Online confession/ receiving of sacraments

[francis24]

wait i dont mean to hurt my catholic faith nor our church but, i am just curious since we are living in a technoworld, how about having an online confession of course, a one on one with a priest via skype maybe in an enclosed room? how do you comment on this situation?

 

[jmcrae]

wait i dont mean to hurt my catholic faith nor our church but, i am just curious since we are living in a technoworld, how about having an online confession of course, a one on one with a priest via skype maybe in an enclosed room? how do you comment on this situation?

It would be like making your Confession in front of the megaphone at a hockey game. Every technical support person in the line between your computer and the priest’s computer would read or hear your Confession, and his responses. Keep in mind, these devices were designed for communicating with the whole world; not for privacy.

Bad idea.

 

[LilyM]

We’ve lived in a techno world for quite a while.

The telephone is well and truly over a century old for starters.
The telegraph enabled fast long-distance communication well before the internet.
Which itself has been around for about 20 years, so it’s hardly old news.

In spite of all these well-established means of distance communication, the Church has stood firm that sacraments - all of them - need to be administered in person. With the single and incredibly rarely used exception of proxy marriage, and no others.

As has been pointed out, long-distance confession leads to an incredibly grave risk of one’s confession being overheard (overread?) by third parties. In fact I’ve seen serious warnings that one should remove the battery from one’s cell phone before one enters the confessional. Seems that at least some phones can otherwise be remotely activated unbeknownst to the owner, and serve as a bugging device enabling the confession to be listened into.

 

[lutherlic]

wait i dont mean to hurt my catholic faith nor our church but, i am just curious since we are living in a technoworld, how about having an online confession of course, a one on one with a priest via skype maybe in an enclosed room? how do you comment on this situation?

Beyond the security issue already pointed out, you would not be in the presence of the priest acting in persona christi to receive absolution. This distancing between yourself and your confessor would have to be harmful to reception of the sacrament.

If this were to be allowed (I am pretty sure it isn’t), it would not be far to reconciliation by e-mail or confessing then playing a taped absolution or… to simply confessing privately to God. If this were OK, then it would stand to reason that it would be likewise for other sacraments.

It will never happen (I hope).

 

[acadian]

The sacraments are a personal** encounter with the Risen Lord. The Eucharist can’t be FedEx’d to someone without access to a priest. Baptisms can’t be done on closed circuit TV. Holy Orders isn’t conferred by telephone. And confessions can’t be heard by email or telephone or any other way except person to person (face to face or with a screen). Thankfully we have a God who isn’t afraid to reach out and touch us!

 

[Marie5890]

That would be one hell of a liturgical abuse.

 

[Jennifer_G]

That would be one hell of a liturgical abuse.

And yet, I get teased about that by (former/non-Catholic) family members each time I go to confession (that there should be a drive-through confessional or confession online).

 

[LilyM]

And yet, I get teased about that by (former/non-Catholic) family members each time I go to confession (that there should be a drive-through confessional or confession online).

Tell them you’ll look into it - as soon as their shrinks and counsellors offer exactly the same service. It achieves just as much good, only you’re not hundreds of dollars out of pocket and they are