When Is A Sin Not A Sin?

[faithcecelia]

I went to confession yesterday, after trying to for a couple of weeks but missing it so feeling quite desperate in the end! I had done something that I know the Church tells me is a sin, I knew that when I did it and I did it a few times. Each time I actually thought about it, knowing the church teaches its a sin, and conciously chose to do it each time.

When I confessed these to the priest, he agreed that one was a sin, but said he didn't think the other was as my desires were right.

Overall, it was a lovely experience of reconcilliation, I felt he listened and understood, gave helpful guidance, absolution and a penance that 'fitted' if that makes sense? So overall i have no worries about the sacrament, but do wonder about what flexibility there is over what is or isn't a sin?

[CatherineM]

[quote name='faithcecelia' timestamp='1309898353' post='2263333']
I went to confession yesterday, after trying to for a couple of weeks but missing it so feeling quite desperate in the end! I had done something that I know the Church tells me is a sin, I knew that when I did it and I did it a few times. Each time I actually thought about it, knowing the church teaches its a sin, and conciously chose to do it each time.

When I confessed these to the priest, he agreed that one was a sin, but said he didn't think the other was as my desires were right.

Overall, it was a lovely experience of reconcilliation, I felt he listened and understood, gave helpful guidance, absolution and a penance that 'fitted' if that makes sense? So overall i have no worries about the sacrament, but do wonder about what flexibility there is over what is or isn't a sin?
[/quote]
When is a sin not a sin? How about when a man robs a bank because his family is being held hostage. How about killing someone when in a psychotic break. I have been told more than once in the confessional that I'm being too hard on myself. I guess it is a Catholic guilt thing. To be a sin, we must know what we are doing is wrong, we must make the conscious decision to sin anyway, and we must be acting with our faculties intact. The same act committed by two separate individuals may be a sin for one, and not the other.