Question about confessional

[lightacandle]

In the Eastern Churches, a penitent can be seen kneeling or standing, or even sitting. Often the priest will have the penitent kneel for absolution, although it is definitely just as common to give it standing. I actually prefer to kneel, but I’m flexible and do what the priest directs me to do.

Very interesting. These are things I never knew. Thank you.

 

[tee_eff_em]

Yes, we are all sinners. No secret there. The confessional room at that church is a traditional confessional with a kneeler, screen, priest on the other side of the screen, a solid door and is probably pretty sound proof. You’d have to put your ear to the doorknob to try to hear anything. I do feel the room and anonymity was denied me b/c the priest wasn’t hearing confessions in the room during the weekly scheduled penance times. He probably would have gone to the confessional room with me, if I had asked, but by that time my anonymity is gone. I’m a convert to Catholicism and confession has never been easy for me so I need that screen and some semblance of anonymity and that’s what I feel was denied me last Saturday. It made it impossible for me (under the conditions I found) to confess. Anonymity may not be a right or promised during confession, but to me, I see it as a part of my individual privacy. I guess some people would not consider it as important as I do. So, it becomes a subjective experience at that point. I appreciate you taking the time to comment. Thank you.

But to repeat what I’d said previously in natural sized typeface: **Anonymity is not a right in confession, though individual privacy is.

Though many people believe they have a right to anonymous confession, they are mistaken. A fixed grate or grille is not impassable to light. Good grief! You should see some old world confessionals, which enclose the confessor “in the box” and behind a fixed grate, but leave the penitent kneeling outside, exposed to view of anyone in the church!

tee

 

[truetofaith]

Several times during the year, Christmas, Easter… they have about12 priests hear confessions for different parishes so many people can go. Since there are not that many confessionals…each priest has a section of the church & a line that forms for him.
Some priests are sitting with a chair for the penitent & some are standing. All are face to face.
The good thing is you can confess to a priest who doesn’t recognize you or your voice.

 

[Neofight]

The Code of Canon Law of the Latin Church states:

Can. 964 §3. Confessions are not to be heard outside a confessional without a just cause. (Confessiones extra sedem confessionalem ne excipiantur, nisi iusta de causa.)

Consult a canon lawyer about what constitutes a “just cause” (i.e. a good reason); but clearly the norm is the confessional.

ETA: cjb beat me to it.

And what constitutes a confessional…at our parish it simply a portable room divider with two hairs facing each other, and I’m sure it does not violate the Code

 

[JimG]

Since the church you describe did have a standard confessional with grille and door, it met the requirements of canon law. It seems to me that it should be used. You were not on a battlefield or having a Penance Service. My own parish has such confessionals that are not only soundproof and anonymous, but also well lit and relatively spacious. Everyone uses them.

 

[otjm]

I’ve given confessions in all kinds of places, even in the corner of an open room full of other people waiting their turn. The priest is forbidden from disclosing what you’ve confessed to anyone, but being within earshot of others is not all that uncommon, even in many confessionals.

But if I have something I need to confess, I’m concerned more with what Christ thinks than what those other sinners in line behind me think. Chances are they have their own issues in mind.

Yeah - I try not to overhear - I figure I am creative enough on my own…

 

[ccmcmg]

Is it possible that the confessional was too private? (Such as no windows?) Many parishes have the booth with NO option for face to face, outside of perhaps being able to move the grille (I’ve never tried to move it). That may be because of the scandal of the recent age, with sexual sins against children, or with other adults, in private.

 

[lightacandle]

Since the church you describe did have a standard confessional with grille and door, it met the requirements of canon law. It seems to me that it should be used. You were not on a battlefield or having a Penance Service. My own parish has such confessionals that are not only soundproof and anonymous, but also well lit and relatively spacious. Everyone uses them.

I agree with you. Thanks for commenting.

 

[lightacandle]

But to repeat what I’d said previously in natural sized typeface: ***Anonymity ***is not a right in confession, though individual privacy is.

Though many people believe they have a right to anonymous confession, they are mistaken. A fixed grate or grille is not impassable to light. Good grief! You should see some old world confessionals, which enclose the confessor “in the box” and behind a fixed grate, but leave the penitent kneeling outside, exposed to view of anyone in the church!

tee

I understand what you are saying. I’m just trying to get as much privacy as I can to meet my own needs. And I wanted to know what the church required. Having read some of the comments to my question, I now know that there seem to be many possibilities for how the sacrament of penance is offered in the United States, Europe and the Eastern rite. The church confessional room I described also has chairs placed face to face on the priest’s side of the screen for anyone wanting to confess face to face. It seemed to me this room offered pretty much everything the penitent might want. I am still dumbfounded as to why he doesn’t use it. But that is his issue. I honestly don’t recall if there is a window in the room or not. It is located on the outside wall of the church so, perhaps it does. I appreciate you taking the time to comment. Thank you.

