Confession for religious brothers

[eirecool]

Just wondering when one is a religious life be it in formation, as a solemnly professed brother and ordained priest who do they go to confession is someone designated or is he free to go to who he likes. I’d be grateful to know especially if anyone is a religious or know someone close who is one.

 

[SuscipeMeDomine]

The person I know in that situation goes to the confessor he has selected. It’s someone in the same order, but that’s by his choice.

 

[Gertabelle]

I’m a woman, but when I was in the monastery, we had a regular confession time for the community with a visiting priest. There was no choosing our confessor because we were only allowed to leave the monastery on specific business approved of by the abbess.

If you are considering religious life and wondering how this would work for you, ask someone in the particular community(ies) you are drawn to.

 

[HeDa]

In one convent where I know the sisters, the sisters agree on who they are going to ask to be the confessor for X years. That priest then visits them regularly to hear confessions and is responsible for their spiritual wellbeing. My parish priest went regularly to one convent with sisters as some of the sisters spoke the same language and were pretty new in the country so a common language was priority there. It doesn’t have to be the same religious order if the priest is a religious priest.

It is often advised that a parish employee or deacon to go to someone else for confession than the parish priest. This is also recommended for a student in a school, if the confessor is also the student´s teacher. I am pretty sure that the “Brotherpriest in charge of the monastery” is not the one who hears the confessions of his brothers.

Depending upon if there is a guest/retreat house, then I guess it would be OK to ask the visiting priest to hear your confession. No priest I know say “No” to hearing confessions.

 

[dochawk]

In villages in Eastern Europe, the priests are usually married.

One modern solution is for her to confess by phone to the priest in the next village, and be absolved by her husband.

The more interest solution, in areas where relations are warm between Orthodox and Catholic, is for the Catholic Wife to confess to the Orthodox priest, and vice versa!

Also, I know that in some circumstances, a spiritual advisor (not necessarily a priest) may hear the confession, while a priest then absolves, ut I know very little about this.

hawk

 

[babochka]

Villages in Eastern Europe are rarely so remote and isolated that another priest cannot be easily accessed in person. One priest’s wife that I know used to go to the Latin Rite priest in the village for confession.

 

[edward_george1]

Confession by phone is not valid. I can’t imagine this would be tolerated in the Eastern churches.