"I truly believe that many catholics no longer recognize their actions as sin."
I saw a T-shirt being worn by a teenage girl yesterday. The caption said "It's All About Me."
Offensive, but brutally honest.
We're reaping the harvest of a culture that has taught it's children to have high self-esteem but not given them the theological basis for it.
Hey now, that T-shirt is intended to be a recognition on the part of that girl that she tends to be a princess, that she is aware of it, and that she's working on it... it's a joke. But it's a sort of confession in and of itself. So I don't really have a problem with that one.
My fear is what if I'm not ready to change? What if I go in and tell the priest I smoke, but I don't think I can quit now without screwing up my diet, or I'm just not ready to deal with that? OK, so maybe I've been at odds with God over this issue for some time and now I'm facing it square on. But can't you see how hard that is to face? How can I be absolved if I can't obey?
Same for other obsessive/compulsive sorts of things. I've whipped the drinking, drugs, sex (for now) but... I'm not pure.