What is wrong with face to face Confessions?

[reff]

Nothing. I went to an extremely old priest one time and tried face to face confession. (This is what I was used to doing and had done since I returned to the Church.)

He yelled at me and informed me when I was asking for forgiveness I should be down on my knees. Therefore-since the only place to kneel is behind the screen-that may be why some view it as the best way to Confess.

I reflected it on it and I guess the priest had a point. The only thing I don’t like about being behind the screen is that it seems like I am trying to hide from the priest or to ashamed to face the priest but that really isn’t what is going on

He seriously yelled at you and told you to get on your knees? Who does he think he is seriously?

 

[Joannm]

He seriously yelled at you and told you to get on your knees? Who does he think he is seriously?

It is this kind of priest that keeps people away from confession. It was that kind of priest that kept me away for 9 years.

 

[Bejohn]

It is this kind of priest that keeps people away from confession. It was that kind of priest that kept me away for 9 years.

We must pray for our priests and not criticize them because they are the generals in the Church battle against Satan’s plans. They are under more serious attack than others and it does then result in behaviours such as this.
I once saw a girl who had just left the confessional with her face all covered in a gold glitter. I asked what had happened as I knew that I had seen her before she went to confesion and there was no glitter then. Her mother told me that she had just finished confession with a ‘good’ priest who was helpful to her. Two days prior to that the girl had been yelled at in confession and told to “get out”. I think that God had rewarded this girl for perseverence and bravery while under attack.
What others do is their choice. What we do is ours. Do not think that we can excuse any of our choices based on the choices of others. Pray for God’s help and move on in the plan of Salvation for your life.
Do not let Satan place a Gate of Hell (pride, anger, despair, etc.) between you and the Sacraments to keep you in bondage to him. Jesus has promisedthat The Gates of Hell shall not prevail against His Church.

 

[EasterJoy]

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

Accomodating Catholics whose hearing is not in the typical range is about as just a reason as I can think of for dispensing with the confessional everyone else uses.

Hmm. I’m hard-pressed to think of a creative way to deal with this, but I have to think that you are not alone. Is it possible to set up a confessional situation that allows your ASL to be read while yet obscuring your identity in some way? Maybe, with some prayer offered by the Deaf Community, there is someone in your diocesan Ministry for the Deaf that might come up with ideas for you, and could offer something like this prior to Masses done with ASL?

It is not necessary to be totally anonymous, because of course in a small parish the priest is very likely to recognize every voice.

The solution would depend very much on what the problem was identified to be. For instance, if knowing that the priest can see you as you confess doesn’t pose as much of a problem for you as having to make eye-contact with him when you do it, then perhaps a moveable one-way mirror covered with something filmy would work. (I’m just assuming you don’t want to confess to yourself in a mirror, either.) The screen could be swung out of the way when it was his turn to respond. Not a great solution, but if it makes confession a little easier, it might be worth trying. Or maybe you could have one of those translating devices invented for telephones installed in one of the confessionals…you know, so what you’re confessing and the response to you can be read, but without there being a transcript of any kind existing afterward? Or, if it isn’t impossibly hokey in practice–and I know facial expressions are important in ASL, which poses a problem, too–you could have two screens with gloves and one-way windows for reading the conversation from each side? A little weird, but sometimes the creative solution is…

Or, if you are hard-of-hearing and able to speak, but just need to celebrate the sacrament loudly when you can’t read lips, maybe something could be done to accomodate that. Something that transmits a signal that could be intercepted by a third party wouldn’t be appropriate, but a traditional-type confessional might be set up with hard-wired microphones and earphones for the hard-of-hearing.

At any rate, you might join with others in your position to pray together to God for help and then give Deaf Ministries a chance to help you. You never know.

 

[JimG]

a traditional-type confessional might be set up with hard-wired microphones and earphones for the hard-of-hearing.

Actually, the confessionals in our church do have a hardwired telephone receiver for the hard of hearing to use.

 

[EasterJoy]

Actually, the confessionals in our church do have a hardwired telephone receiver for the hard of hearing to use.

That seems a reasonable solution; that, or confessional that is far more sound-proof than most of them are.

If he’s only hard-of-hearing, the telephone would work. If he has severe or profound deafness that isn’t amenable to amplification, or if ASL is his first language, that could be another matter. That would be something for Deaf Ministries to possibly help with.

 

[nohamaria]

Special reply to : Easterjoy and JimG

Thank you for your attentions and advises.
I lost my hearing slowly within the years.
I am completely deaf but I can speak .
I can hardly read lips.
The only possible way for my confession is:
Face To Face + writing advices or prayers demands
from the confessor priest.
I am accomodating myself to this way and especially
I thank God for my deafness because I can Hear his
voice directly into my heart without interruption.
Do you beleive that.?

God Bless you for your charity.:tiphat:

Nohamaria

 

[JimG]

Special reply to : Easterjoy and JimG

Thank you for your attentions and advises.
I lost my hearing slowly within the years.
I am completely deaf but I can speak .
I can hardly read lips.
The only possible way for my confession is:
Face To Face + writing advices or prayers demands
from the confessor priest.
I am accomodating myself to this way and especially
I thank God for my deafness because I can Hear his
voice directly into my heart without interruption.
Do you beleive that.?

God Bless you for your charity.:tiphat:

Nohamaria

I believe you, and I’m glad you found a way to avail yourself of the sacrament. My mother in law was not deaf but she was blind. Her husband would lead her to the confessional, but she was no fan of anonymity. She would always start confession by saying “hello Father, this is _____(giving her name)”

 

[nohamaria]

Thank You Jimg for beleiving me.
I do the same when sometimes I am obliged
to unswer a relative phone call: Hi , I am …(my name), do
you hear me?

God Bless

Nohamaria

 

[DevotedCatholic]

I have never heard that, I would think it should matter anyway how we go to confession. I think the fact that we go makes a difference, not that it is face to face or behind a screen, which by the way most churches do. It does make me wonder if that could some kind of a rule where one day that will be our only option in the confessional is to have the screen in front of us. however I dont think that is likely. I have not read anything about the mentioning such a thing so I do not know and then I have not been keeping up with the news like I should.

 

[FrDavid96]

I have never heard that, I would think it should matter anyway how we go to confession. I think the fact that we go makes a difference, not that it is face to face or behind a screen, which by the way most churches do. It does make me wonder if that could some kind of a rule where one day that will be our only option in the confessional is to have the screen in front of us. however I dont think that is likely. I have not read anything about the mentioning such a thing so I do not know and then I have not been keeping up with the news like I should.

Canon law does require that confessions with a screen be available in every church, and also says that the confessional is the proper place for the Sacrament. I think it’s been quoted a few times in this thread already. I’ll admit that it’s being ignored in many places, but that doesn’t change the fact that this is what the Church requires.