is made to the same confessor and he has a general remembrance of it, the new confession may be made summarily.
(c) General repetition is necessary when several past confessions were certainly invalid on account of lack of formal integrity or other defect. Thus, he who has made bad confessions for three months must make a general confession of that period of time. General confession is advisable when there is a prudent doubt about the worth of past confessions; it is permissible when it will help a penitent to be more contrite and lead a better life; it is not lawful when it will do harm, as when a scrupulous penitent will be harrowed and maddened by the thought of his past sins.
2745. Satisfaction.—The third act of the penitent is satisfaction, which is defined as “a compensation for the injury done to God by sin, appointed by God’s minister in the Sacrament of Penance and accepted and performed by the penitent.”
(a) This act is a compensation or payment made to God as an act of reparation and justice.
(b) The compensation is appointed by the confessor, for its chief purpose is restoration of friendship between God and the sinner, and hence equality is not sought, but the good will to do what God’s minister imposes.