Confession Outside of One's Home Parish

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stavros388

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Hello,

I am going to visit friends and meet my wife and son at the airport today, in a city about 3 hrs away. I would like to visit a parish if I can for Mass, but I really would like to confess. Can I anonymously give confession to a priest other than my own? Is this fairly normal? Or would it be best to wait and give confession to my own parish priest?

Thanks, and sorry if this is a redundant kind of question.
 
I always go to confession outside of my own parish as my home parish no longer uses confessionals. It’s perfectly alright.👍
 
jeannetherese said:
I always go to confession outside of my own parish as my home parish no longer uses confessionals. It’s perfectly alright.👍
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Thanks.

My parish doesn’t provide any anonymity whatsoever, but I have a good relationship with my priest and appreciate his guidance. That said, I do feel quite ashamed confessing the same sins over and over to him. I must sound like a skipping record. This will be my first ever anonymous confession.
 
It’s perfectly fine to confess outside your home parish. I actually go to confession outside my home diocese more often than not. I live and work on the boundary between two diocese. There is a parish with daily confession about 10 minutes from work (in my own diocese), but its in the neighboring diocese.

It’s one of the great things about being Catholic. You don’t have to be in your local area to have access to the sacraments of the Church.
 
Usige said:
It’s perfectly fine to confess outside your home parish. I actually go to confession outside my home diocese more often than not. I live and work on the boundary between two diocese. There is a parish with daily confession about 10 minutes from work (in my own diocese), but its in the neighboring diocese.

It’s one of the great things about being Catholic. You don’t have to be in your local area to have access to the sacraments of the Church.
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Great. Thanks!

PS I, too, am located in the Rocky Mountains (the Canadian ones, that is). What a blessing it is, yes?
 
stavros388 said:
Thanks.

My parish doesn’t provide any anonymity whatsoever, but I have a good relationship with my priest and appreciate his guidance. That said, I do feel quite ashamed confessing the same sins over and over to him. I must sound like a skipping record. This will be my first ever anonymous confession.
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Confessing the same sins over and over is an issue I know I deal with and bet most do.Having said that,I am reminded of a cute story I heard.A women goes to confession and tells the priest she is so tired of confessing the same sins over and over.His response…What you want new sins?😉
 
I am always shocked and saddened to hear that some parishes are not fulfilling their canonical obligation to provide anonymous confession.

Canon 964
§1: The proper place to hear sacramental confessions is in a church or oratory.
§2: The conference of bishops is to issue norms concerning the confessional, seeing to it that confessionals with a fixed grille between penitent and confessor are always located in an open area so that the faithful who wish to make use of them may do so freely.
§ 3: Confessions are not to be heard outside the confessional without a just cause.

The U.S. bishops have noted the same in their own guidelines, approved by the Holy See:

On November 17, 1999, the Latin Rite de iure members of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops approved complementary legislation for canon 964, §2 of the Code of Canon Law for the Latin Rite dioceses of the United States.

The action was granted recognitio by the Congregation for Bishops in accord with article 82 of the Apostolic Constitution Pastor Bonus and issued by decree of the Congregation for Bishops signed by His Excellency Most Reverend Giovanni Battista Re, Prefect, and His Excellency Most Reverend Franciscus Monterisi, Secretary, and dated September 30, 2000.

Complementary Norm: The National Conference of Catholic Bishops, in accord with the prescriptions of canon 964, §2, hereby decrees the following norms governing the place for sacramental confessions:

Provision must be made in each church or oratory for a sufficient number of places for sacramental confessions which are clearly visible, truly accessible, and which provide a fixed grille between the penitent and the confessor. Provision should also be made for penitents who wish to confess face-to-face, with due regard for the Authentic Interpretation of canon 964, §2 by the Pontifical Council for the Interpretation of Legislative Texts, July 7, 1998 (AAS 90 [1998] 711).
 
