g_ncl, three questions: Are you saying that one who uses the confessional is not talking to the priest properly? In what way does the grill prevent one from speaking to the priest properly? Does that mean that you think that those of us who prefer to use the confessional do not confess properly?
I learned to receive the Sacrament of Penance/Reconciliation in the confessional booth/box, but I was forced to use face-to-face/confrontational confession after the Churches were stripped of most things that were clearly Catholic to casual observers, an experience which still leaves me feeling as though I should go to confession! Although my brain knows that my sins have been absolved, the rest of me is still “waiting to go to confession.”
On the plus side for the confrontational version, the priest/confessor may find it less sleep-inducing with eye contact possible, as compared to the endless voices droning on in the darkened confessional booths. Also, a lip reader, someone who hates kneeling, or someone who requires more time than is available within the normal time constraints of the confessional booth might prefer face-to-face confession.
Something intangible, though, is lost when the priest no longer speaks from behind the grill. The sinner using a confessional booth is in a darkened cubicle with little to distract him, and, in some of the booths, can only see what’s in his mind’s eye, if the confessional is totally dark. (Just you and God!) Even those booths with enough visibility to discern facial outlines are still dark enough to help to psychologically impress upon the sinner that he is in the process of petitioning God to accept his repentance so that he might be absolved of his sins through the Sacrament of Penance. The discomfort of the kneeler reminds us that we are penitants begging forgiveness. We’re confessing our sins TO GOD, not the priest, since he’s only a physical stand-in, and that fact is reinforced by the separation imposed by the confessional partitions. By abandoning the confessional booth, has the Sacrament of Reconciliation devolved from asking God to grant us absolution through His priest to an appointment in which we hope the priest will grant us absolution as a favor, as a friend might do?
When we say our confessions inside a cavernous room that echoes, a cry room with glass windows (so everyone passing by can see the intensity of the issues being discussed), an office, or even in a janitor’s room with its distracting cleaning compound odors, we can easily lose the idea that we’re talking to God, even though we know that our sins are absolved BY Him, THROUGH the priest, because we’re talking to the priest and he’s talking back to us in a discussion format. We detect his body and facial language, the look in his eyes as he speaks–his total manner; and sometimes we worry about possible signs of his thinking less of us, since we’re seeing each of his reactions, when we should be concentrating upon making perfect acts of contrition.
I’ve been in many, many spontaneous discussions with both men and women about the different venues for receiving the sacrament of penance. Our general concensus has been that in addition to the loss of mystique, we’ve lost a sense of the sanctity of the sacrament; the quality of reverence seems to be diminished, thereby placing less emphasis upon the fact that a sacrament is being bestowed upon the sinner. But how could it be otherwise, when “pomp and circumstance” is intended to exalt, and our exterior manifestations of “things which look Catholic” deliberately removed the “pomp and circumstance?”
I’ve heard priests indicate that they’d spent too much time hearing confessions because they’d gotten “off on a tangent.” I’ve heard parishioners say, “I didn’t intend to spend so long at confession–I got off on other topics.” Or, as they’re leaving, “Thank you, Father. I really enjoy talking to you. Sorry I got off on other things.” Hmmmm. So, the sacrament has been sidetracked? Enjoying talking to the priest is a prerequisite for the Sacrament of Penance? Did what was supposed to have been a sacrament devolve into what might have been discussed in an appointment? How could anything as important as a sacrament be shunted into a situation that might even possibly be construed as less important than it truly is?
In my experience, the janitor’s room and the office settings have been the worst. The cleaning smells are very distracting and aggravate allergies. The office situations require that we contend with interruptions of the phone, as well as what the OP experienced with someone walking into the confessional area. Confession has become so ordinary that it’s not treated with the reverence that is its due, either by priests or by congregants. Whereas we should look forward to reconcilation through the Sacrament of Confession, both priests and parishioners seem to view it as just another ordinary chore to get out of the way.
Face-to-face situations don’t seem very holy, although a sacrament is being received. Another negative is that our comfort level in talking with the priest later–normal priest/parishioner interaction–seems to subtly change. Some of us have even had a priest say something to us days later, in a hallway or the parking lot, that directly related to what he’d been told during our confession-turned-chat. The kind of laxity, or lack of formality, that fosters that kind of commenting just isn’t on the radar when the sacrament of confession is received “in the box.”
OP, talk to your priest about your concern, but be careful with your wording. Unless there was a sign on the door saying that confessioin was being heard, the janitor would have had no way of knowing what he’d seen/heard. You might suggest that a sign be utilized in the future, but you definitely won’t have that problem if you seek the sacrament in the confessional box.
