Use of the Confessional Screen

[Mothers_Boy]

I have gone with the screen and without, I like both although I must say that the screen’s privacy is nice. My parish has two Confessionals and one Reconcilliation room so there are both options. Something I haven’t gotten used to is the sound deadening foam. I appreciate the privacy and I suppose the room isn’t for enjoyment so…

 

[Gratias_Grace]

I like to do it face to face with the same priest. The priest can then follow me up on my road to Heaven, -can give advices.

We don’t look at each other when I say my sins or when he absolves me. To be seen by the priest (let him know who I am) is for me a part of the confession. God can see me, so why should I not let a servant of God see me?

I know that the priests recognice people behind then screeen. I would have felt so ashamed comeing to church, knowing that the priest (from the confessional) knew my sins, but that we should act as if he didn’t know.

Now it’s good to go to church after confession. The priest has done his job, reconciled me with God. It feels good that he knows me (what bothers me, what I am fighting with in my unike life here on earth).

It is not easy to go to confession, but It’s good to be taken care of (that’s how I feel it with the priest).

God Bless!

G.G.

 

[CD4]

<<<Something I haven’t gotten used to is the sound deadening foam. I appreciate the privacy and I suppose the room isn’t for enjoyment so… >>>

**One of the reasons I avoid confession in my parish is that I know the recon. room is not sound proof. You can hear people talking in there if you are waiting in the chapel or in the alcove the tabernacle is in. A well conneceted parishoner was very angry about this, but nothing was done. **

 

[Paul_W]

Charlemagne:

I know of a Priest who has done just that. He is very orthodox and conservative. Under our last Bishop, he was moved to different Parishes several times because the parishoners complained about his orthodoxy. I think he went back to screened confessionals because he feared, after the Priest sex abuse scandals hit, that someone might try to “get” him using the Reconciliation Room!

A nearby parish has actually installed a glass wall in the reconcilliation room, to physically separate the penitant and priest, lest there be any allegations. You might be “face to face” but you’re in two different “rooms.”

 

[Br.Rich_SFO]

I think a glass wall might be a good idea. However it still does not eliminate the requirement of a screen that will not allow the priest to see or visually identify the person confessing.

 

[_pro-life_teen]

Br. Rich SFO:

I think a glass wall might be a good idea. However it still does not eliminate the requirement of a screen that will not allow the priest to see or visually identify the person confessing.

I prefer using the screen, which is why I don’t go to my parish for confession because the screen is not offered at all. There are just reconciliation rooms and pews available for confession. Is there a way I can tell the priest that he nees to provide screens?

 

[gloria97000]

I’m not sure the best way to inform your priest of the need to offer screens, but you may want to consider the benefits of face-to-face confession as well. Of course, this only applies in the circumstance where safety is first established…

One of the reasons we engage in confession at all is that it is a personal experience, similar to the confessions made to Jesus during his earthly life. A priest is intended to be Christ’s representative on earth, striving to guide with humility, reverence, and nonjudgmental concern; I have heard from a priest and professor that it was very difficult for him to give guidance when he could not see the face of the one confessing. And my personal experience has been that confession face-to-face with a prayerful priest with a gift for guiding souls allows the priest to use his awareness of my personality and my life experiences to guide me as the individual I am.

Whatever your decision or the end result in your parish, don’t let anything stand in the way of making use of this tremendous sacrament!

 

[CD4]

*pro-life_teen*:

I prefer using the screen, which is why I don’t go to my parish for confession because the screen is not offered at all. There are just reconciliation rooms and pews available for confession. Is there a way I can tell the priest that he nees to provide screens?

---

You could just tell him how you feel, and ask why screens are not available to those who prefer them. Or, if you are uncomfortable doing that, you could write him a note…

 

[WanderAimlessly]

*pro-life_teen*:

I prefer using the screen, which is why I don’t go to my parish for confession because the screen is not offered at all. There are just reconciliation rooms and pews available for confession. Is there a way I can tell the priest that he nees to provide screens?

I would suggest you show him the following from the Code of Canon Law:

Can. 964 §1 The proper place for hearing sacramental confessions is a church or oratory.

§2 As far as the confessional is concerned, norms are to be issued by the Episcopal Conference, with the proviso however that confessionals, which the faithful who so wish may freely use, are located in an open place, and** fitted with a fixed grille between the penitent and the confessor**.

§3 Except for a just reason, confessions are not to be heard elsewhere than in a confessional.

Personally, I only go behind the screen. I feel more comfortable with the anonymity the screen give. Also, since my parish only has confessions Saturday afternoon, I keep a mental note of other parishes in the area that has different confession times (Although most of them that are not scheduled for Saturday afternoon are Saturday morning).

PF

 

[kmktexas]

As I understand it, anonymous confession is a “right” that any Catholic has the right to insist on. It was reiterated in the Holy Fathers Holy Thursday letter to priests a few years back.

Face-to-face is an option, not a right.

When I was in college, our church only offered face to face. That was one reason, I slowly slipped away from the Sacrament. It was too much a “tell me what’s going on in your life…” counseling session and less like a Sacrament.

At my home parish, there was no confessional at all until the new pastor came. No need for one since the old pastor wouldn’t hear Confession, even if you called for an appointment. The new pastor had part of front of the chuch built out to be a confessional. Rigid screen and a kneeler. No option for face-to-face although I know he has heard confessions that way when it is by appointment.

