Confession - Face to Face or Confessional

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BeluvdLily

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I’m just wondering about how common it is for confession to be done face to face rather than in a confessional. Our church does it face to fact but frankly I would feel much more comfortable in a confessional.

I have seriously considered calling some of the parishes in the area to see how they do it and to find one where there is a confessional just for confession purposes. Having just been received into the Church in December, this is still new to me and I would feel much more comfortable with a little anonymity.

Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated.

Amie
 
we just discussed this in the last month, at least twice. If your parish does not offer both options they are in violation of the liturgical norms. A gentle reminder to your pastor should do the trick, he may have assumed no one wants it because no one asks for it.
 
In my church we have the option of both but I prefer face to face. It’s more personal and it allows the priest to give me good life advice because he knows me and my past and so can help me not to commit the same sins again. However it took a few goes to get comefortable with this but I see the benifits now.
 
BeluvdLily said:
I’m just wondering about how common it is for confession to be done face to face rather than in a confessional. Our church does it face to fact but frankly I would feel much more comfortable in a confessional.

I have seriously considered calling some of the parishes in the area to see how they do it and to find one where there is a confessional just for confession purposes. Having just been received into the Church in December, this is still new to me and I would feel much more comfortable with a little anonymity.

Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated.

Amie
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All parishes are required by Canon Law to have a screen for the Sacrament of Confession, and may offer face to face at the priests option. But a screen is always to be available.
 
Also, the priest has the right to do confession only with the screen. People do not have a right to face-to-face - it is the confessor’s perogative to allow it.
 
There is at least one priest (and probably more where he came from) that refuses to allow people to kneel behind the screen. When I went in for confession at that parish once (no coincidence that it’s the last time I went there for confession), as I went into the room, he told me to sit facing him, when I asked if I could be behind the screen, he said “no, you can’t, you need to sit here.”

Of course, I guess I should be glad he has confessions, there’s at least one parish I have been to where the priest doesn’t hear confessions, and the bulletin lists the confession schedule as “Sacrament of Reconcilation: Communal Penance Services offered during Advent and Lent.”

So, I guess it could be worse.
 
In my parish it’s only offered for one half hour before Saturday mass. And it’s face-to-face at the communion rail. So I usually go downtown to a church run by Franciscans who have like 5 confessionals staffed 10 hours each day. It’s worth the L ride!

I agree. I think it was wise to put a screen there because even though the priest is acting in the person of Christ, the reality is that’s it’s hard enough to make a good confession because it’s so freaking embarassing… especially if you’re confessing something you confessed last time. Not having to look your priest in the eye definitely helps in making a full and unhibited confession. I’ve done both but the screen wins in my book… hands down!
 
I grew up going face to face, so that’s what I’m more comfortable with. But I have nothing against the screen, either.
 
Our church has a great set up.

As you walk in, you can kneel or walk around and sit in front of the Priest.

It works for everyone.
 
we don’t have a confessional…if we don’t want to do face to face you have to sit with your back to the preist! lol we had a confessional, but it got taken out…it was a long time ago, and now we are building a new one.
 
The important part is that I can go to confession. So, it does not matter to me whether it is face-to-face or behind a screen or anywhere else. Heck, I’ll even will go to confession in a parking lot, if necessary.
 
Maybe its the Holy Spirit for me, but I can’t go behind the screen. It is impossible for me. I walk in and just sit down in front of priest every time. But I love it that way. 👍
 
they dont use the confessionals at the parish i used to go to. Its a shame, they now turned them into storage closets. Instead confessions are in the side chapel where you sit next to the priest or u can request teh screen, but u have to ask for it. I prefer anonyminity, thats why i prefer confessions where you can not see through the screen.
 
Karl_M said:
There is at least one priest (and probably more where he came from) that refuses to allow people to kneel behind the screen. When I went in for confession at that parish once (no coincidence that it’s the last time I went there for confession), as I went into the room, he told me to sit facing him, when I asked if I could be behind the screen, he said “no, you can’t, you need to sit here.”

Of course, I guess I should be glad he has confessions, there’s at least one parish I have been to where the priest doesn’t hear confessions, and the bulletin lists the confession schedule as “Sacrament of Reconcilation: Communal Penance Services offered during Advent and Lent.”

So, I guess it could be worse.
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The priest cannot demand face to face.
 
Fred_4 said:
In my parish it’s only offered for one half hour before Saturday mass. And it’s face-to-face at the communion rail. So I usually go downtown to a church run by Franciscans who have like 5 confessionals staffed 10 hours each day. It’s worth the L ride!

I agree. I think it was wise to put a screen there because even though the priest is acting in the person of Christ, the reality is that’s it’s hard enough to make a good confession because it’s so freaking embarassing… especially if you’re confessing something you confessed last time. Not having to look your priest in the eye definitely helps in making a full and unhibited confession. I’ve done both but the screen wins in my book… hands down!
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Everyone who is “forced” into face to face confession needs to let their Bishop know that this is happening.
 
Theodora said:
The important part is that I can go to confession. So, it does not matter to me whether it is face-to-face or behind a screen or anywhere else. Heck, I’ll even will go to confession in a parking lot, if necessary.
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That is a good attitude, but I believe that there are many who do not go to this Sacrament because they are “forced” to go face to face. I believe that Rome saw that people would not go if face to face was the only option. This is why a screen is mandated in Canon Law.
 
Having to ask for a screen seems just seems to me to defeat the purpose. Personal I prefer a screen but will go either way. If one wasn’t there I would not ask for it.

Where I normally go to Mass all we have is a confessional with out the Face to face option. The priest still knows most people by voice so its still very personal.
 
Theodora said:
The important part is that I can go to confession. So, it does not matter to me whether it is face-to-face or behind a screen or anywhere else. Heck, I’ll even will go to confession in a parking lot, if necessary.
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Same here. This post reminds me of a documentary I watched about the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. In several scenes, they showed people kneeling with priests in open fields, parking lots, living rooms, etc. It was beautiful!

However, I can understand the reluctance many people have to face their priests in the confessional, and if anonymous confession isn’t available, it sounds like it needs to be taken up with the local bishop.
 
I would go to confession face to face or behind the screen, - I have done both and am comfortable with both. However, about a year ago I was going to confession in my parish - our confessionals are two little boxes with a half wall/half perspex window with holes in the perspex so you can be heard, there is a curtain on the penitents side which can be drawn back if you wish to go to confession face to face. It was one of those times I “had” co go to confession and my plan was to leave the curtain in place - we had a new Parish Priest who would not recognise my voice but I had a meeting with him about RCIA later that day so I walked into the confessional - and the last person in had left the curtain open:)
 
I was reading a book by Fulton Sheen over Lent called Peace of Soul. He drew many parallels between Freudian psychoanalysis and Confession and thought that psychotherapy of his day was essentially the secular world’s answer to confession without God.

One critical difference he noted is that confession is secretive even to the point of concealing the face of the penitent and the priest whereas with psychotherapy, there is not screen. With confession, there are no issues with the penitent becoming emotionally attached to a confessor and vice versa. At the time he wrote the book, the confessional was the norm (and I think talk of face-to-face confession was unheard of) and I thought that he gave a good reason for the screen.

He also made a funny argument that prooves that the Sacrament was not made by man and HAD to come from God, for no man would make himself sit in a stuffy box for hours listening to confessions all day! Only God would make man do that!
 
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