Word: confessionals
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Dissatisfaction with the conventional format has led both priests and laymen to speculate on new ways to practice confession. Many theologians favor some form of return to the early church custom of group confession-as is done in many Protestant churches. In some Dutch churches, members of a congregation mentally...
The practice of confession has firm Biblical roots; the Epistle of James advises: "Confess your sins to one another, that you may be healed." In the early church, penance was usually a public ritual at which penitents openly disclaimed serious wrongdoings before the assembled congregation. Not until 1215 was confession...
...they have sinned. "I used to consider anger a sin," says one Los Angeles housewife who goes to Communion frequently, although she has not been to confession since Christmas. "But now I simply don't feel guilty about yelling at the kids." Another is the repugnant medievalism of confessional practice-lining up before a dark, grilled box to recite one's inner secrets to an unseen judge...
...person 'you are wrong,' exact promises from him never to do it again, give him absolution, and slam the sliding door. But that isn't what confession is all about." Theologian James Burtchaell, 33, of Notre Dame, describes the priest's new confessional role as "nondirective counseling," by which he means "not giving advice but helping you talk your way through problems you already know the answer to but can't face...
Outside Church. The new conversational spirit of confession means that more and more encounters between priest and penitent are taking place outside of church. At numerous Catholic colleges, chaplains will hear confessions in their own rooms, or even while walking on campus. Many priests no longer insist that penitents recite...