What would be wrong with parishes offering reconciliation sacrament by phone?

[OhMalley]

My experience has been the same as yours and I have been in old traditional parishes and in newer parishes. I also thought is was to give the penitent more privacy.

Apparently not all parishes are like that.

Those old confessional were a lot cheaper and easier than building proper confession rooms.

 

[OhMalley]

This has always been true. And people did struggle to get to a church and the priests struggled to get to those who were homebound. But it happened. Today with cars, phones, etc it is easier for a homebound person to get a priest to visit. But it is still not right that they should be denied the personal presence of a priest because there could be telephone confession.

Not really. There are far fewer priests per capita than in years past at least in the USA.

 

[Sabda]

Those old confessional were a lot cheaper and easier than building proper confession rooms.

Like I said I have been in newer ones where the penitent behind the screen is in a darker space than the priest is. The newer ones also have a window in the door so people on the outside could see in.

 

[Bruised_Reed]

Those old confessional were a lot cheaper and easier than building proper confession rooms.

What is a “proper confession room.” What does it consist of?

Confessionals in older, traditional styles are pretty consitant in their design, even where they are located in the church.

In newer or wreckovated churches the confessionals are also the same from one to the other with the main diference from the older churches being a chair for face-to-face confession. The other notable thing is that there seem to be fewer. If the parish was wreckovated the confessionals seem to be down by half.

Not sure what makes them easier or cheaper.

 

[Tamsulosin]

All the parishes I have attended have a dim light in the penitent area, which makes sense.Some people carry a little list of written sins so as not to forget any, and they need enough light to be able to read it.
Perhaps when you mention light,you are thinking of bright light.
True, the light is low voltage,only enough so that you find your way and where to kneel down.
I could not imagine a confesional pitch black as the ones you go into.

I have seen confessionals that have the priest inside a cubicle and the penitent kneels down outside of it Again, the priest can see you, while you could hardly see him.
Some people may feel intimidated to see a clear close up face there, and prefer to imagine they are confessing to Jesus through a ‘generic’ intermediary, not so much a specific, individual priest.
But I can understand that churches vary, and the ones you go to may feature the priest.

 

[Bruised_Reed]

All the parishes I have attended have a dim light in the penitent area, which makes sense.Some people carry a little list of written sins so as not to forget any, and they need enough light to be able to read it.
Perhaps when you mention light,you are thinking of bright light.
True, the light is low voltage,only enough so that you find your way and where to kneel down.
I could not imagine a confesional pitch black as the ones you go into.

I have seen confessionals that have the priest inside a cubicle and the penitent kneels down outside of it Again, the priest can see you, while you could hardly see him.
Some people may feel intimidated to see a clear close up face there, and prefer to imagine they are confessing to Jesus through a ‘generic’ intermediary, not so much a specific, individual priest.
But I can understand that churches vary, and the ones you go to may feature the priest.

I’ve been in nearly pitch dark ones but most have a very dim light. More light comes from the priests side once the screen is open. And IIRC it was enought to see the laminated prayer on the little shelf or if you were reading a book or list.

The real dark ones are not so bad. They are small and you walk in, kneel down, nothing to look, no need to find your way; you’re there.

I haven’t seen what you described above but one I saw a traditional one that had an interesting differnce. The priest was between 2 cubicals, both had curtains or doors for the penitant but the priest had only a half (bottom half). I don’t know why. I thought it would make it hard for the priest to ask questions or offer counsel without the increased likelyhood of being heard. Then again it seems most Catholics keep a respectful distance from occupied confessionals.

I have to ask though, what do you mean by “feature the priest”?