Recently relocated and can't find a parish with a "private" confessional

[Diem]

I have tried two different parishes so far and both have confessionals without doors, or curtains for that matter. What is up with that? I really need absolution, but left both times because I don’t want everyone in line to hear my sins. It makes me wonder if it deters people in general from this Sacrament as the lines weren’t very long, or if it is just me that is frustrated by it.

If anyone knows of a church in the Daytona Beach, Florida area with private confessionals please let me know.

 

[Elizabeth502]

Don’t have the particulars you seek, but completely sympathize. I just want the option, first of all. There was recently a huge church built in my area. As with your situation, no doors whatsoever on the reconciliation “room” (area). No option for anonymity either. More shockingly, the one time I was in there recently, the confessor wasn’t even in the “designated area” but out in the pews, with a couple dozen people walking around. (!) You could not miss the fact that he was giving absolution to this woman. Maybe she was OK with that, and even asked for that out in the open.

This is a very “public”-location church in an urban area with tons of people walking in and out of the church on a regular basis.

I can see the value of optional face-to-face confession. Lots of value in that for those who seek it, are able to. I’ve done it several times myself. Especially effective if the priest has a genuine kind of “presence” to him & there is healing 2-way communication going on. But even then I like the idea of an enclosed space (or at least a corner of the church!), so that there is a solitary, removed sense of the sacramental event.

 

[FickleFreckled]

Since the molestation scandals, absolute privacy with a priest can be difficult to find. I can only speak about a few parishes here, but all I’ve been in have installed glass in the confessional doors so at least the penitent can be observed from the outside. Even the priest’s office may have a glass door. In one parish I was in, everything the priest and penitent said in a normal tone of voice could be clearly heard by people sitting in the
chapel waiting. If you call and schedule outside of normal confession times; you’ll probably meet in the priest’s office rather than the confessional.

 

[BamaRider]

Dang.

 

[Diem]

Since the molestation scandals, absolute privacy with a priest can be difficult to find. I can only speak about a few parishes here, but all I’ve been in have installed glass in the confessional doors so at least the penitent can be observed from the outside. Even the priest’s office may have a glass door. In one parish I was in, everything the priest and penitent said in a normal tone of voice could be clearly heard by people sitting in the
chapel waiting. If you call and schedule outside of normal confession times; you’ll probably meet in the priest’s office rather than the confessional.

I can understand the glass partitions and would be fine with that. I just don’t want to be heard and am not used to it. I moved from a large metro area where the confessionals in most of the churches were rooms with doors or at the least an old “booth” style with a heavy curtain where your voice was at least muffled.

I may have to make an appointment, but didn’t want to have to take the time of a busy priest, especially during the Advent season. I will call around to the rest of the area churches on Monday and ask about the set-up of their confessionals before just showing up like I have been. I may also call the parishes I did go to ask why they are set-up the way they are. It was just so surprising and I am disappointed because I really want to reconcile. I am feeling really bogged down and weighty in the meantime. It’s sad, too because the parish I visited today only has 30 minutes a week set aside for Confession so it can be tricky enough to get there in the first place. Oh well.