 

[felsguy]

And there certainly is nothing wrong with someone seeking to find a church where they would be more comfortable going to confession just as one would be more comfortable confessing to a particular priest rather than another whenever feasible.

 

[lightacandle]

Is it possible that the confessional was too private? (Such as no windows?) Many parishes have the booth with NO option for face to face, outside of perhaps being able to move the grille (I’ve never tried to move it). That may be because of the scandal of the recent age, with sexual sins against children, or with other adults, in private.

This confessional does have two chairs face to face on the priest’s side of the screen. So that option is available. I cannot remember whether there is a window or not. The room is located on an outside wall, so perhaps it does have a window. It is not a very tiny room. I’d estimate 8 ft. by 8 ft. There is a door into a small area and then a door into the confessional itself. For all I know, this priest may be claustrophobic. Maybe small rooms bother him. Or, perhaps it is as you say, the need to leave no trace of impropriety. I appreciate you commenting.

 

[lightacandle]

And what constitutes a confessional…at our parish it simply a portable room divider with two hairs facing each other, and I’m sure it does not violate the Code

Interesting to hear how confessionals are so different from parish to parish.

 

[lightacandle]

And there certainly is nothing wrong with someone seeking to find a church where they would be more comfortable going to confession just as one would be more comfortable confessing to a particular priest rather than another whenever feasible.

Agreed.

 

[Don_Ruggero]

This confessional does have two chairs face to face on the priest’s side of the screen. So that option is available. I cannot remember whether there is a window or not. The room is located on an outside wall, so perhaps it does have a window. It is not a very tiny room. I’d estimate 8 ft. by 8 ft. There is a door into a small area and then a door into the confessional itself. For all I know, this priest may be claustrophobic. Maybe small rooms bother him. Or, perhaps it is as you say, the need to leave no trace of impropriety. I appreciate you commenting.

Ultimately, only the priest himself can answer your question; all we can really do is speculate.

Perhaps you should just ask him. As a priest, I never mind answering questions like this…so long as they are framed in a way that is seeking to understand and is not accusatory or demanding. That is especially important when the person asking would be a visitor to my parish and not, properly speaking, my own parishioner who was canonically part of my parish and therefore the care of whose soul was, properly, my responsibility.

I would presume the priest has a reason for what he is doing. I have followed the thread with some interest and, it is what you just wrote that allows me to tell you why I would be reluctant to use it: you describe a room in which there is no physical barrier between me and the person who has come into the room. Depending upon where I am and my familiarity and comfort level with the situation and the people of the area, that could be tolerable but in other instances, no. Especially if the person who comes in is situated between me and the door. If we are each in our own compartment, that is a completely different matter.

Our old style confessionals in Europe have a place for the confessor in the middle and there are fixed grilles in alcoves on either side of him and people kneel there – but there is no door or curtain blocking their view by passers-by nor is the grille necessarily opaque…one can still normally see through it if the penitent and confessor were looking at each other.

If one wishes to confess face to face, you knock on the door to where the confessor is sitting which, typically, the top half is thrown open and thus opens as one or two windows but the lower half is solid, like a half door…assuming he has closed himself in.

Some priests don’t mind being closed in and others of us don’t close the top bit but leave it open for a bit of air and to not feel so claustrophobic. It depends upon how big the box is. Leaving the top bit open also allows passersby to ask for a blessing for themselves or an article of piety, ask for prayer, or otherwise ask a question. If closed, though, the confessor opens the top half when you knock and the penitent either kneels on the confessional’s threshold or stands and confesses…but again s/he is standing in an open space and there is a physical barrier between the two – the lower door to the box.

Over the decades, I have heard confessions in most every way conceivable. In airports and hospitals, it’s catch as catch can frankly. Others have talked about penance services and one there is using make-shift stations.

Personally, I prefer the old style confessional I have described but greatly shy away in this day and age from the reconciliation room. It is too discomforting.

 

[AJB328]

Confessing outside a confessional actually isn’t a new, post Vatican II thing. I was reading a book on Padre Pio and he heard confessions from men in the sacristy. The men would line up at the door and he call them to step forward and the whole thing was probably within earshot of everyone else.

Women confessed in a confessional, but it wasn’t like the almost sound proof confessionals we think of with solid walls, it just had a small curtain that left the lower half of your body exposed.





How’d you like to have your picture taken while confessing!

Personally, I go to several parishes and always seem to confess at the one with the best confessional with the thickest walls.

The lines at those confessionals always seem to be a lot longer too.