On the other hand, another nearby parish doesn’t even have a Reconciliation room. They use the brides room and put a paper sign on the door that says “Confessions”. No kneeler or screen there. Just so living room style chairs. The one and only time I went there, I sat so I wasn’t facing Father directly and kept my eyes closed.

We are a tiny parish and we joke that Father must know us all by “voice” anyway. He knows many of us when we call on the phone. But once recently, Father asked during Confession if I was married so I knew that he wasn’t making the connection. I have heard that many priests try conciously not to ‘recognize’ the person on the other side of the screen.

 

[Tedster]

Annunciata:

Well to my surprise, I found that I could reflect much better in the Confessional and seem to feel a little more sense of the awe of the Sacrament…more like the unseen voice is really that of Jesus, (which it really is when you consider the priest is ‘Persona Christi’).

That is why I like to use the screen (and becuase I like the “traditional” feel of it!). I have gone face to face and have no problems with it, it just “seems” better for me.

 

[Br.Rich_SFO]

*pro-life_teen*:

I prefer using the screen, which is why I don’t go to my parish for confession because the screen is not offered at all. There are just reconciliation rooms and pews available for confession. Is there a way I can tell the priest that he nees to provide screens?

Write him a letter, you do not have to sign it.
Include a copy of the page from The Code of Canon Law that requires him to have a screen, without exception.

 

[Chris_in_Mich]

I went face to face when I was younger, but the church I now attend has only a screened confessional, and it seems far more appropriate to me.

 

[puzzleannie]

stopped using the screen when it became impossible for me to kneel and rise again without assistance. Since my regular confessor is the monastery chaplain, and he knows perfectly well it is me, it makes no difference. if I am travelling and go to another priest, it doesn’t matter because he will never see me again.

no matter who the priest is, whether or not we are acquainted, whether or not we see each other face to face, he is the representative of Christ in this encounter. He and I are both anonymous for the purposes of this encounter. It is Christ’s presence that is important. The priest will not be scandalized by anything I say, whether or not he knows me, whether or not he sees my face. The priest will deliberately not remember what I say, or repeat it, or refer to it if I meet him outside the confessional.

Most churches I have visited in the last 30 years have recon. rooms, not confessionals, or they are in parts of the world too humble to have anything other than a chair or bench in a corner of a chapel, or the outer wall of a church. This is only an issue in places that have the luxury of choice.

 

[birdie74]

Definitely screen.

I just converted this Easter, and the RCIA directors encouraged us to go face to face, they seemed to think that it was shame that made people stay behind the screen. So for the first three months I went face to face and I would always leave feeling embarrassed and thinking more about my social skills with the priest and how I came accross and if he would remember me than about the forgiveness that had taken place. Then on a retreat I tried screen and it was the best confession ever…it is so much easier to be sincere and genuine with an innanimate screen than with a man whom you know! Also the kneeling helps, and the darker atmosphere…I don’t feel like I have to put on any airs or cover anything up.

 

[rayne89]

Hubby uses the screen, in most instances I have not. I do also get incredibly nervous before confession. I usually go to the same priest when ever I can, it helps because he already knows where I am at spiritually. When I confess to an unknown priest I have almost always used the screen.

 

[wannabee]

I’m claustrophobic and cannot use a traditional confessional - even with the curtain back I still cannot cope. I need space and I have been known to confess in the Church House garden - the only place available without other folk around.

My preferred way is ‘Eastern’ before an Icon of Christ with the Priest beside me, and since that is rarely possible I take an Icon of Christ with me and keep my eyes on Him whom I have wounded.

 

[irishpatrick]

stopped using the screen when it became impossible for me to kneel and rise again without assistance. Since my regular confessor is the monastery chaplain, and he knows perfectly well it is me, it makes no difference. if I am travelling and go to another priest, it doesn’t matter because he will never see me again.

no matter who the priest is, whether or not we are acquainted, whether or not we see each other face to face, he is the representative of Christ in this encounter. He and I are both anonymous for the purposes of this encounter. It is Christ’s presence that is important. The priest will not be scandalized by anything I say, whether or not he knows me, whether or not he sees my face. The priest will deliberately not remember what I say, or repeat it, or refer to it if I meet him outside the confessional.

Most churches I have visited in the last 30 years have recon. rooms, not confessionals, or they are in parts of the world too humble to have anything other than a chair or bench in a corner of a chapel, or the outer wall of a church. This is only an issue in places that have the luxury of choice.

There are a great many Catholics who desire the anonimity of the screen and by Canon Law they have the right to that choice. Many churches do NOT even try to offer that choice because they are of the view that face-to-face is somehow a better or more intimate confession (of course that is utter nonsense). People should have a right to a completely private confession experience.

 

[Tentoes]

screen for me… and my favorite old non political correct Dominican

 

[SuscipeMeDomine]

There are a great many Catholics who desire the anonimity of the screen and by Canon Law they have the right to that choice. Many churches do NOT even try to offer that choice because they are of the view that face-to-face is somehow a better or more intimate confession (of course that is utter nonsense). People should have a right to a completely private confession experience.

Did you really revive a six-year old thread merely to say that your preference is correct and someone else’s is utter nonsense?