My Own Unanswered Questions

[UPDATE 2007-10-05: it appears that Turretinfan has accepted this as an adequate response, so I'm going to consider this question to be answered. I might be mistaken in this assessment; if he objects to this, then I'll consider amending this conclusion.]

I have a list of questions that have gone unanswered by another; it seems only fair that I keep a public list of questions that I haven't answered myself. This will serve as a reminder to me that I need to do this.

Turretinfan asked me:

are you saying that some people who enter heaven will have unforgiven sins? (emphasis in original)

I replied:

Mortal sins must be forgiven or one cannot enter heaven.

It would appear, based upon what I have cited from Trent [chapter V, on confession] and St. Thomas, that venial sins also must be forgiven, and apart from this one cannot enter heaven. Unfortunately this inference is the best I am able to offer at this time, not having ready at hand (i.e., in memory) a more direct answer for you with respect to venial sins. I apologize if this is insufficient for your purposes [links added here from a previous post].

To which he asked, by way of followup:

The follow-on question is: why?

If a sin does not render the sinner guilty, why would the sinner be forgiven - indeed - what sense does forgiveness have apart from guilt?

Now this is an honest question, I think, and I attempted to answer it, but was dissatisfied with my results. I haven't studied the subject with any depth at all, and it seems I need to. So I had to apologize for my inability to do so now, which apology was graciously accepted. I promise to try and answer this, Turretinfan - and hopefully it will be sooner rather than later.