Can you have confession through a closed window?

[Titivillus]

I’ve never heard that before — that the reason internet or phone confession is not permitted, is because of the potential lack of confidentiality. I thought it was because there is no physical proximity. Hard-of-hearing people use telephone receivers within confessionals, if they are available — I’ve seen them. A phone is a phone.

That is my (limited) understanding as well.

The sacraments are personal, thus the proximity of persons. In the case of Penance, there is also the question of identities to be confirmed (particularly: Am I sure I am confessing to a priest, and not some random person?) But what counts as “in-person”?

I’ve never been imprisoned or jailed, so I only know what I see on the tee-vee. Do prison chaplains ever hear confessions in the visiting room (if those are even set up as on the tee-vee, with glass partitions and phones?)? Or do they only do so in more personal circumstances?

 

[Bernoulli]

The confession part does not have an obligatory form, it can be delivered through writing, interpreter, speech synthesizer or other device. If necessary, the confession can be done at a different time to the absolution, I think this was the case in concentration camps.

The absolution, however, has to be given in person, and the priest has to say the essential form orally. The priest has to know which sins he is absolving, but in case of necessity, the confession can be delivered in advance in the written form, for example.

I have heard that the distance betweeen the priest and the penitent has to such that the words of absolution could be heard by the penitent without amplification, maybe by shouting. However, if the environment is noisy, like a battle field, it is not necessary that the words are actually heard.

 

[pnewton]

I was more concerned with situations closer to the topic, not internet sacraments. That is, can there be two separate rooms and secured communication? It is a given the internet is not secure. I guess we will see if increased innovations are needed.

 

[InThePew]

That is, can there be two separate rooms and secured communication?

Again, it comes back to physical proximity/presence. Many confessionals are in fact set up in such a way that they consist of two rooms with a window or grill in between. However, two rooms separated by distance (as opposed to being next to each other) wouldn’t count imho. I wouldn’t see amplification as being a problem (essentially, it’s no different to hearing aids for example) provided the two persons involved were still physically present to each other. The words would however need to be able to be heard - otherwise how would the priest know the penitent is contrite and the penitent know they are absolved? I would also very much doubt that the essential elements of the sacrament - confession and absolution can be spilt so that they happen some time apart. There are (rare) cases where a penitent cannot receive remission of a penalty from the one they’re confessing to but this is different from absolution.

 

[dochawk]

I would also very much doubt that the essential elements of the sacrament - confession and absolution can be spilt so that they happen some time apart.

It is not rare (or at least common enough to be known) in the East for the recitation of sins to be be with one’s spiritual father who is not a priest, and to be absolved by a priest.

The more interesting ones I’ve heard, whether licit or not, involve priest’s wives. One approach in far flung villages is apparently to confess to the priest in the next town, and be absolved by her husband. Another is that the wives of the EC and EO confess to one another’s husbands, and are absolved by their own.

Again, I can’t speak to how common or licit these are, but . . .

 

[JanR]

There’s no such thing as one-hundred-percent privacy security on the internet or on any of these electronic devices. I wouldn’t risk it. As for a closed window, I suppose as long as you and the priest can hear each other, why not?

 

[pnewton]

There are closed systems. They are as secure as face to face is.

 

[Herculees]

The Catholic Church does NOT permit confession on the phone normal through electronic means. Having said that if the priest and penitent are together they are permitted to use electronic means. I was once at a shrine where someone who had not been to confession in quite some time wanted to go to confession but had little if any verbal expression. They got a priest to “hear” her confession, however, he confession consisted of meeting in a private room and she would type her confession and he would respond back through typing back to her, but this was because of a disability not just to be different.

 

[AHapka]

There are confessionals that have telephones inside of them. As long as you are physically present, I don’t see why not. However, these are telephones not connected to the normal telephone network, just to each other, and are just used for hard of hearing people.