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 penance is the bestowal of actual
medicinal graces, whereby the soul is strengthened against relapsing,
and for which reason regular and frequent confession is so earnestly
encouraged.

5. To have a wise prudent spiritual adviser, to have an experienced
physician of the soul, to have a merciful but strict judge of moral
duty: is to have the greatest spiritual support on earth, even apart
from the superadded sacramental character of such a minister. It is
this blessed gift which the Catholic has in his legitimately-approved
and authorized confessor.