Netty Estelle: Mea culpa: does a confession require a conscience? Part 1

Posted by one of my admin on CMMOMM facebook


Mea culpa: does a confession require a conscience? Part 1

When I typed "does a confession require a conscience" into Google, the first result I got was this:
http://www.beginningcatholic.com/catholic-examination-of-co…


I will allow you to draw your own conclusions from *that* intriguing resource, which ties in quite neatly with a piece I'm currently working on about the McCanns' baffling and misplaced piety, and their shameless sustained misappropriation of the catholic faith.

The word 'confession' is inextricably linked to Catholicism. "Forgive me father, for I have sinned" tends to lead to mumbled words of pastoral kindness inside a curtained wooden booth, an arbitrary number of Hail Marys, and, finally, absolution; depending of course on the misdemeanour.

"Good" (authentically God-fearing) Catholics are encouraged to submit to regular confessionals. The Catholic interpretation of 'sin', how it is defined and identified, has remained largely unchanged for centuries:

"Modern society has lost a sense of sin. As Catholic followers of Christ, we must make an effort to recognize sin in our daily actions, words and omissions. An examination of conscience helps us do just that. To make a good examination of conscience and to live a life in right relationship with God, His laws, and the happiness He desires for us, it is also critical for each of us to develop a well-formed conscience."

(https://goodconfession.com/examination-of-conscience/)

Arguably, the catholic faith is predicated on a leviathan and insurmountable burden of guilt. Catholics are expected to feel constant gnawing guilt, and they are expected to repent on a regular basis: to ease their conscience and to make peace with God and with themselves.

It's a continuous cycle of being terror-stricken by one's own inescapable godlessness: desperate to ultimately get into the Lord's good books (and earn a place in heaven) by acknowledging one's many flaws, urges, vices and limitations as a human being, but feeling sorry and seeking forgiveness for habitually capitulating to those flaws, urges, vices and limitations.

So... Did one or both of the McCanns subject an unsuspecting priest to a confessional? Possibly, but I highly doubt it. Confessions usually (not always) require a piqued conscience. Not necessarily a *guilty* one always, but certainly a compulsion to accept responsibility (even in the absence of remorse) for a mistake, a hurtful action or a crime.

The McCanns sat clutching at each other's sweaty mitts in one televised interview after another, stating, *without a trace of compunction* never mind a choked sob or even a single tear, that they *didn't feel guilty* for leaving their young children alone and unattended. (One of many spurious and unbelievable 'facts' dictated by their contemptible and flimsy script.)

"We are not the ones who have done anything wrong," Kate McCann repeatedly harrumphed with unbecoming petulance. "It's... the person who... stole a little girl" (note: not "my daughter", not "my precious baby", no just "a little girl", any random "little girl" from whom she was able to instantaneously and entirely detach herself).

"What's done is done," opined her astoundingly supercilious spouse, with a shrug of his shoulders, and an unmistakable air of "i literally could not give less of a f***".

I've said it before and I have not changed my mind: if anyone here is expecting anyone in this case, particularly the McCanns, to have an eventual attack of conscience, you will be disappointed. There are no consciences involved, sadly.

But in part 2 I'll look at why a lack of confession - even if complicated further by the lack of a body - doesn't necessarily mean a murder/ missing persons case cannot be definitively solved.

Related posts:
Trolling the truth: beliefs, faith, falsehoods and folly
https://www.facebook.com/groups/JillHavernCompleteMysteryofMadeleineMcCann/permalink/2068957280015421/
The infuriating improbability of a conviction:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/JillHavernCompleteMysteryofMadeleineMcCann/permalink/1916147378629746/