Discussion: Catholic Short Film Winner, "Confession"

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SPOILER ALERT ****’
because frankly, you cannot discuss this without laying out all the facts about it.

I watched this a few months ago. It is, IMO, very much the modern view of Catholic–the emphasis is on mercy. And of course, thank God for mercy. But there is as always mercy done right, and mercy done wrong. This is mercy done wrong. This is all feelings and deciding that doing wrong to make somebody ‘happy on earth’ is better than doing right and supposedly being hurtful.

At the risk of being Sour Sally, I have to say that ‘earthly comfort’ cannot take the place of heavenly.

The priest had the power of giving another person earthly joy by telling a lie. Thing is, when the person dies, that person is going to know he lied. So he was given a few moments of ‘temporal happiness’ thinking that he had NOT killed a person in a hit and run (a person who turned out to related to the priest, who had witnessed the hit and run and who was devastated by it) but now the man is going to spend eternity knowing that that happiness was false. That not only did they actually in fact kill a person, but the person’s own son, a priest, lied about it. IMO the priest slapped God in the face, “Hey, God, I know you commanded us not to lie, but I just HAD to lie to make this person happy, so guess what? I’m going to ignore YOU because I know best. I am going to make this person, as the recipient of my lie, complicit in it. And of course, since I am the main victim (alive) of this man, I’m showing, by my lying and flouting of Your law, how much ‘better’ I am in doing wrong than You, God, demonstrate in asking us to do what is right”.

I was really kind of disgusted with it. Again, it’s the slickly packaged, 'New Church" which is supposedly taking the place of the old ‘rigid’ one. We lie, we cheat, and we steal. . .but it’s because we care. The end justifies the means, and to hades with a God who demands ‘rules’; we are ‘better than that’.

(Well, you asked for my opinion, and since I can visit CA on Lent Sundays,. . .you just lucked out. 😀
 
I’m not sure who is giving out the awards, but it seems like in this case the priest committed a sin that was totally unnecessary and also takes away from God’s gift of forgiveness. I find it a bit odd that this is celebrated in a Catholic movie.
 
I have seen this before, but watched it again. I think the message of Mercy and forgiveness of sins for everyone is the whole point. The priest showed great mercy and forgiveness to a dying man. The priest, sitting in for Christ, forgave the man his sins. The priest, as the son, forgave him personally. He apologized to his own father for lying to show mercy, and he will ask forgiveness for his sin to God as we all do.
 
SPOILERS click to view

I don’t understand why the priest lying to the dying man and letting him think he did not kill anyone after all was somehow more comforting than the message that God forgives even the worst sins. I would think the forgiveness of God, properly presented, and coupled with the forgiveness of the dead man’s family (i.e. the priest himself, personally) would make the man just as happy as thinking he hadn’t really killed anyone. Maybe happier and more comforted.

I was also on the edge of my seat worrying that the man would die of his illness and overwrought state either in the confessional or in the pew before the priest got around to absolving him.

Finally, I know it’s only a movie, but I would think the priest would realize he was sitting in persona Christi and give the absolution without it getting all caught up with his own emotional, personal forgiveness issues.

I think I’ll stick with Hitchcock’s “I Confess”.
 
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I watched this about a dozen times prior to my reversion. It gave me a lot of hope, and some courage to get back in the confessional. I loved the beginning and the part where the priest says the Lord’s Prayer. However, the ending, the part where he lies, I didn’t get that. IMO, it was a good movie and depending on where you are in your faith journey, it can offer a great deal of hope. They kind of ruined it with that ending though. Any semi-formed Catholic should know that sin is never justified, regardless of the intended outcome. They could have left it with the Lord’s Prayer and the priest absolving the man and it would have been perfect.
 
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I agree with you. I thought after the priest prayed, he would simply go absolve the man. Then when the priest began to tell a story, I thought it was a plot twist, that it had really happened the way the priest said. Then at the end it is revealed he lied. And the priest is not even praying to God about how he lied, he is talking to a picture of his own dad. It seemed out of character for a priest.
 
It’s emotionalism. Unfortunately in today’s society everything is about emotions. It’s actually a very clever tactic on the part of "old scratch’ to take an authentic Catholic teaching, that God offers us mercy and forgiveness, and twist it just that little bit to make it not about God offering mercy, but about us ‘going beyond God’ so that it’s about ‘our offering mercy’.

SPOILER ALERT *******’

That is what the priest did. He didn’t offer God’s mercy; he didn’t say, yes, you sinned against God, against me and my family, and against yourself by running and hiding and trying to ‘go beyond’ the killing, but God offers you forgiveness of your sin, and in His name and because HE gives you forgiveness, I am able to do so as well."

No, the priest offered ‘his’ mercy. And his mercy involved complicity in the man’s original sin and attempt to hide from it by saying, "No, see, it never really happened, so be at peace, you weren’t a killer and God doesn’t have anything to forgive you!

The man never had the opportunity to seek God’s forgiveness, because the priest didn’t allow him to do so. The priest didn’t act in persona Christi, but rather usurped God’s position. The priest refused to offer God’s mercy because the priest felt it was ‘too hard’ on the man. The priest took it upon himself to ‘erase’ the sin. And then the priest never even spoke with God, but rather, tried to excuse himself to --yup, his father, another ‘man’. God was completely out of the equation despite this being a Catholic priest dealing with a Catholic layperson in a Catholic church. It could have just as easily, and without sin, been a lay psychologist in his office realizing his client was the one who had killed his parent in a hit and run, and deciding for the guy’s ‘mental health’ to tell him that the event didn’t happen.
 
Thinking back over the past great films about emotionally tortured priests such as “I Confess” and “The Exorcist”, the films generally focus on the conflict between what the priest needs to do in his capacity as a priest - e.g. not break the seal of confession, maintain priestly vows, continue in his duties as a priest even when it means separation from people he dearly loves - and the priest’s personal emotions. This conflict, like all the 1,000,000 cop, lawyer, war officer etc movies dealing with similar conflicts, makes for a good movie.

This film was going along down the same line and doing a very good job up until the priest started lying to the guy.
 
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