How do they know you went to confession

[Pug]

Well, that’s absolutely true. The seal “attaches” as soon as the Confession begins and is not dependent on absolution. But I was talking about a kid who came to “Confession day” but didn’t actually go to Confession. The seal hasn’t attached yet.

Oh, yes, I agree if they just sign an attendance paper and sit in a pew. I get it.

If you go to a priest to get advice, it’s perfectly acceptable to expect confidentiality but it isn’t Sacramental.

Agreed.

 

[R_C]

Well, you can confess anytime…the Advent and the Lent are two specific times that the Church has dedicated to penance…thus the presence of more specific “penance services” in order to allow a greater number of faithful to confess…

As for the “how do they know” part, when you confess it is almost always the case that the first question will be: “when was your last confession?”.

Anyways, you may want to find out a bit more on the “precepts of the Church”, the Catechism covers them in point II here. Confession is required at least once a year, any time. Reception of the Most Sacred Body of Christ is also required - if God allows it - once a year. As for Advent and Lent, the Church requires us to observe the prescribed fasting and abstinence…sounds harsh, but it truly is a very light yoke…

---

“Ecce in manibus meis descripsi te”

 

[HisIsTheCrown]

Of course he does! His Holiness has appointed the man for that purpose among others. I suppose you’re not sure he sees his personal physician when he is I’ll either.

The relevant canon states that a priest may not use ‘knowledge acquired IN confession’. As has been pointed out, the identity of a penitent is something anyone who sees that person walk into or out of the confessional has. It is not knowledge acquired IN the confessional. In fact being that lots of people confess anonymously, it is something fellow
parishioners can know easily while the priest remains ignorant!

Simply I do not know and I do not care.
JP II was operated not by his physician but by a surgeon when he was shot.
I simply do not know whether the Pope wants and needs to see other priest other than his personal Confessor.
The old confessionals had grids so that no one would see the other side. One women may come with a veil hiding her face.
As for me, I try to avoid even looking to who is in the Church at the time of confession, what is people doing and so on.
I just close my eyes and pray and mind my own business for confession is a touchy subject.

 

[HisIsTheCrown]

Back when my younger child was preparing for First cOnfession and First Communion, we were out of town when the class had their First Confession service.

The [edited] DRE hounded us before First Communion to make SURE that my son had been to confession before receiving Jesus. I would bet money on the fact that the priest confirmed this sacramental event for the DRE.

BTW, I am not unsympathetic to the position of the DRE. I imagine that it gets discouraging to see the abuses year after year… I know she was just trying to do what she thought was her job.

I start as you did: Back when my younger child, adults would tell me my sins. I would not need to make an exam of conscience because Adults would do it for me: “That is a sin!”; “You cannot go to communion for you did a mortal sin!” I always suspected, even then, that there was something smelly about the Adults conscience examination. My sins were always when I disobeyed them what I find it now a clever way to put unruly boys on good behavior. The thing did not result very well for if we were in mortal sin, it meant lost for 1 lost for 1000, so we were lost, so we could do whatever wanted for we were already in mortal sin.

That is me talking now for then we were afraid of going to hell, but sincerely, a child could not spend much time thinking of that, so we rarely went to communion, for after confession and the communion, no sooner than a Holy Father was said, we were already in mortal sin again.

I always imagined to be in grace as being with the inside of me white and being in mortal sin as being the inside of me black. Sincerely, not entirely black but a kind of grey.

Good old times…

 

[HisIsTheCrown]

Children: that is something special. You are dealing with a child, you must be sure that the child goes to confession, help him prepare the confession, that is pedagogic. Children sins are children sins. Many times it is very difficult to help a child to prepare for confession. What should she confess. The danger is to mix sins against society (like lying to your parents, knowing that lying is a childish way of behaving that we cal inventing or making stories) to the sins against God, meaning what God wants the child to do (let us remember the 3 shepherds in Fatima, Bernardette in Lourdes and so on).

Adults: that is completely different. I would say that at the time Piaget calls the stage of reflection (12-13 years onwards) there is a privacy that must be kept.

I would not say that counting children would be a break of the secrecy of confession. As for adults, commenting on who went to confession, yes.

 

[LilyM]

Simply I do not know and I do not care.
JP II was operated not by his physician but by a surgeon when he was shot.
I simply do not know whether the Pope wants and needs to see other priest other than his personal Confessor.
The old confessionals had grids so that no one would see the other side. One women may come with a veil hiding her face.
As for me, I try to avoid even looking to who is in the Church at the time of confession, what is people doing and so on.
I just close my eyes and pray and mind my own business for confession is a touchy subject.

