Confessionals vs Reconciliation Rooms

[veilofveronica]

Hi everyone,
I returned to a parish I used to attend as a teenager, over 20 years ago, and saw that the confessionals are now being used as closets for the altar servers’ robes, and there is a new reconciliation room where you can either sit facing the priest or kneel behind a screen.

I’ve mainly only been to churches with reconciliation rooms rather than confessionals as seems to be the new (and sad , IMHO ) trend in most churches…but why??? I get that some want to confess face to face, but why replace perfectly good confessionals with a room? I don’t get it…

 

[babochka]

Hi everyone,
I returned to a parish I used to attend as a teenager, over 20 years ago, and saw that the confessionals are now being used as closets for the altar servers’ robes, and there is a new reconciliation room where you can either sit facing the priest or kneel behind a screen.

I’ve mainly only been to churches with reconciliation rooms rather than confessionals as seems to be the new (and sad , IMHO ) trend in most churches…but why??? I get that some want to confess face to face, but why replace perfectly good confessionals with a room? I don’t get it…

If the Reconciliation Room offers an adequate option for confession behind a screen, why does it matter what the design is? I always confess face-to-face (Byzantine style, facing an icon of Christ, with the priest standing to the side) and have rarely been in a confessional or reconciliation room, so maybe I’m missing something, but I don’t see a difference. Perhaps some people desire more privacy?

 

[Cor_ad_Cor]

Most likely a matter of logistics. If the confessional doesn’t allow a single priest to accommodate both preferences unbeknownst to him ahead of confession time but the reconciliation room does, well…there’s your reason.

 

[brad90956]

Hi everyone,
I returned to a parish I used to attend as a teenager, over 20 years ago, and saw that the confessionals are now being used as closets for the altar servers’ robes, and there is a new reconciliation room where you can either sit facing the priest or kneel behind a screen.

I’ve mainly only been to churches with reconciliation rooms rather than confessionals as seems to be the new (and sad , IMHO ) trend in most churches…but why??? I get that some want to confess face to face, but why replace perfectly good confessionals with a room? I don’t get it…

As another poster stated, it could be logistics. My parish never had the traditional confessionals. I’ve been in both confessionals and reconciliation rooms and to me, it doesn’t make a difference. As long I get to confess my sins to God, through the priest, that is all I care about.

 

[Don_Ruggero]

Hi everyone,
I returned to a parish I used to attend as a teenager, over 20 years ago, and saw that the confessionals are now being used as closets for the altar servers’ robes, and there is a new reconciliation room where you can either sit facing the priest or kneel behind a screen.

I’ve mainly only been to churches with reconciliation rooms rather than confessionals as seems to be the new (and sad , IMHO ) trend in most churches…but why??? I get that some want to confess face to face, but why replace perfectly good confessionals with a room? I don’t get it…

I can only guess what you mean when you speak of a confessional that is now a closet.

This is a confessional, actually in Saint Peter’s Basilica. As a European priest, this is what I know as a “traditional confessional” – and this is larger than many. I don’t know how it could be used as a closet.

i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/03/29/article-0-1CAA5EB200000578-521_634x919.jpg

The priest sits as you see. If you want to go “face to face”, you do what Pope Francis is doing. If you don’t want to go “face to face,” you kneel in the alcove on either side and the confessor slides a partition when he is available to hear your confession. In this arrangement, there is then just a grill separating you – but the grill is not covered by a curtain…it is perforated so I see who is confessing and they would see me. We are a little bit obscured but not that much.

Here is an example of what you would often see when confessing in Europe behind the screen:
irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.1730881.1395672289!/image/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/box_620_330/image.jpg

When I have visited the United States, I have heard confessions in all sorts of arrangements:

• I have never heard them in the style of the confessionals we have in Europe, such as pictured.
• Some are built into the wall of the church or otherwise were a much more elaborate tripartite structure.
• Some had a curtain or drapery and some had slats that did not admit of much visibility while others had a type of grill or veil of sheer material that did little to obscure the penitent/confessor.
• Some were reconciliation rooms…more or less elaborate, spacious, and furnished. They had options to sit face to face or kneel with some level of anonymity
• Many times, because it was a penance service, I was at a “station” which had been created on the spot with an arrangement of chairs and, if available, a prie-dieu for the penitent.

