As next week features Ash Wednesday, and with it the annual reminder to make a good confession before Easter, I thought it might be a good time to look at the particulars of the Sacrament as it is observed in the United States.
 
IS CONFESSION BIBLICAL?
God’s merciful gift of redemption to all who call upon the Lord with humility in their hearts is among the very pillars of the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures. On Easter Sunday evening, according to St. John Chapter 20 Jesus said to them again. “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.
 
It is an interesting thing that Jesus identifies the forgiveness of sin as the primary empowerment from the Holy Spirit, on Easter Sunday, no less. St. Luke’s Acts of the Apostles, in the Pentecost account, affirms John in Acts 2:38, Peter’s sermon to the Jews: Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the holy Spirit.
 
Baptism, as the primordial sacrament of forgiveness and entrance into Christ’s saving community, is the only forgiveness rite per se mentioned in the New Testament. The Church would develop the rites for the forgiveness of sins in several ways over the next two millennia.
 
WHEN AND WHERE DID THE PRACTICE OF INDIVIDUAL CONFESSION BEGIN?
 
[1] IN ROME:
In the second and third centuries in Rome and other European sites, the sins of baptized believers were satisfied by prayer, fasting, and good works alone. However, several sins were recognized as serious enough to segregate a baptized member from his or her saving Eucharistic community. We are talking about murder, adultery, and apostasy [renouncing one’s baptismal membership.]
 
In these cases, the sinner confessed the deed[s] to the bishop directly, and requested admission to “the order of penitents,” a local collection of grave sinners living an austere life of prayer, fasting, and alms collecting which lasted for about a year. These individuals were received back into the Eucharistic community on Holy Thursday through the laying on of hands by the bishop. It was generally understood that one could reenter the full community just once in a lifetime; hence this reconciliation practice was popularly known as the “last plank.”
 
Typically, most Christians would never engage in this intensive personal rite of forgiveness because their failures had not reached a designated level of seriousness, betrayal, and scandal. What I find interesting is that by 200 A.D. the Church already had an early grading system of sins, a practice that medieval and modern theology would raise to an art form.   
 
[2] IN IRELAND:
It may come as a surprise that our “Saturday afternoon confession” format comes to us from the Irish monks of the fifth through tenth centuries. In the monasteries, the prayer format included a daily evening rite called “the chapter of faults” where each monk would come forward and confess out loud before the community one misdeed for which he needed the forgiveness of God and his community.
 
Because Irish monasteries played the part of dioceses and cathedrals in the Dark Ages on that island, several critical developments followed over time from this monastic rite. [1] The abbot’s acknowledgement morphed into the role of what we would call sacramental absolution. [2] This absolution, unlike the Roman style, was repeatable. [3] All sins—not just grave ones—were confessed. [4] Lay persons outside the monastery came to confess their sins. [5] Acts of satisfaction—what we call today “the penance”—were given to each penitent.
 
With all Irish laity now confessing regularly, monk scholars composed books of sins and penances that monk confessors could consult in the ritual for each penitent. These were called penitentiaries, and by 700 A.D. they were quite detailed. Interestingly, the monks did not organize these first “moral theology” works around the Ten Commandments. Rather, they arranged their writing around the Seven Deadly Sins.
 
The Irish manner of forgiveness crossed east into Europe through the end of the first millennium. Not surprisingly, this ritual met with resistance, including in Rome. But by 1215 A.D., at the Council IV Lateran in Rome, Pope Innocent III declared that Penance was one of the seven sacraments and mandated that all the faithful confess their sins once a year using the Irish model during the Lenten/Easter Season. That, and receiving the Eucharist, became known as “doing our Easter Duty.”
 
In 2022 Commonweal Magazine carried a more detailed treatment than I have outlined here, called “How the Irish Changed Penance,” which should be free even if you don’t subscribe. It would make an interesting adult education presentation.
 
