@PeterTurner About your most recent bounty on a question about General confession you wonder "why someone would do it and what the point is if you've been going to confession regularly". I can think of 2 scenarios, but let me know if that's not what you have in mind: 1) RCIA candidate about to be baptized and/or confirmed; 2) Someone like my dad who is Catholic but haven't been to church for decades.

@PeterTurner ... 1) RCIA candidate who didn't do general confession yet when he/she was confirmed (the church messed up); 2) Someone who is Catholic but hasn't been to church for decades. When he/she started to go again and did confession, the priest didn't ask him to do general confession, and then after a few times going to confession he/she realizes he needed to do a general confession.

@PeterTurner On general vs. regular confession, isn't it simply a matter of scope? That the former is a systematic examination of conscience spanning your entire life trying to recall forgotten sins that may still lurk in your inner soul waiting to spring out given opportunity vs. regular confession is your recalling on your thoughts, words, and deeds since your last confession?

Sometimes I'm reminded of some follies of my college years and some offenses I made to a college friend that I never confessed to anyone, but which now I feel I need to confess to God even though that friend may not be offended at the time and may not require me to make restitution. Wouldn't this something that general confession is for?

@GratefulDisciple yeah, I can see both those as excellent reasons to make a general confession - but in both those cases you're probably not confessing unconfessed sins. The advice I heard from Gabriel Castillo on the April 15th Pints with Aquinas was for people who frequent confession but have just never done a general confession before

@GratefulDisciple yeah, I think so. The question is - why confession, if you've already gotten forgiveness for it via confession - what would be the point of reconfession. Maybe the guest was just mistaken or overzealous. But I have heard (half-heard at least) that general confession was a good thing for everyone.