Confession: The Forgotten Sacrament

In 2005, the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) reported on the results of a survey conducted to determine the frequency with which the Catholic faithful availed themselves of the Sacrament of Reconciliation.   The results of that survey were troubling indeed.

Some 42% of those surveyed responded that they never seek sacramental absolution of their sins by way of the confessional.  32% of those who did confess their sins to a priest did so just once a year.  Only 22% of American Catholics availed themselves of the Sacrament more frequently.

These figures are now over a decade old.  One can only imagine the fewer number of Catholics seeking sacramental absolution of their sins today.

History reveals that the ritual of sacramental absolution has evolved over the centuries.  The whole concept of seeking absolution from the Church's ordained ministers finds its Scriptural origin in the Gospels, specifially Matthew 16:19 and John 20:23.  At first, during the first two centuries, the bishops questioned whether a baptized person who had committed grave sins (apostasy, adultery, murder) could even be reconciled to the Christian community.  

It wasn't until the 3rd Century that reconciliation would take the form of a public act of penance.  Such an idea was proposed by Tertullian (a prolific Christian author and apologist who would later fall into heresy himself).  In his epic work, De paenitentia, Tertullian writes:  "Confession of sins is not conducted before the conscience alone, but is to be carried out by some external act.  Satisfaction for sin is arranged by confession, of confession repentance is born, and by repentance God is appeased."  Tertullian would go on to specify that the external act of penance would "command one to lie in sackcloth and ashes, to cover the body with mourning, to cast the spirit down in sorrow, to exchange the sins which have been committed for a demeanor of sorrow....to fast, to groan, to weep and wail day and night to the Lord; to bow before the presbyters and to beseech all the brethren for the embassy of their own supplication."  uch an act of confession and public penance to be a once in a lifetime event, administered by the bishop. The penitent would publicly proclaim oneself a sinner and receive the public penance.  Typically a person would receive the sacrament towards the end of his or her life.

However, the ritual which most Catholics would identify as the Sacrament of Reconciliation would not appear among the monastic communities of Ireland in the late 6th Century, when Celtic monks began to incorporate auricular confession (the confession of sins to a priest) as part of their spiritual counsel.  (A practical which I shall address at length in a future posting.)

This practice of the individual confessing of one's sins to a priest would continue and eventually become the norm.  In 1215, the Fathers at the Lateran Council IV promulgated what would eventually be known as the "Easter Duties" when they prescribed the following:  "All the faithful of either sex, after they have reached the age of discernment, should individually confess all their sins in a faithful manner to their own priest at least once a year, and let them take care to do what they can to perform the penance imposed on them. Let them reverently receive the sacrament of the eucharist at least at Easter unless they think, for a good reason and on the advice of their own priest, that they should abstain from receiving it for a time. Otherwise they shall be barred from entering a church during their lifetime and they shall be denied a Christian burial at death."

This precept would later be confirmed by the Council of Trent. (Sess XII, can. ix) 

In the 20th Century, Vatican Council II would place a greater emphasis on sin as an offense against both God and the community. The Council Fathers declared that the rites of the sacrament were to be revised so that they more clearly express both the nature and effect of this sacrament. They defined three forms of the rite, renamed the sacrament of reconciliation: first, for individual penitents; second, for several penitents with individual confession and absolution; third, for several penitents with general confession and absolution. In the wake of Vatican II, Catholics grew accustomed to seeing reconciliation rooms supplementing or replacing the old confessionals.

Without doubt, the Sacrament of Reconciliation has developed over the centuries.  But what has happened in just a few short decades since the end of Vatican II?  How did the Church move from regularly full and busy to empty confessionals?  The explanations and reasons are as numerous as the commentators and theologians who posit them.  

One thing is certain.  The Sacrament of Reconciliation has lost its place in the practice of the Catholic faithful as a meaningful and effective recourse to the merciful forgiveness of the Lord Jesus.  

I would suggest that the Council Fathers of Vatican II, while never intending such, provided a means by which members of the Church could regularly avail themselves of both the Sancitfying and Actual Graces of sacramental absolution.  The Church has taught that the Penitential Rite at the beginning of every Mass provides for the remission of venial sins.  Why not incorporate into the actual rubrics of the Mass the third form of reconciliation which the Council Fathers ratified?  At the moment of silence, the Priest would invite the faithful to examine their consciences and express genuine contrition for all of their sins -- the grave transgressions as well as the less serious sins -- and receive sacramental absolution with its healing and restorative graces.  Would this actual absolution not place each person assisting at Mass in the state of grace expected of those approaching Holy Communion?

Borrowing a concept from modern technology, perhaps the Sacraments should be a bit more "user friendly"?  If there are moral, psychological or social barriers which are standing in the way of people being touched by the healing grace of Sacramental absolution, why not provide an avenue for those obstacles to be overcome and the generous Mercy of Christ dispensed to His People?

History shows clearly that the Sacrament of Reconciliation has taken different forms and been celebrated by different rituals.  Why should its evolution be curtailed in a manner which places the Sacrament itself in danger of extinction?  And, if the Church exists to bring Christ's redemptive Grace to the world, why not do so in the most available and generous ways?

Pope Francis has declared this Liturgical Year 2016 to be the Year of Mercy.  If people are to belief in Christ's forgiveness, they must experience the peace which comes when the soul has relieved itself of the burdens of sinfulness and guilt and be cleansed by the Lord's forgiveness.  I suggest the Holy Father consider the remarkable opportunity and benefits which a rite of general confession and absolution during the Penitential Rite of Mass could afford the Catholic faithful.  A serious discussion and process of discernment by the Pope and the Bishops should begin in the hope of bringing such a possibility to fruition.

Just some thoughts I share with you as I recall the many times I sat in the confessional on a Saturday afternoon with so few, if any, seeking God's pardon by way of sacramental absolution of their sins.