WHEN DID CONFESSIONALS COME INTO PLAY?
The confessional seems to have developed as part of the liturgical reform stemming from the Council of Trent [1545-1563]. This Council was the Catholic response to the Protestant Reformation. I have seen many paintings in my lifetime of confessions being heard out in the open church before the institution of confessionals. It could be that the Church thought it would be theologically significant and prudent to designate a particular spot in the church for this sacrament, like the baptistry for baptism. Enclosure of the sacrament in a boxlike configuration would protect the “seal” or secrecy of Penance. You will read in some history books that the barrier between the penitent and the priest [with the little grill for confessing] was instituted to protect women and children from the confessor. From what we know about confessional abuses in the twentieth century, the designers of the barrier confessionals in the seventeenth century may have had the same concern. [See this 2021 essay on women’s contemporary experiences in the confessional.]
 
I have not seen a new church built with wooden confessional boxes in the builder’s design in years. When the Vatican II reforms for Penance were promulgated in the mid-1970’s, confessionals [referred to often as reconciliation rooms] were expected to allow the penitent to confess to the priest seated, face-to-face, if they preferred this to confessing anonymously. And, as the priest was proclaiming the absolution, he had the option of laying hands on the head of the penitent. I believe that laying on of hands in confession has been replaced by holding up the right hand in the direction of the penitent. In the priesthood and in the mental health profession, for that matter, physical touching of vulnerable people is verboten.
 
WHAT CHANGES DID VATICAN II MAKE IN THE SACRAMENT OF PENANCE?
In the Council Constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium [1963] the bishops of the council called for a renewal of the rite of confession, but without details. The Vatican Office of Liturgy released the new rite with all its specifics, Ordo Paenitentiae, in 1973. The document ran to well over 200 pages; by the time the document was translated into English in 1974 or 1975 I was already ordained and pastor of a Catholic campus college. Theologically speaking, the most significant change in the Sacrament of Penance was Biblical emphasis. Commentaries remined us confessors that we were to function as an extension of Christ’s immeasurable mercy and love; we were not to act as lawyers or customs officials at the gates to grace. My professors had taught me that already, so my pastoral stance in the confessional was not significantly challenged.
 
I was more taken by the ritual opportunities offered in Ordo Paenitentiae. OP put forward three ways to celebrate this sacrament, outlined here:
 
Rite One was the individual confession of a person to a priest. However, the formula was extended to include, among other things, a reading of a passage from Scripture and a broad selection of “Acts of Contrition.” Clearly, this revised rite would take longer than the old one, and I wondered how Rite 1 would fit, so to speak, in the engrained custom of hearing lines confessions before weekend Masses.
 
Rite Two was a public church service which included hymns, Scripture reading, a homily, an examination of conscience, and a common act of contrition. Then the participants approached one of the priests in attendance, confessed sins, received individual absolution, and returned to the pew. When everyone had confessed, a final prayer and closing hymn closed the service. As far as I could see, Rite 2 was popular during Advent and Lent. When I came to Florida, I was on the road several nights a week during the holy seasons to assist at my neighbors’ penance rites [as well as to enjoy a scrumptious rectory meal and a nightcap after the service with my local clergy friends.] Today I read a good number of church bulletins and I never see such a service posted. I have some ideas about that, for a follow-up post.
 
Rite Three was quite controversial. It was frequently referred to as the “General Absolution” option. It parallelled Rite Two except that there was no individual confession. Rather, full absolution for all sins—mortal and venial—was administered from the sanctuary by the priest celebrant. I found this rite to be highly effective both at my college and later as a parish pastor. In 1986 my parish completed a RENEW program, and I scheduled an evening General Absolution service as a finale. I am told that hundreds of people never even got their cars on the church property, and having given up, moved down the street to Denny’s for an impromptu celebration of dessert.
 
Rite Three caused considerable discomfort at the Vatican, and under Pope John Paul II local bishops were expected to forbid its use except in danger of death situations, such as soldiers entering battle.
 
So, in answer to the question of how Vatican II impacted our penitential situation in our 2024 setting, I would say, “Very little.”
 
__________________
 
I will pick up the Penance questions in about two weeks. If you have “confession topics,” send them to me at [email protected] I have about ten here on my desk I didn’t get to on this run. I am leaving the Café desk now for a week at the beach with my in-laws. Just my luck, my condo is across the street from a very nice Catholic Church. I called to make an appointment for my Lenten confession. I know the pastor to be an excellent spiritual director from previous experience. I pray that all of you will experience a moving Lenten Season with our Savior, Jesus Christ