Is a Penance Service the same as Reconciliation?

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Hello Everyone, I hope you are all safe. Tomorrow my Parish will be offering a Penance Service. Because of Covid-19, confessionals will not be used. During the service, scriptures will be read, a short homily, we will hand in our confessions on paper. We will recite the Act of Contrition, followed by Penance and Absolution.
Part of me is glad that I am able to write this down because I can include everything and not forget anything and not have to worry. But this has let my scrupulosity have time to overthink and I have come up with a full page. I don’t want to hold up the line. I have a couple of questions for it. Has anything participated in something like this before? Does the Priest read everyones papers? (To himself). And is this the same type of absolution as normal Reconciliation? I would assume so but I would like to make sure as I’ve read that Confessions are supposed to be read aloud to the Priest. Thank you 🙂
 
Sounds like they are doing general absolution if they are having everyone turn in a paper confession.
 
It is possible, depending on your location, that your bishop has authorized general absolution, which is not the standard way of things. The Apostolic Penitentiary said a couple of months ago that this was a possibility during Covid.
 
This would be highly illicit and almost definitely invalid. It would violate the seal of confession. This is not an acceptable way to offer the Sacrament of Penance. You should decline to participate. This is absolutely wrong.

-Fr ACEGC
 
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I am 18 and I would say I am very quiet within the Parish. Is this still wrong, even in times of Covid-19? My state got hit pretty hard. Is there anything that would make this valid?Should I make an appointment to confess my sins then? I’ve created a list that I can no longer ignore. Recently I’ve gotten a fear of death and I’m worried that if I don’t confess soon, I may not get a chance to. What do you recommend? (I have already messaged a therapist appointment today but I don’t know when I will get a response).

Also I should ask, would it be a sin for me to not report it? Also how would this be breaking the seal of confession? No words will be spoken with the papers
 
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It is not your responsibility to report it. You incur no sin by not doing so.

You should make an appointment to go to Confession, and you should wait to hear from your therapist. Those are the only two things you need to do.

-Fr ACEGC
 
No, they did not. I am hoping that a garbled instruction was sent out and it will be rectified. Making a poor penitent turn over a written list of sins would be, well, um, less said about that, the better.
 
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Is there any nearby Parish (including this one) where a one on one confession can be arranged?
 
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I intend on calling tomorrow to see if I can make a private appointment, if not I will see if I can at a different local parish. It would probably be easier to go to another Parish for normal confession but now that I have a list I think it may be a better idea to talk through everything with a Priest in a private Confession
 
Sounds good. Dont forget to burn that list when you are done - Peace
 
Normally, a penance service is exactly what you describe except that each person has the opportunity to verbally and privately confess to a priest (not hand in a piece of paper). When done that way, it’s perfectly fine. It’s the paper and lack of verbalizing your sins that’s at issue here, just so you’re aware for other future occasions where you might encounter a penance service.
 
My family is urging me to go to the service tonight. Would it be a sin for me to go and participate? We are going to see if the Priest is available but we probably won’t know for a couple days. The papers we write on will be burned. I will not receive the Eucharist at the Mass after if this is an invalid way of doing it. I am pretty lost on what to do
 
It wouldn’t be a sin for you to go with your family, but you should not take up your list to be burned. Again, this isn’t the sacrament of penance. You might want to talk to your family about your reservations about this.
 
I have tried but they don’t seem to understand the way I do. They think that sometimes there needs to be change. Because of the virus and apparently other Churches are doing this (I have not seen anything about that yet) they think its a good idea for me to do it too. I am very worried about not getting to confession soon. I really don’t know what to do. Also it is not exactly as easy to just go to another Church for confession as I have created a whole page of things I think I need to confess.
 
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Yes, I would agree. I just don’t know if I should wait this out, go to therapy. Or set up an appointment with a Priest and get confession then. It’s really not easy because I’ve recently gotten a fear about death and the thing about not knowing the time or the hour is scaring me. I feel the need to get to confession ASAP but don’t know when that will be. Is it a sin for me to participate tonight? I can’t really find much guidance outside of this forum about it, I have people telling me different things I really don’t know what to do
 
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Pug said:
The Apostolic Penitentiary said a couple of months ago that this was a possibility during Covid.
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Actually, what they did was repeat and emphasize the norms already in Canon and liturgical law, in an effort to head off abuses such as found in the OP.
 
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