Innocent XI, 1676-1689

1205. 55. He satisfies the precept of annual communion by the sacrilegious eating of the Lord.

1206. 56. Frequent confession and communion, even in those who live like pagans, is a mark of predestination.

1207. 57. It is probable that natural but honest imperfect sorrow for sins suffices.

1208. 58. We are not bound to confess to a confessor who asks us about the habit of some sin.

1209. 59. It is permitted to absolve sacramentally those who confess only half, by reason of a great crowd of penitents, such as for example can happen on a day of great festivity or indulgence.

1210. 60. The penitent who has the habit of sinning against the law of God, of nature, or of the Church, even if there appears no hope of amendment, is not to be denied absolution or to be put off, provided he professes orally that he is sorry and proposes amendment.

1211. 61. He can sometimes be absolved, who remains in a proximate occasion of sinning, which he can and does not wish to omit, but rather directly and professedly seeks or enters into.

1212. 62. The proximate occasion for sinning is not to be shunned when some useful and honorable cause for not shunning it occurs.

1213. 63. It is permitted to seek directly the proximate occasion for sinning for a spiritual or temporal good of our own or of a neighbor.

1214. 64. A person is fit for absolution, however much he labors under an ignorance of the mysteries of the faith, and even if through negligence, even culpable, he does not know the mystery of the most blessed Trinity, and of the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ.

1215. 65. It is enough to have believed the mysteries once.

All condemned and prohibited, as they are here expressed, at least as scandalous and in practice pernicious.

The Holy Pontiff concludes the decree with these words:

1216. Finally, in order that doctors, whether scholastics or any others whatsoever, may refrain from injurious contentions in the future, and that there be deliberations for peace and charity, the same Holy Pontiff commands them in virtue of holy obedience, to be on their guard in printing books and manuscripts, as well as theses, disputations, and sermons against any censure and note, and likewise violent railings against such propositions which are still being carried on among Catholics here and there, until the matter has been considered, and a judgment is rendered ¹ by the Holy See upon these same propositions.