Confession

The Miami Herald covers a non-denominational church in Florida which has hit upon the idea that confessing one's sins is beneficial for the soul.  They do it online by typing it in on a slick website.  The idea is that the anonymity of the computer is less intimidating than talking to a minister.

The fact is that the Sacraments, including the ones people aren't so crazy about - like Confession - are not artificial impositions by bored clerics trying to think up hoops for people to jump through, but things that are a deep, deep part of human nature.  The Sacraments, though, don't just stop at the level of natural goodness: Jesus (He instituted them, after all) takes something that is natural and good, like confessing one's wrongdoing, and elevates and perfects it to something transcendent.

To clarify, the article states that "The Catholic Church is among those who reject the idea of confessing online."  The fact of the matter is that the Catholic Church does not consider that a sacramental Confession can be accomplished over the phone, internet, or through the mail, but only in person.  To my knowledge the Church does not say that you're not allowed to write articles or letters to people letting them know what sins you've committed, only that you should not expect such a thing to be a sacramental Confession like the Catholic Church offers, a confession that isn't merely a "catalyst" to open up to God or other people, good as that might be, but something that actually applies to you the forgiveness Jesus won for you on the Cross.

For the record, the Church goes to extraordinary lengths to make sure that what is confessed in sacramental Confession will not ever be disclosed.  Even if you do a face-to-face confession with a priest, he will never even think of it outside the confessional.  If you are not comfortable with this,  unless your parish is hardheadedly "progressive," you can confess through a screen so the priest can't see you, and you can whisper if you don't want him to recognize your voice.  Grace and anonymity.

Comments

[PeterTerp]

Can you imagine the fury when a hacker eventually breaks into the system and publishes everyone's sins alongside their IP addresses?

And you thought someone stealing your credit card was bad news...

[Matt]

What do "hardheadly progressive" parishes have instead of screens? I've never heard of any place that physically prevents an anonymous confession. I know that there a tons of places that essentially prevent an anonymous confession by only having them by appointment, but PHYSICALLY preventing an anonymous confession? That's way worse than most liturgical abuses. What do we call it? A sacramental abuse?

[Neil]

did it used to be the case that all confessions were public? ONe might call this particularly conservative then.