Most unusual confessional

[anamchara]

That’s what the refrigerator is for. The penitent and the confessor sit on opposite sides. If the penitent wishes to make a face to face confession, he merely closes the refrigerator door.

No, I am not serious.

I think I’m going to be laughing about this all night now!!

Perhaps the Church was doing some cleaning and moving stuff around and someone put that in there?? Maybe they are about ready to remodel.

Oh my, I can’t stop laughing.

 

[porthos11]

I believe ya! Hmmmm… I sure do hope that those Store Security cameras… and especially hidden microphones… were not active at the time!

Though, not too long ago I had missed Confession time on Saturday afternoons that end 15 minutes before Saturday night (Sunday vigil) Mass was to start. My new pastor was in the vestibule, prior to going into the room where the priests robe… so I grabbed the moment to askhim if he might have time to hear my Confession before Mass. And if not, could he maybe have time to hear my confession after Mass?

He looked to me like he really wouldn’t have time, and I didn’t want to delay Mass, so when he said “will it be a long one?” I said, “well, no… it’s just that I’ve missed Mass the last 2 Sundays and I’m really sorry about that.”

He immediately said, “I absolve you! now, get into Mass!”

I absolve you [from your sins] in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. I’m concerned about the validity, sorry for the cold water.

 

[BradW]

Yesterday I went to a church that had a small room in the back labeled “Confessional.” I entered, there were three (?) chairs in it and a…refrigerator. Even the visiting priest admitted he had never seen a confessional with a refrigerator in it. Also, there was no screen for private confessions, either.

Maybe the priest finds people are less inhibited about confessing after a couple of brewskis…

 

[ImmaculataChamp]

Guess his point was that it was a ‘Most unusual confessional’

 

[VeronicaAnne]

I absolve you [from your sins] in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. I’m concerned about the validity, sorry for the cold water.

Thanks for your filial concern, porthos!

Actually, he said the entire form of Absolution. I just don’t remember that form, by heart, myself… so I just wrote those few words on this board to give y’all the sense that he conferred the complete Sacrament.

 

[porthos11]

Thanks for your filial concern, porthos!

Actually, he said the entire form of Absolution. I just don’t remember that form, by heart, myself… so I just wrote those few words on this board to give y’all the sense that he conferred the complete Sacrament.

Ah, okay.

 

[Holly3278]

At a church where I commonly go to confession at, the confessional doubles as a cry room and it has a couch in it if I remember correctly. Also, you can see through the front window of it so that you can see what is going on at Mass.

 

[BigRedpg51]

The thought that comes to mind for me, concerning the refrigerator in the confessional, is that maybe the priest might be a diabetic.

Insulin has to be refrigerated, and if the priest were to need a quick shot – or a regularly-scheduled shot of insulin he would have to close down the confession process, go to the refrigerator where he keeps his insulin (most likely in the rectory), take his injection, and then go back to the church to resume the confession process. Having a refrigerator in the confessional might make it a lot easier for him to access his insulin in a hurry if he needed it.

You might try asking the pastor of the parish…“Why do you have a refrigerator in the confessional?”

 

[puzzleannie]

That’s what the refrigerator is for. The penitent and the confessor sit on opposite sides. If the penitent wishes to make a face to face confession, he merely closes the refrigerator door.

No, I am not serious.

no you go to confession the way you talk to your husband
he (the priest or the husband) stands with the refrigerator door open staring at the food, wondering what he feels like eating, and you spill your guts. difference is the priest is listening, the husband is not.

seriously folks, the actual reason for the refrigerator is that they store the wine there, and in a hot muggy climate like ours, the jars of extra hosts as well, and sometimes even candles (we put the candles we will use for baptism there the day before, because if we left them out in the summer they would be soft the next day). there is probably no other convenient place with an outlet to put the refrigerator.

 

[lak611]

I had been used to confessionals that had wooden doors or reconciliation rooms with a door. I went to an old church that had confessionals with heavy black velvet curtains. I thought they were odd, but my mom told me that’s what the confessionals used to be like.

 

[Cavaille-Coll]

are you sure the racket wasnt to administer penance??

One church I attended was built in the early 1970’s by a priest who was firmly convinced that individual confessions were soon to be abolished in favor of penance services and general absolutions, which is what he did while he was pastor there. The circular church had no confessionals, just a sacristy (originally where the tabernacle AND church secretary made their home) and a small kitchen. The tabernacle is now up to the side of the altar, and the secretary has a proper office, but the kitchen remains the confessional and a kitchen, where coffee and donuts are served in the back of the church during bad weather.

 

[linebyline]

At NCYC 2005 in Atlanta, Georgia I confessed in a room with about 15 priests all hearing confessions spaced maybe 10 feet from each other. I had to block out all the confessions that I could hear around me.

I went to the Coming Home Network’s Deep In History conference a few weeks ago, and the Confessions there were face-to-face in a big room pretty much like you describe. But I think there were only about five priests, and we were far enough apart that we couldn’t really make out what anyone else was saying unless we really tried…(Which of course I didn’t, in case you wondered)…

I ended up going at the same time as my mother, and she remarked, “That’s the first time you and I have gone to Confession together.” Mom’s crazy.

That’s not nearly as good a story as the refrigerator, though.

 

[didymus]

Yesterday I went to a church that had a small room in the back labeled “Confessional.”

Hey, at least there was a room.
On All Saints’ Day I went to the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Albany. According to the bulletin Confessions are heard before Mass on Sundays & Holy Days so I wandered around the place like an idiot looking for a confessional or “reconciliation room” or even somebody standing around wearing a stole.

Finally I interrupted an elderly (well, a few years older than I) gentleman who was praying his Rosary to ask where the confessional was. He pointed me to a side altar, beside which there was a prie-dieu with a screen and a chair to the left of it. The side altar was not well lit, of course, and I never would have stumbled onto this setup w/o help.