Confession heard outside of the church?

[tee_eff_em]

Consider yourself corrected:

Can. 964 §1 The proper place for hearing sacramental confessions is a church or oratory.
§2 As far as the confessional is concerned, norms are to be issued by the Episcopal Conference, with the proviso however that confessionals, **which the faithful who so wish may freely use, are located in an open place, and fitted with a fixed grille between the penitent and the confessor.
** §3 Except for a just reason, confessions are not to be heard elsewhere than in a confessional.

A fixed grille need not provide *anonymity *-- It does provide a physical barrier between confessor and penitent.

tee

 

[Mattjolley]

I always thought the penitent had the right to choose bwtween anonimity and face to face confession?

 

[FrDavid96]

I always thought the penitent had the right to choose bwtween anonimity and face to face confession?

No, that’s not the case. Face to face confessions might be made available, but the priest has the right to insist on anonymous confession. So, in practical terms, face to face is available only if both penitent and priest choose it. If either one chooses the anonymous form, that has to be respected by the other.

The following notice was published, July 24, 1998 by the Vatican Information Service:

The Pontifical Council for the Interpretation of Legislative Texts, with the Holy Father’s approval, in a recently-published note, responded affirmatively to the following inquiry by several episcopal conferences regarding confessionals:

“If, according to Canon 964, paragraph 2, of the Code of Canon Law, the minister of the sacrament, for a just cause and excluding cases of necessity, can legitimately decide, even in the eventuality that the penitent ask for the contrary, that sacramental confession be received in a confessional with a fixed grille.”
adoremus.org/Canon964-Confessional.html

 

[scottywolf777]

No, that’s not the case. Face to face confessions might be made available, but the priest has the right to insist on anonymous confession. So, in practical terms, face to face is available only if both penitent and priest choose it. If either one chooses the anonymous form, that has to be respected by the other.

The following notice was published, July 24, 1998 by the Vatican Information Service:

The Pontifical Council for the Interpretation of Legislative Texts, with the Holy Father’s approval, in a recently-published note, responded affirmatively to the following inquiry by several episcopal conferences regarding confessionals:

“If, according to Canon 964, paragraph 2, of the Code of Canon Law, the minister of the sacrament, for a just cause and excluding cases of necessity, can legitimately decide, even in the eventuality that the penitent ask for the contrary, that sacramental confession be received in a confessional with a fixed grille.”
adoremus.org/Canon964-Confessional.html

So Father does this happen often? I have never actually seen a priest refuse to hear someone’s confession with or without screen. The only exception I’ve seen is a priest in a hurry and even there some will chose the option to be late to a meeting or other appointment so as not to lose a soul. After all, what if that was somebodies’ last chance? They left the church and were hit by a bus. I did know one priest years ago that I’d catch him after mass for confession and he’d turn his ear to me (even though he knew who I was) and I’d have to talk to his ear. He was an elderly priest ordained well before Vatican II and was used to doing things that way.

 

[FrDavid96]

So Father does this happen often? I have never actually seen a priest refuse to hear someone’s confession with or without screen. The only exception I’ve seen is a priest in a hurry and even there some will chose the option to be late to a meeting or other appointment so as not to lose a soul. After all, what if that was somebodies’ last chance? They left the church and were hit by a bus. I did know one priest years ago that I’d catch him after mass for confession and he’d turn his ear to me (even though he knew who I was) and I’d have to talk to his ear. He was an elderly priest ordained well before Vatican II and was used to doing things that way.

That would be “cases of necessity.” I can’t imagine any priest refusing to hear someone’s confession outside of a confessional, assuming that there’s no confessional available, so long as the penitent is “properly disposed” and a reasonably private setting can be found.

My post was in reference to confessions happening in a church and inside some kind of confessional. The point is that no one can compell a priest to hear face-to-face confessions. To make it more concrete, a priest can say “I don’t do face-to-face confessions inside the church because there’s a proper confessional available.” Even if a penitent requests face-to-face, the priest can insist on an anonymous confession.

There is a misunderstanding out there that either form must be available to penitents. Face-to-face is permitted, but not required. Some people think that if a penitent wants face-to-face the priest has an obligation to make this available; that’s not the case.

 

[NewEnglandPriest]

Unfortunately those who prefer to confess anonymously were denied that right.

{sigh}
They were not denied anything, it simply wasn’t possible. To deny someone would mean that there was the potential for it.

 

[KCT]

God bless that priest for making the best of the situation and hearing confessions any way he could .