A Confessor's Companion: Tender Conscience and Scrupulosity

Some people of God are unable to believe that God loves and accepts them. No word calms their aching spirits, and assurances of God’s grace have seemingly little or no effect. The manifestations of scrupulosity are most often experienced by penitents during the sacrament of reconciliation.

The good news is that you needn’t be a professional therapist or even well-schooled in personality disorders to help penitents with OCD-based scrupulosity. You just need to be able to recognize the disorder when it is manifested and be willing to take the next steps.

This handbook will help confessors to apply the pastoral applications that are necessary to help the penitent truly celebrate the sacrament of reconciliation. And instead of a chamber of torture, the confessional will be a place to experience the outpouring of God’s grace and mercy.

Thomas M. Santa, CSsR, the priest director of the Scrupulous Anonymous newsletter, has ministered to people with scrupulosity for more than twenty years. He is an associate faculty member and former director of the Redemptorist Renewal Center in Tucson, Arizona. He has also served as pastor of St. Michael Parish in Old Town, Chicago, and as President/Publisher of Liguori Publications.