These confessionals pictured are not particularly commodious. A cushion or two does much to help the confessor who must occupy them for long periods. When we close ourselves in, that is we shut all the panels, it is best the priest not have any tendency toward claustrophobia. Hours in this “box” will be trying for such a priest as air does not really circulate. I think that is one reason why American confessionals and reconciliation rooms, which are typically of more recent vintage than what we have in the older churches and chapels of Europe, are more accommodating and geared toward a less minimalist approach.

stpetersbasilica.info/Info/Prayer/Confessional-StPeter’s.jpg (The lower door is shut but the upper two panels are open)
exploringwanderer.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/confessional.jpg (All three panels are shut. The illuminated green light above the panels indicates a priest is inside the box and available to hear confessions)

 

[GoGoDiego]

It is a different situation in our Parish.

Since there is only ONE priest in our parish, there is no regular schedule of confessions done here. We have a confessional box, but is isn’t used anymore. When I want to confess, I will just approach the priest after Mass.

Every Lent, we have a communal penance service with individual confessions. This time, priests from the different Parishes of the Vicariate/District will come to our Parish and hear confessions face to face.

 

[Phemie]

I can only guess what you mean when you speak of a confessional that is now a closet.

This is a confessional, actually in Saint Peter’s Basilica. As a European priest, this is what I know as a “traditional confessional” – and this is larger than many. I don’t know how it could be used as a closet.

i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/03/29/article-0-1CAA5EB200000578-521_634x919.jpg

That’s the type of confessional I grew familiar with when I visited European churches a few years ago. They are similar to but more open than the ones I grew up with. In my part of Canada the confessionals were stand alone like the one in the picture but the priest’s section had a solid door and the penitents’ sections had heavy curtains to hide the person confessing. The fixed grills were covered by sliding panels on the priest’s side. When it was your turn to confess he’d slide the panel so that you had a dim view of the other side but couldn’t really make out any details. I doubt he could see any more of the penitent from his side since our side was pretty dark with most of the light blocked off by that heavy curtain.

What you would have likely seen in the OP’s parish would simply looked like three closet doors along one wall, the center door would have led to the priest’s section and the other two to the penitent’s sections. There might have been a light above each door to indicate whether the “booths” were occupied or not. Easy enough to convert those to clothes closets.

There were once two such multi-doored confessionals in my present parish, at the back of the nave, one on each side of the entrance. One was converted to a bathroom; the other was redesigned with one section turned into storage space and the other two sections combined with part of the narthex space to make a large Reconciliation Room.

Our Reconciliation Room allows for anonymous confession since there is a half wall with a grill between the entrance and the priest’s chair. The point of that is lost when, during the scheduled Confession hour, the priest sits out in the church and waits for someone to tap him on the shoulder and say “I’d like to confess,” rather than sitting in the well-lit, Reconciliation Room waiting for someone to come in.

 

[babochka]

It is a different situation in our Parish.

Since there is only ONE priest in our parish, there is no regular schedule of confessions done here. We have a confessional box, but is isn’t used anymore. When I want to confess, I will just approach the priest after Mass.

.

This seems strange to me. The vast majority of parishes in this area have only one priest, but I’ve rarely seen a parish that did not have scheduled confessions.

 

[Phemie]

This seems strange to me. The vast majority of parishes in this area have only one priest, but I’ve rarely seen a parish that did not have scheduled confessions.

We went without scheduled confessions for about 10 years. They were only reinstated about 3 years ago when we got a new Pastor.

 

[misspriss]

…

Our Reconciliation Room allows for anonymous confession since there is a half wall with a grill between the entrance and the priest’s chair. The point of that is lost when, during the scheduled Confession hour, the priest sits out in the church and waits for someone to tap him on the shoulder and say “I’d like to confess,” rather than sitting in the well-lit, Reconciliation Room waiting for someone to come in.