Chatter163 said:
I am always shocked and saddened to hear that some parishes are not fulfilling their canonical obligation to provide anonymous confession.

Canon 964
§1: The proper place to hear sacramental confessions is in a church or oratory.
§2: The conference of bishops is to issue norms concerning the confessional, seeing to it that confessionals with a fixed grille between penitent and confessor are always located in an open area so that the faithful who wish to make use of them may do so freely.
§ 3: Confessions are not to be heard outside the confessional without a just cause.

The U.S. bishops have noted the same in their own guidelines, approved by the Holy See:

On November 17, 1999, the Latin Rite de iure members of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops approved complementary legislation for canon 964, §2 of the Code of Canon Law for the Latin Rite dioceses of the United States.

The action was granted recognitio by the Congregation for Bishops in accord with article 82 of the Apostolic Constitution Pastor Bonus and issued by decree of the Congregation for Bishops signed by His Excellency Most Reverend Giovanni Battista Re, Prefect, and His Excellency Most Reverend Franciscus Monterisi, Secretary, and dated September 30, 2000.

Complementary Norm: The National Conference of Catholic Bishops, in accord with the prescriptions of canon 964, §2, hereby decrees the following norms governing the place for sacramental confessions:

Provision must be made in each church or oratory for a sufficient number of places for sacramental confessions which are clearly visible, truly accessible, and which provide a fixed grille between the penitent and the confessor. Provision should also be made for penitents who wish to confess face-to-face, with due regard for the Authentic Interpretation of canon 964, §2 by the Pontifical Council for the Interpretation of Legislative Texts, July 7, 1998 (AAS 90 [1998] 711).
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Wow, I had no idea this was mandatory. I assume, however, that our parish is so small that true anonymity would be impossible no matter what. However, I suppose if someone passing through wanted to confess, they’d have to do so face to face with the priest. Oddly, though - and I’ve been there for a year or so now - I have not seen a single person go into the confessional room other then myself and our priest!
 
stavros388 said:
Wow, I had no idea this was mandatory. I assume, however, that our parish is so small that true anonymity would be impossible no matter what. However, I suppose if someone passing through wanted to confess, they’d have to do so face to face with the priest. Oddly, though - and I’ve been there for a year or so now - I have not seen a single person go into the confessional room other then myself and our priest!
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Historically, the reason for the “fixed grille” seems not to have been anonymity so much as it was propriety. In the ‘old days’ (and even moreso now, given the current climate, perhaps!) the concern was avoiding even the possibility of improper activity between the confessor and the penitent. Back in the day, then, the norms were were very particular in the case of female penitents (and were less concerned about the ‘place’ or ‘setting’ for male penitents). Today, the code is concerned both about propriety and giving the penitent the option for ‘face-to-face’ or ‘behind the screen’, as he desires.
 
I was in a Friary Church here in Ireland a while ago and was … surprised… to see through a very prominent glass door a lady in a red coat kneeling in clear public view before a closed door. As there was a queue for confession I assume that is what she was doing? It shocked me to be honest and I did not stay.
 
Rosebud77 said:
I was in a Friary Church here in Ireland a while ago and was … surprised… to see through a very prominent glass door a lady in a red coat kneeling in clear public view before a closed door. As there was a queue for confession I assume that is what she was doing? It shocked me to be honest and I did not stay.
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What’s shocking about a person kneeling in Church? :confused:
 
I’ve done that before and will do so when traveling or the confession schedule doesn’t mesh up with my personal/work schedule.
 
I actually know a friend who always goes to a parish other than her own as she says she is too ashamed to confess her sins to the pastor who she sees all the time.

I go to confession both at home and other places. Sometimes when I have time, I will grab a lunchtime confession near work, but other times, I will go at my home parish before Saturday mass.
 
My Catholic wife always goes to confession at a church other than our home parish. We’re pretty good friends with the priest and she just doesn’t feel comfortable confessing to him.
 
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