Roman Catholics: Confession: Public or Private?

The Roman Catholic Church urges its faithful to confess their sins to a priest at least once a year, and insists that they do so before receiving Communion if they have committed a mortal sin. In theory, confession should be a cleansing encounter between the believer and God, during which the priest, acting in God’s name, forgives a penitent his sins and advises him on how to lead a more holy life. In crowded urban churches—or even outside them, as at the outdoor confessionals sometimes seen in such traditionally Catholic countries as Poland—confession is often a mechanical recitation of sins, followed by a few mumbling words of priestly comment and absolution and an instant penance (“Say three Our Fathers and three Hail Marys”). For both priest and penitent, confession frequently becomes a matter of “be blunt, be brief, begone.”

A number of Catholic thinkers are now wondering about how the practice of confession can be brought more into line with the reforming trends of the Vatican Council. Writing in Kansas City’s National Catholic Reporter Brother Philip, a former provincial of the Christian Brothers, recently suggested that in addition to private confession there ought to be general confessions of entire congregations. “All present at Mass,” explained Brother Philip, “would confess their sins privately and then receive the general absolution.” Private confession, he suggested, should be primarily for those who desire it and want extended personal counseling.

Hardly Any Sinner. Experiments along this line are already going on. In some Dutch parishes, a general confession is included in the Mass, although penitents are also expected to confess their sins privately to the priest in order to receive absolution. In Germany, some theologians feel that frequent confession is no longer necessary, on the theory that most Catholics hardly ever commit a sin serious enough to justify it. Catholics, they say, should be free to rely on their own consciences and receive Com munion without first making a confession. Normally, Catholic children today make their first confession and receive their first Communion at the age of seven or eight; in some cases in Germany children are allowed to go to Communion at five or six, but they do not make their first confession until they are a few years older.

In John, Jesus tells his Apostles, “Whose sins you shall forgive they are forgiven them”; the Epistle of St. James urges Christians, “Confess, therefore, your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be saved.” In the early church, penitents commonly confessed their sins in public, but in 1215 the Fourth Lateran Council made regular private confession the norm for the church. The Reformation rejected Catholic belief that Penance was a Christ-instituted sacrament; some Anglicans and Lutherans practice private confession, but most Protestant churches have a confession made by the entire congregation, generally at the beginning of their services. Although public and general, it is nevertheless quite specific, as in the Book of Common Prayer: “We acknowledge and bewail our manifold sins and wickedness . . .

We do earnestly repent.” The churches also encourage troubled souls to seek the counsel of their pastors in private.

More Forgiveness. So far, most Roman Catholic bishops are cool to the idea of de-emphasizing private confession, although advocates of general confession can muster good arguments for their cause. Brother Philip believes that general confession would make sacramental forgiveness more readily available to more people, bring back to Communion Catholics who for one reason or another cannot or will not confess to a priest. General confession, moreover, would have special value in such countries as Brazil, where millions of rural Catholics see a priest no more than once a month; for many, private confession is impossible. In fact, general confession has been used widely in wartime, when on the eve of battle priests have given conditional absolution to soldiers (who must, however, go to confession if they survive). By the widespread use of general confession, Brother Philip concluded, the church would eliminate the disedifying, mechanistic approach that distorts present practice, and restore the sacrament of Penance to what it was intended to be—a joyful reconciliation of sinner with Christ.