Confession by email

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Cristiano

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I am steaming!:mad:

I do not know if to post this thread in the sacraments forum, catholic news, or culture of death.

Two priests (don Gianfranco Poma and father Franco Tassone) in the town of Pavia, Italy have setup the first confession system by email. This is the link to the news in Italian as reported by the Corriere della Sera a major Italian newspaper. From the article the story is the following:

1- It is a 24 hr service
2- You have to register with the priests to have an account
3- First you have to answer to a series of questions about your faith (e.g. religious behaviors, social behaviors, membership to organizations, ecumenism)
4- Up to 3,500 characters for the confession with mortal sins first and venial second
5- At the end you have to click on a red flashing AMEN
6- Wait for time and day reply to go to church to “receive” the absolution
 
Melanie01 said:
What is their bishop doing???
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If he knows about this, and doesn’t shut it down, then he’s an accomplice to this abomination. If he doesn’t know, he soon will. I hope he shuts it down quickly. This is rediculous.
 
Hey, at least they’re still giving absolution in person!!! :bounce:

But seriously, besides blantantly violating liturgical norms, this seems to be a good-hearted attempt at allowing more people to go to confession, but at a great expense. The likelihood of the seal being violated is high, with people being able to hack into computers and all. Furthermore, record of individual confessions could last forever…Imagine what the state would do if they found out that they could read a bunch of peoples’ confessions.

Not good.
 
cathsem said:
Hey, at least they’re still giving absolution in person!!! :bounce:

But seriously, besides blantantly violating liturgical norms, this seems to be a good-hearted attempt at allowing more people to go to confession, but at a great expense. The likelihood of the seal being violated is high, with people being able to hack into computers and all. Furthermore, record of individual confessions could last forever…Imagine what the state would do if they found out that they could read a bunch of peoples’ confessions.

Not good.
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Absolution has to be given in person.
 
I think they should offer confession gift cards for sale. “I’d like to buy a 20-confession gift card, please.”
 
VociMike said:
I think they should offer confession gift cards for sale. “I’d like to buy a 20-confession gift card, please.”
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:rotfl: I can’t believe this would actually be allowed! I mean, seriously, the CC has tried to lean toward the modern world, but to the e-confession? That’s just out of this world! :whacky:
 
UPDATE:

It looks like several major Italian newspapers and television newscasts did not check their facts, and that the whole story came from someone making vague statements in their blogs. One of the priests has been interviewed and denies the whole thing. He is just supporting an online server with web access to priest that is meant to initiate any kind of discussion.

I am sorry but all the links are in Italian and I am not going to translate them for now. You can find all the major links through the Italian Google webpage to verify the source of the info that i am providing.
 
Cristiano said:
I am steaming!:mad:

I do not know if to post this thread in the sacraments forum, catholic news, or culture of death.

Two priests (don Gianfranco Poma and father Franco Tassone) in the town of Pavia, Italy have setup the first confession system by email. This is the link to the news in Italian as reported by the Corriere della Sera a major Italian newspaper. From the article the story is the following:

1- It is a 24 hr service
2- You have to register with the priests to have an account
3- First you have to answer to a series of questions about your faith (e.g. religious behaviors, social behaviors, membership to organizations, ecumenism)
4- Up to 3,500 characters for the confession with mortal sins first and venial second
5- At the end you have to click on a red flashing AMEN
6- Wait for time and day reply to go to church to “receive” the absolution
Click to expand...
Very interesting. We all know that a person can go to confession by writing - the deaf/dumb, for example. Any such needs to be strictly confidential. And absolution must be personal and present.

So in this case the person with reasonable guarantees of confidentiality sends in a written confession - perhaps with discussion via e-mail. He must personally come by for absolution. Clearly there is an opportunity there for confirming what was e-mailed, questioning and discussion - both personaly and in the e-mails. Having had to wait up to 1 hour for as few as 6 folks ahead of me in line at confession (one time having to miss confession in toto), I find myself intrigued that this could be a useful method to streamline confessional hours yet give the counseling many need in an anonymous setting. There could be issues, no doubt, but with the requirement of personal absolution, I am not at all ready to condemn this practice until it has been thoroughly explored.
 
This was discussed recently in our prayer group.
Our Priest said, absolutely no way would this be allowed, nor could it be ever valid. No phone calls, letters, emails, count for Confession. The Sacrament MUST be done in person, all the time.

What is this world coming to?
And I agree with the poster who talked about hacking. I mean, after all, would you want the world to have access to your sins? The seal of the Confessional is Sacred, and that makes it so much more comfortable to go to, as what you say should never go anywhere outside the box.

Patti
 
As apparently this story has no basis in fact the thread is now closed.

This is one problem with posting foreign language links prior to their breaking in English – very hard to verify as to authenticity.
 
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