For someone who doens’t care, you were awfully insistent that there is no way that we can know. On the contrary, it’s incredibly easy to know.

Yes, JP2 was attended by a specialist on that one occasion - because on that one occasion he needed care that was beyond the capabilities of his own physician to provide. It’s called an emergency.

And if Benedict were dying, and desperately in need of confession for that reason, doubtless he would employ the services of any priest who was handy. Otherwise there is no need.

As I said before, the man is hand-picked by His Holiness for the job. Rest assured then that he does it! No point appointing him otherwise.

And a Pope wants multiple priests to confess to, he surely can and doubtless will appoint multiple confessors. Why not?

In either case, we KNOW who he confesses to. To repeat, maybe if he were in the middle of nowhere and/or in danger of death he would confess to someone else, but Benedict has not been in that position during his time as Pope.

 

[Corki]

Children: that is something special. You are dealing with a child, you must be sure that the child goes to confession, help him prepare the confession, that is pedagogic. Children sins are children sins. Many times it is very difficult to help a child to prepare for confession. What should she confess. The danger is to mix sins against society (like lying to your parents, knowing that lying is a childish way of behaving that we cal inventing or making stories) to the sins against God, meaning what God wants the child to do (let us remember the 3 shepherds in Fatima, Bernardette in Lourdes and so on).

There are several good Examens developed for children of different ages. Mixing up categories of sin is hardly a “danger” since they all should be confessed.

Adults: that is completely different. I would say that at the time Piaget calls the stage of reflection (12-13 years onwards) there is a privacy that must be kept.

The privacy of what is confessed must be kept for all children - not just the ones over 12. Even if a parent or teacher is helping the child to prepare, the actual content of what is going to be confessed shouldn’'t be shared.

Of course, none of this has to do with the seal of Confession.

 

[Corki]

I know when my daughter was to receive her first communion, the DRE said that the diocesan requirements were that confession must be made available to all the communicants. She did not know who confessed from who just went in a talked with father. I’m sure some of the kids may not have even reached the age of discernment (and some never will).

If you are talking about the Latin Church, children who have not reached the age of discretion shouldn’t be receiving First Holy Communion either unless they are in danger of death. There are some exceptions for children who have serious developmental delays or diminished cognitive capacity but those would be handled as special cases.

 

[HisIsTheCrown]

For someone who doens’t care, you were awfully insistent that there is no way that we can know. On the contrary, it’s incredibly easy to know.

Yes, JP2 was attended by a specialist on that one occasion - because on that one occasion he needed care that was beyond the capabilities of his own physician to provide. It’s called an emergency.

And if Benedict were dying, and desperately in need of confession for that reason, doubtless he would employ the services of any priest who was handy. Otherwise there is no need.

As I said before, the man is hand-picked by His Holiness for the job. Rest assured then that he does it! No point appointing him otherwise.

And a Pope wants multiple priests to confess to, he surely can and doubtless will appoint multiple confessors. Why not?

In either case, we KNOW who he confesses to. To repeat, maybe if he were in the middle of nowhere and/or in danger of death he would confess to someone else, but Benedict has not been in that position during his time as Pope.

Distinguo: as it was said in the old times in the Middle Ages.
I do not care in real life.
I care here.
Of course you may know who is going to confession. You just stare at the confessional and take notes. You may take the mobile to secretly take pictures too.
But that is not what I am saying.
It seems you are giving orders to the Pope, no? He needs, he does not need, he does, he does not do…he should do…
I am not talking about the confessor. I am talking about confessions. Do you know how many times the Popes goes to confession ?
God Bless You

 

[HisIsTheCrown]

There are several good Examens developed for children of different ages. Mixing up categories of sin is hardly a “danger” since they all should be confessed.

The privacy of what is confessed must be kept for all children - not just the ones over 12. Even if a parent or teacher is helping the child to prepare, the actual content of what is going to be confessed shouldn’'t be shared.

Of course, none of this has to do with the seal of Confession.

I would distinguish between children and adults. The Church does. No child under 6/7 goes to confession. It is an utterly different world. There is a stage of childhood that the Church says that they are unable to sin. And things develop slowly. It is not one day they are unable, the next day they commit mortal sin.

 

[Corki]

I would distinguish between children and adults. The Church does. No child under 6/7 goes to confession. It is an utterly different world. There is a stage of childhood that the Church says that they are unable to sin. And things develop slowly. It is not one day they are unable, the next day they commit mortal sin.

Yes, all understood. What I was replying to was your earlier comment. It sounded like you were saying that parents or teachers should have discussions with children who are preparing for Confession and sort through thier sins with them. That would mean the child would have to tell the parent/teacher what sins he intended to confess. That would be inappropriate at any age, not just after age 12.

