The Forum is NOT the Confessional

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Avila123 said:
The forum is a place where someone can open up when desperation strikes, especially at night when their priest is hopefully having a good nights sleep.
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I have to agree. It might be that a poster needs encouragement to go to confession, has no other place to go etc. There are teens that come here and bring things up during a time when most teens have no time at all for the church. The only threads I would discourage here are those that are in clear violation of forum rules.

Any time you try to “shape” change, or discourage threads that are not forum violations, you are stepping on a slippery slope. We don’t know who it is we are talking to, or what is going on in their lives. We take all of these things on a case by case basis, and that is exactly how it should happen.
 
The Maronite Patriarch had this to say about posting on social media;
  1. Those who use social networking sites, writing, teaching, counseling, or any other activity to broadcast an education incompatible with the Church’s formal teaching, motivated by personal piety, conviction, or personal understanding or influenced by a book, are sinning against Christ who taught the truth and gave it to the Church for publication And maintain them, and punish [61]. They must in the spirit of obedience to the Church of the Ascension to teach it as we have referred in this document five chapters.
  2. The laws of the Church and the private Maronite law oblige the members of the parish and monastic clergy who, through the media, provide programs or deal with matters related to faith, morality and rites, to obtain special permission from their dioceses and their presidents and heads in the monastic orders. This is also the duty of secularists. [62] Therefore, the ecclesiastical leaders are asked, in dioceses and monastic orders, to protect the creed and education, to demand the violators and to take the necessary measures by virtue of their responsibility before God and the Church.
http://bkerki.org/PatriarchMessages.html...Message=71
 
poche said:
to obtain special permission from their dioceses and their presidents and heads in the monastic orders. This is also the duty of secularists.
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Do you have permission?

P.S. Your link doesn’t work 🤔
 
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grt said:
We would have less complaints about our Priests if we talked to them more than we talked to other laity online.
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If a priest was available for me to chat with at 4 am on the Internet I’d be happy to talk to him…unfortunately priests are super busy and you’re lucky if you can talk to one when you really need to confess or discuss something.
 
The danger I see is when someone is scrupulous (and we know this from multiple “is this a sin” threads) and people offer advice other than “talk to your pastor”. it does the OP no good to use the internet to try to figure things out when what htey really need is spirutual guidance and direction from a priest.
 
Most of the posts I have read have suggested that posters talk to a priest about their problems.
A forum is an exchange of ideas.
 
This is an internet forum where folks can ask questions and offer opinions, advice, suggestions. You, @Rob2, did just that, offered an opinion and advice.

I’ve never seen anyone confess their sins here, nor have I seen anyone seek absolution for their sins here. Some have certainly asked honest questions about the severity of particular acts and about the validity of certain sacraments and the forum community, as a whole, has done its best to respond kindly and knowledgeably to those queries. Some others have asked too often about the severity of particular acts and seem, to many of the wiser among us, to border on the scrupulous. Those persons are oft, repeatedly and rightly advised to seek the council of a priest.

An internet forum is no place for the scrupulous. But for the most part, this forum is open to all, to ask questions, offer advice, opinions, and suggestions. Thank you for your contribution to the discussion, @Rob2. I, for one, do not agree with your opinion.
 
poche said:
  • Those who use social networking sites, writing, teaching, counseling, or any other activity to broadcast an education incompatible with the Church’s formal teaching, motivated by personal piety, conviction, or personal understanding or influenced by a book, are sinning against Christ who taught the truth and gave it to the Church for publication And maintain them, and punish [61]. They must in the spirit of obedience to the Church of the Ascension to teach it as we have referred in this document five chapters.
  • The laws of the Church and the private Maronite law oblige the members of the parish and monastic clergy who, through the media, provide programs or deal with matters related to faith, morality and rites, to obtain special permission from their dioceses and their presidents and heads in the monastic orders. This is also the duty of secularists. [62] Therefore, the ecclesiastical leaders are asked, in dioceses and monastic orders, to protect the creed and education, to demand the violators and to take the necessary measures by virtue of their responsibility before God and the Church.
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Could you possibly put that in English so those of us who are Orthodox cannon lawyers might have some idea what in the world that means? At least with the CCC most lay people have a chance of understanding what in the world they are talking about.
 
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The bottom line what he is saying that if we go on social media sites and say things that contradict what the Church teaches then we are committing a sin.
 
He talks about those who present programs and make a whole fuss about it, present private revelations on their blog and any other activity that presents itself as teaching Christianity to others.
Imho announcements like that will be made by all Church leaders including the Pope. And this will not mean that this parallel activity on the internet will stop.
Christ said “those who wish to follow me”. There have always been and will be until the end of times false prophets, well and ill intended sect leaders etc.
The only thing the bishops can do now is pep up the online activity on their official sites.
 
I think we should leave that in the hands of God. No one is perfect. He goes on to say; “No one has the right to claim that he possesses the truth, and to consider that the person who does not share the opinion is in error. This claim is rejected by Christ. It was a point of contention with the Pharisees, scribes and scholars. We have warned against condemnation: “Do not judge, lest they be condemned” (Luke 6:37)”

http://bkerki.org/PatriarchMessages.html...Message=71.
 
2towers said:
Could you possibly put that in English so those of us who are Orthodox cannon lawyers might have some idea what in the world that means? At least with the CCC most lay people have a chance of understanding what in the world they are talking about.
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I’m neither a Maronite nor a canon lawyer, but it seems pretty clear to me:
  • Don’t teach something as “formal Maronite teaching” if it’s not.
  • If you want to put something on social media and claim “what I’m telling you is official Maronite teaching”, you need to get our permission first.
😉
 
I’ve suspect that some of the posts (though not all) asking or worrying about whether or not something is a sin and having the need to “confess” are people dealing scrupulosity and in some cases OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder)

The need to “confess” things isn’t exclusively something that manifests among Catholics – this is also common with people that struggle with OCD in various walks of life. People aren’t necessarily using it in place of confession – it’s often an urge or a compulsion where they need to get something “off their chest” in order to relieve distress.

More often than not, the advice often given that I see is to speak to a priest, and usually in confession (which, with a spiritual director, is beneficial for scrupulous people). And that is the correct and best advice. But sometimes people need support when a priest isn’t available. I could be wrong about some of the posts I’ve seen, but having dealt with someone with these afflictions first hand, I tend to notice the patterns in others as well.

I think at times the board can be a good place to have people to talk to especially when they are feeling distressed and haven’t been able to go to confession or talk to a priest yet.
 
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