This is how ours is. And we got a new priest last year, and he removed the half wall (it folds in and out). He also cut back on scheduled confession and I have sit him sitting outside the reconciliation room at confession time (I suppose waiting on someone to come?). It really bothers me, I am trying to find another church to confess at regularly.

 

[GoGoDiego]

This seems strange to me. The vast majority of parishes in this area have only one priest, but I’ve rarely seen a parish that did not have scheduled confessions.

Because the only time people in our Parish flock to Confession in great numbers is during Lent. Outside of Lent, few people confess.

Also, that Priest (who is the Parish Priest) has a jampacked schedule daily and on Sunday admisters to the Pastoral concerns of 8 or so communities. He has to take it easy with his health as well, since he suffered a heart attack last September and the Parochial Vicar of the neighboring parish took on duties as acting Parish Priest until he recovered after a month. Last month, he declined my request for confession since he had an urgent appointment shortly after that Mass

 

[godisgood77]

6 of one, half dozen of the other. The venue does not matter, the disposition of the one doing the confessing and the presence of the priest are what make the sacrament tick. The venue is superficial.

 

[porthos11]

I’ve also never understood why there’s a perceived dichotomy between confessionals and reconciliation rooms. Reconciliation rooms ARE confessionals. Only the physical design is different.

 

[OraLabora]

Our abbey has a “reconciliation room”. The traditional-style confessionals were removed some years ago (similar to the ones in the picture but in a more modern style, also in wood). There is however a regular confession time, 1/2 hour before Mass.

However this room does have a screen and a kneeler, as well as two chairs for face-to-face confession. I always choose the latter. I have a regular confessor, so it doesn’t bother me to go face-to-face. Once when he was away another monk took his place and I went behind the screen. The problem is I know most of the monks and they know me. Even behind the screen we both recognized each other instantly and we had a bit of a laugh over that

It’s a lovely room BTW, and very conducive to the intended purpose. To me as long as the sacrament is carried not only validly but with great dignity, and it is at the abbey, then I’m happy regardless of the style of the confession area. We need to focus less on the externals, and more on what truly matters, the grace flowing from the sacrament.

I agree that for someone returning to the Church or a particular church after a long absence it can sometimes be jarring to be confronted with the changes that have taken place. I myself returned to the Church after a 22 year absence, and it took me a while to get used to the many changes I saw; after all I had last attended in 1975 before returning in 1997!!!

However some of the changes were for the better as some of the more outlandish experiments of the '70s had gone by the wayside and overall I found the Church much less stuffy and more welcoming than the Church of my childhood. I’ve also found virtually all the priests I’ve had the chance to interact with directly are most affable and approachable and take their ministry seriously in that they’re always ready to listen to a humble penitent in trouble.

 

[JimG]

My parish has always had the traditional tripartite confessionals, with the priest in the middle, and a room for a penitent on each side. When the church was remodeled, the confessionals were remodeled making them into three separate rooms, well lit, with doors. There is a fixed grille between priest and penitent, with a curtain on both sides of the grille, so neither priest nor penitent can see each other but they can hear each other.

Hypothetically, face to face confessions can be done if both the priest and penitent pull back their curtains, but in practice this is not done. The only drawback to face to face confessions that I can see is that they typically take longer, and so some in the confessional line might not get to go to confession. But one can always make an appointment.

 

[Vico]

Hi everyone,
I returned to a parish I used to attend as a teenager, over 20 years ago, and saw that the confessionals are now being used as closets for the altar servers’ robes, and there is a new reconciliation room where you can either sit facing the priest or kneel behind a screen.

I’ve mainly only been to churches with reconciliation rooms rather than confessionals as seems to be the new (and sad , IMHO ) trend in most churches…but why??? I get that some want to confess face to face, but why replace perfectly good confessionals with a room? I don’t get it…

Canon law (CIC)

Can. 964
§1. The proper place to hear sacramental confessions is a church or oratory.
§2. The conference of bishops is to establish norms regarding the confessional; it is to take care, however, that there are always confessionals with a fixed grate between the penitent and the confessor in an open place so that the faithful who wish to can use them freely.
§3. Confessions are not to be heard outside a confessional without a just cause.