By definition, if the child is being prepared to go to Confession, the determination has already been made that he is of sufficient age.

 

[MissRose73]

I would hope if going to Confession first is a requirement for Confirmation, First Communion and/or Matrimony, that people would not lie to the priest that they have gone when they may have not done so if the priest ask when they last went (and ask them to go if its been too long since last time). I do not always go to the same confessor each time but I know that I have gone and have been absolved.

Many churches lists in their bulletins and websites that children normally participate in a 2 year program leading up to go for their First Confession then First Eucharist in the 2nd grade. Many parishes are strict on the fact that even children who are 7/8 years old have gone to Confession before Eucharist first even if most children of that age are not capable of certain sins. My mother and her sister certainly remember they had to have Confession before 1st Communion (pre Vatican 2).

In the mid 1980s, the rule in the diocese I lived in was that First Confession was saved for after First Communion. My 1st Confession class was mainly 9 and 10 year old children in it. It must have been changed long after that to have Confession first before 1st Communion. I do not recall the priest telling my Confirmation class we needed Confession before Confirmation during the day long retreat we had to attend as 16/17 year old teenagers.

 

[thomasf]

We do that too. All of the First Communion students and those preparing for Confirmation must attend Confession. We usually have two sessions specially for them and they sign in. There is nothing wrong with requiring them to go. You just can’t require them to actually** participate **in the Sacrament. If a child were to go into the Confession and say, “Father, I am here because Mrs. Mean CCE teacher made me come and I don’t want to confess.” there’s nothing we could do about that.

The big “catch 22” is that if the person doesn’t actually confess, there is no seal. There’s nothing to keep Father from later telling the parents and teacher what the kids said. (not that he’s ever done that )

Here’s a thought too. If the priest knows the kid didn’t confess at confession, can he withhold first communion from him? Hmmmmm…

 

[HisIsTheCrown]

Yes, all understood. What I was replying to was your earlier comment. It sounded like you were saying that parents or teachers should have discussions with children who are preparing for Confession and sort through thier sins with them. That would mean the child would have to tell the parent/teacher what sins he intended to confess. That would be inappropriate at any age, not just after age 12.

By definition, if the child is being prepared to go to Confession, the determination has already been made that he is of sufficient age.

 

[Corki]

Here’s a thought too. If the priest knows the kid didn’t confess at confession, can he withhold first communion from him? Hmmmmm…

Not if the kid is in the line and presents himself for Communion. Now, if the teacher or DRE knows that the kid didn’t go to Confession, the kid may not be allowed to participate in the FHC Mass with the rest of his class. And the pastor would probably have to make, or at least support, that rule. But that doesn’t mean he couldn’t just go with his family on Sunday and receive his FHC without the group.

 

[YADA]

I believe that most parishes just trust that you will do so … though in RCIA for more then a decade -` I do know some candidates failed to … sadly

My grandson was given a certificate [First Reconcilliation] when he was preparing for his First Holy Communion - the priest signed at the time of Confession - after the confession and before he left … and that works very well for our DRE …

I am not sure what the youth minister does with the Conformandi … I guess when my grandson is confirmed ] I will find out

 

[LilyM]

Distinguo: as it was said in the old times in the Middle Ages.
I do not care in real life.
I care here.
Of course you may know who is going to confession. You just stare at the confessional and take notes. You may take the mobile to secretly take pictures too.
But that is not what I am saying.
It seems you are giving orders to the Pope, no? He needs, he does not need, he does, he does not do…he should do…
I am not talking about the confessor. I am talking about confessions. Do you know how many times the Popes goes to confession ?
God Bless You

Ok, let’s imagine that I say to you ‘of course Obama lives in the White House, it’s the official residence of the POTUS, and all Presidents for the past 200 years have done so. Of course he could choose to live elsewhere, but if he did so then the White House would cease to be his official residence and wherever he chose to live would be the new one.’

That isn’t me giving orders to him or anyone. It’s just an accurate description of the history and protocol of the matter, and an accurate conclusion as to the behaviour of Obama based on that history and protocol.

 

[jmcrae]

Here’s a thought too. If the priest knows the kid didn’t confess at confession, can he withhold first communion from him? Hmmmmm…

Not in our Diocese, since we would simply assume that, a) the child went elsewhere for Confession, or b) honestly examined himself and found that he had nothing to confess. It would not be a valid confession if the child went in but didn’t confess anything, and you don’t want to teach the child to make up stories just for the sake of the ritual - better he skip it than make up stories.