I do have a response for the quotes as given below: My disclaimer: I am an active, lay Catholic with no special theological training, so my opinions are just those.
My first and general reaction - Wow!
“The celebration of the sacrament of reconciliation with children is to be done in an open space that allows the penitent and the priest to be in full view of others.”
Doesn’t this seem to violate the possible desire of the child for his/her confession to be anonymous?
My response: Agreed witht the question. This strikes me as being a response to the child abuse scandal that has rocked the Church in the United States. It keeps the priest and the penitent from being in physical contact with each other. The confessional box, which sadly no longer exists in some parishes, accomplishes the same objective.
“The location of reconciliation rooms is to be in a high traffic area of the church building. Any new construction or renovation of reconciliation rooms is to provide for clear glass openings.”
So in other words, there’s no chance of actual confessionals ever being built… unless they’re made of glass.
My response: My understanding is that anonymous confession is to be made available to all comers. It seems to me that with clear glass, the priest could see the penitent clearly.
"The implementation of the “Two Deep” rule is to be the common practice. "
Again this seems to imply that there needs to be another adult present for the child to go to confession. What if the child wants to go to Confession at the normal Parish time on Saturday afternoon and nobody else is present? Does he/she have to say to mom/dad “Come with me to Church, I want to go to confession!” I can recall, in my childhood, going to Confession and Mass by myself on a Saturday night. Now children are going to be told not to do that?
My response: What is the “two deep” rule - I never heard of this. If it means what it implies, can the child’s parent overhear the child’s confession? That would be disasterous!
“The priest will set reasonable boundaries in his relationships with others. For example, counseling should generally not extend beyond three sessions, after which the priest should refer the individual to a qualified professional.”
This seems kind of silly… If a person is having a serious spiritual problem that a Priest is helping them work through, they are going to be limited to only meeting with him 3 times?
My response: I agree with the original respondent. I think there are some circumstances in which such a referral is appropriate even after one session, for example, thoughts of harming oneself. But there are others in which the professional may be qualified but might not understand (or may choose to ignore) Church teaching in certain areas. Each case is different.
(note: these are sarcastic, annoyed statements. I just can’t an appropriate animation to go with it)
