The Catholic Church's Problem with Confession

  • Thread starter Thread starter mywordshalom
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
The problem with that line of thinking is that if you know the priest will turn you in and you do not want to go to the police yourself you simply won’t go to Confession and there will be nothing to report. I mean seriously, if you know they’ll report you why go?
 
Video and transcript at “The Atheist Voice” YouTube channel. He claims that a former priest-abuser confessed sexual abuse many times. There is nothing to substantiate the assertion that allowing confessors to report child abuse confessions would somehow lessen the incidence of such abuse.

 
The fervent need for forgiveness will also require accepting
the lawful punishment for the deed confessed.
Our Lord died to offer forgiveness but the punishment
for the sin sin needs to be paid.
Only then can “the peace which passes all understanding” come
to the penitent .
 
Firstly the priest who told that he had confessed abusing over a thousand times might also be a liar. But that’s beside the point.

This chap is an atheist so how would he appreciate the value of the sacrament of reconciliation and confession.

As someone else has pointed out if priests agreed to impart information to the authorities people would no longer confess such sins to them.

Also a priest doesn’t have to be an expert in everything he just needs to be able to discern whether a sin has taken place and the gravity of that sin. He is to facilitate reconciliation not necessarily to give in depth advice to a penitent.

It feels like just another attack on the Catholic Church frankly.
 
Last edited:
Aside from the fact that he has an extremely annoying and condescending manner about him:

Confession is supposed to be anonymous. The idea is that you confess behind a grille so that the priest doesn’t know your identity. Therefore he can’t report you to authorities.

The hint that a priest could share what you say in the confessional would simply mean that people would stop going. If the seal wasn’t in place then it simply couldn’t operate.
I mean, where would it stop? If I confess driving too fast on the way home do I then need to be worried that the priest will pass this information to the police.

I’d also wonder about how many perpetrators of child sexual abuse actually go to confession.

It’s not a matter of secular law vs. religious law. It’s a matter of common sense.
 
Last edited:
The first mistake here is thinking that we should accept advice from hostile outsiders.

Where would we be if General MacArthur had accepted tips on military strategy from the Japanese?
 
Oh I wasn’t thinking that we should accept the advice, I am fully with the Church, I just happened to come across it
 
How would you address the one comment I mentioned in the OP:
The whole idea of the confessional is abhorrent.
  1. You have men who for the most part have absolutely no education in therapy or counseling hearing intensely personal issues they have no business inserting themselves into.
  2. They and their church have an unhealthy fascination with the sex lives of other people.
  3. If following their churches rules they have no experience in sex.
  4. If not following their churches rules they are having risky, hidden, possibly illegal sex.
  5. There is something really wrong with older men listening to the sex lives of children and telling children they should “confess” their sex lives to an older man.
  6. They are given an authority over other people they shouldn’t have.
  7. This puts anyone who walks into a confessional into an automatic submissive position.
  8. This requires people from childhood to train themselves to constantly be looking at what they are doing that breaks their churches rules (not what is wrong) and then report that to this man.
  9. Since many of the rules of the church are about doing things that are not harmful and not illegal or immoral, this makes most of the people going to confessional hypocrites. ex. Birth control
Click to expand...
I’ve just been indulging myself more on this sort of thing to inform myself more in my Catholic faith. Not that really I plan on responding to this guy (though I may), I just wanted to see how I could argue against these points. I’m not the best with words, especially if this was a face-to-face confrontation.
 
mywordshalom said:
You have men who for the most part have absolutely no education in therapy or counseling hearing intensely personal issues they have no business inserting themselves into.
Click to expand...
The confessional is not a therapy session. It’s for spiritual healing. There’s no ambiguity about that. But I suppose someone with no belief in the spiritual wouldn’t understand that.
mywordshalom said:
They and their church have an unhealthy fascination with the sex lives of other people.
Click to expand...
Not all sins are sexual. And the fascination is not on the part of the Church, it’s the people who criticise the Church.
mywordshalom said:
If following their churches rules they have no experience in sex.
Click to expand...
Perhaps, but that doesn’t mean they haven’t experienced temptation. Also many priests now have had relationships or even marriages before they joined the priesthood.

Therapists don’t necessarily have personal experience with mental illness etc.
mywordshalom said:
If not following their churches rules they are having risky, hidden, possibly illegal sex.
Click to expand...
Not much we can do about that really. At least in terms of priests having illicit affairs. It doesn’t mean celibacy is bad.
mywordshalom said:
There is something really wrong with older men listening to the sex lives of children and telling children they should “confess” their sex lives to an older man.
Click to expand...
Again, the focus on sex is not coming from the Church, it’s coming from this guy.
mywordshalom said:
They are given an authority over other people they shouldn’t have.
Click to expand...
Assertion/opinion. They have authority according to Christ.
mywordshalom said:
This puts anyone who walks into a confessional into an automatic submissive position.
Click to expand...
Submission to Jesus is not a bad thing.
mywordshalom said:
This requires people from childhood to train themselves to constantly be looking at what they are doing that breaks their churches rules (not what is wrong) and then report that to this man.
Click to expand...
Developing ones conscience according to ones faith has always been the norm and still is for most people in the world.
mywordshalom said:
Since many of the rules of the church are about doing things that are not harmful and not illegal or immoral, this makes most of the people going to confessional hypocrites. ex. Birth control
Click to expand...
It may not be harmful visibly but it harms the eternal soul. But an atheist believes we’re all just animals so I guess they wouldn’t care about that.
Maybe people are hypocrites but it’s better to be a hypocrite who is trying than someone who doesn’t care and just embraces all manner of sexual immorality as moral. I mean, this whole thing is based on justifying actions that used to be considered perverted.
Or justifying abortion or birth control.
 
mywordshalom said:
You have men who for the most part have absolutely no education in therapy or counseling hearing intensely personal issues they have no business inserting themselves into.
Click to expand...
After dude completes the years of under grand, post grad and parish work prior to Ordination, then he can talk about the lack of education.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top