J
jtkalehua88
Guest
I attend Mass regularly at my local parish, but have gone to confession in a parish in a nearby city that has traditional confession rooms with a screen or a chair that sits in front of the priest to offer face to face confession. I prefer doing confessions in the other parish because of that reason.
I was going to go to confession at my local parish one day during my lunch break from work, the local parish does not have a traditional confessional. Father’s office is the confessional. The way father’s office is setup has two entrances, there’s one in the Narthex/Lobby area that is open, and there’s one in the Nave, a clear door that says confessional on it, but both entrances go into his office, he leaves the door in the Narthex open and his desk is right there, you can visibly see him sitting there from the Nathex and can hear him if your standing in the lobby.
He sits in his office in street clothes, a regular tshirt and black slacks, and he usually has his little pomeranian relaxing under the desk who likes to greet visitors who come into his office. No stole or anything. Usually if someone wants to walk in and talk to they can walk in through the lobby because he leaves that door open, if you want to do confession you have to enter through the “confessional” door in the Nave, where the line for confession forms. Usually people will walk in to ask questions as he leaves the lobby door open. You sit at his desk and confess, there’s no screen option available.
I ended up leaving because my hour lunch was almost up, as I left the Nave and walked out into the lobby to leave, I was shocked to see the door to his office out there was left open while a young man was in there at his desk confessing. I figured he would have closed the door in the lobby area as people came in to confess but he leaves it open all the time.
The whole confession process seems a bit informal to me, it’s a smaller church so I can understand them using Father’s office as a confessional, and maybe not investing in a privacy screen, but him being in street clothes and leaving the door in the lobby area open rubs me the wrong way. Am I wrong in feeling that way? Like I said I ended waiting until the weekend to do confession at a different parish, but I just didn’t feel like the way they handle confession was very formal, in my opinion.
I was going to go to confession at my local parish one day during my lunch break from work, the local parish does not have a traditional confessional. Father’s office is the confessional. The way father’s office is setup has two entrances, there’s one in the Narthex/Lobby area that is open, and there’s one in the Nave, a clear door that says confessional on it, but both entrances go into his office, he leaves the door in the Narthex open and his desk is right there, you can visibly see him sitting there from the Nathex and can hear him if your standing in the lobby.
He sits in his office in street clothes, a regular tshirt and black slacks, and he usually has his little pomeranian relaxing under the desk who likes to greet visitors who come into his office. No stole or anything. Usually if someone wants to walk in and talk to they can walk in through the lobby because he leaves that door open, if you want to do confession you have to enter through the “confessional” door in the Nave, where the line for confession forms. Usually people will walk in to ask questions as he leaves the lobby door open. You sit at his desk and confess, there’s no screen option available.
I ended up leaving because my hour lunch was almost up, as I left the Nave and walked out into the lobby to leave, I was shocked to see the door to his office out there was left open while a young man was in there at his desk confessing. I figured he would have closed the door in the lobby area as people came in to confess but he leaves it open all the time.
The whole confession process seems a bit informal to me, it’s a smaller church so I can understand them using Father’s office as a confessional, and maybe not investing in a privacy screen, but him being in street clothes and leaving the door in the lobby area open rubs me the wrong way. Am I wrong in feeling that way? Like I said I ended waiting until the weekend to do confession at a different parish, but I just didn’t feel like the way they handle confession was very formal, in my opinion.
