confession induces persons to
sin more readily, or at least it transfers the keeping of conscience
to the priest.

Seeing that all which is demanded by Protestants for repentance must
be in the mind of the Catholic before he can be absolved, it is clear
the objection comes ill from them, and can have no foundation. Of
course, for those who believe that Catholics obtain pardon by payment
of money, the objection would have weight. But it can hardly be
imagined that in the nineteenth century, among an intelligent people
like Americans, there are to be found persons who believe that
Catholics are so bereft of reason as to imagine that sin can be
forgiven by the giving of silver and gold.

Every Catholic knows that to speak falsely in Confession would be to
lie to the Holy Ghost, as did Ananias and Saphira; that to confess as
Judas did, without sorrow, would not only bring no pardon, but, on the
contrary, would add the sin of sacrilege to his soul. The Catholic
knows that without a firm efficacious determination of purpose to
avoid sin and its occasions, and to satisfy for injuries done, there
can be no forgiveness of sin.

Nowhere is the soul of man more prone to self-deception than in the
matter of true repentance. Temptation may cease, and with it comes
cessation of wrong-doing. This, under self-deception, may be easily
construed into conversion. Self-interest and passion may so blind a
man that he may imagine himself truly repentant, notwithstanding that
he has not pardoned injuries, or reconciled himself to enemies, or
restored ill-gotten goods, or retracted calumny, or compensated for
wrongs inflicted, or is not disposed to avoid occasions of sin, and
the like.

The confessor has to intervene, remind the penitent of these duties,
and secure that they shall be done, before he can absolve from sin.
Instead of becoming the keeper of the sinner's conscience, the
confessor is but its instructor: duty and responsibility remain in all
their extent to the penitent. And the penitent has to test the
genuineness of his contrition by unmistakable obligations to be
complied with, if forgiveness of sin is to be obtained.

All this, instead of encouraging the sinner, as opponents have it, to
return and wallow in the mire of iniquity, does, on the contrary, make
him gird up his loins, and walk with a firm but cautious step for the
future. And this apart from the fact that one of the supernatural
effects of this sacrament of pen