Why did the Church start using a confessional screen?

[Mxpxlcp55]

I just got out of my RCIA class and the topic was on confession. Towards the end of the talk, the nun giving the talk made a comment about confessional screens. She said that “They were implemented by the Church, so that priests would not get tempted by the pretty girls who go in there to confess” and she was dead serious. This same nun made the same comment to a class of third-grade children and their parents during a talk about confession. I’m curious to what is the Church’s actual teaching on this because I would find it extremely offensive if I were a priest and this comment was made.

 

[Michelle_Arnold]

The confessional screen allows the penitent to remain anonymous, so that the penitent will feel more able to confess serious sins. It’s not necessarily a “bad” thought that the confessional screen also allows a certain “distance” between priest and penitent that may be helpful to both parties, but it’s not the reason the confessional screen got started and the nun’s comment certainly was inappropriate for children. The last thing children need in this day and age is to possibly fear that a priest’s interest in them in the confessional is anything but that appropriate to spiritual fatherhood. If you have firsthand knowledge of the nun’s talk to the children, I recommend reporting it to her religious superior and to your diocese’s Office of Child and Youth Protection.