Confessional

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Confessional at the Toulouse Cathedral Cathedrale Saint-Etienne de Toulouse - chapelle des reliques - Confessionnal PM31000752.jpg
Confessional at the Toulouse Cathedral
A confessional in Luther Church (Helsinki, Finland) Luther-kirkko, rippituoli.jpg
A confessional in Luther Church (Helsinki, Finland)

A confessional is a box, cabinet, booth, or stall in which the priest in some Catholic churches sits to hear the confessions of penitents. It is the usual venue for the sacrament in the Roman Catholic Church and the Lutheran Churches, [1] [2] but similar structures are also used in Anglican churches of an Anglo-Catholic orientation. In the Catholic Church, confessions are only to be heard in a confessional or oratory, except for a just reason. [3]

Contents

The confessional is usually a wooden structure, with a centre compartment—entered through a door or curtain—in which the priest sits, and on each side there is a latticed opening for the penitents to speak through and a step on which they kneel. By this arrangement the priest is hidden, but the penitent is visible to the public. Confessionals sometimes form part of the architectural scheme of the church; many finely decorated specimens, dating from the late 16th and the 17th centuries, are found in churches on the continent of Europe. A notable example, in Renaissance style, is in the Saint Michael's church  [ fr ] at Leuven. But more usually, confessionals are movable pieces of furniture. [2]

In modern practice of the Catholic, Lutheran and Anglican churches, apart from receiving absolution in the confessional, many churches offer private Confession and Absolution at the chancel rails or in a reconciliation room, as well as during communal penitential rites. [4] [5]

In Eastern Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodoxy confessionals are not used: the confession often occurs in sight of other believers, e.g., those waiting in the row for the same purpose, but at some distance from them to not break the "seal of confession". Let it be understood that the "seal of confession" is technically of Roman usage.

History

The confessional in its modern form dates no farther back than the 16th century. Du Cange cites the year 1563 for an early use of the word confessionale for the sacrum poenitentiae tribunal. The term was applied to the burial place of a martyr or "confessor", that being one who confesses Christ. There are also instances where the name was attached to the spot, whether cell or seat, where noted saints had a habit of hearing confessions. For example, the confessional of Church of St. Trophime at Arles.

In the popular Reformed view, confessional boxes are associated with the scandals, real or supposed, of the practice of auricular confession. However, the boxes were devised to guard against such scandals by securing at once essential publicity and a reasonable privacy, and by separating priest and penitent. In the Middle Ages corresponding and stringent rules were established in canon law for confessions by women, and especially by nuns.

In England, before the Protestant Reformation, publicity was reckoned the best safeguard. Thus Archbishop Walter Reynolds, in 1322, says in his Constitutions: "Let the priest choose for himself a common place for hearing confessions, where he may be seen generally by all in the church; and do not let him hear any one, and especially any woman, in a private place, except in great necessity." [2] .

In Italy, men's confessions were heard in the sacristy face to face,or the priest would draw aside the central confessional curtain which separated him the rest of the church and hear a man's confession. Women's confessions were heard in the confessional with a screen between priest and penitent. The maxim,"numquam solus cum sola" was strictly enforced by this method. Hearing a man's confession in the box became common in the United States for convenience sake as sacristies were not as vast as they were in Italian churches.

It would seem that the priest usually heard confessions at the chancel opening or at a bench end in the nave near the chancel. There is, however, in some churchwardens' accounts mention of a special seat: "the shryving stool", "shriving pew" or "shriving place". (On a related note, the observance of Shrove Tuesday is named after the practice of shriving/confession.) [6] At Lenham, in Kent, there is an ancient armchair in stone, with a stone bench and steps on one side, that appears to be a confessional.

With the revival of the practice of auricular confession in the Church of England, confessionals were introduced into some parishes with an Anglo-Catholic bent. Since, however, they formed no part of "the furniture of the church" in the "second year of King Edward VI", some have argued that they are not covered by the "Ornaments Rubric" in the Prayer-Book. The question of their legality was raised in 1900 in the case of Davey v. Hinde (vicar of the Church of the Annunciation at Brighton), tried before Dr Tristram in the consistory court of Chichester. They were condemned "on the ground that they are not articles of church furniture requisite for or conducive to conformity with the doctrine or practice of the Church of England in relation to the reception of confession". [2]

"Confessional", in the sense of a due payable for the right to hear confession, is now obsolete. [2]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Confession (religion)</span> Acknowledgment of ones sins

Confession, in many religions, is the acknowledgment of sinful thoughts and actions. This may occur directly to a god or to fellow people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Penance</span> Repentance of sins

Penance is any act or a set of actions done out of repentance for sins committed, as well as an alternate name for the Catholic, Lutheran, Eastern Orthodox, and Oriental Orthodox sacrament of Reconciliation or Confession. It also plays a part in confession among Anglicans and Methodists, in which it is a rite, as well as among other Protestants. The word penance derives from Old French and Latin paenitentia, both of which derive from the same root meaning repentance, the desire to be forgiven. Penance and repentance, similar in their derivation and original sense, have come to symbolize conflicting views of the essence of repentance, arising from the controversy as to the respective merits of "faith" and "good works". Word derivations occur in many languages.

In a number of Christian traditions, including Orthodoxy, Catholicism, Lutheranism, and Anglicanism, a confessor is a priest who hears the confessions of penitents and pronounces absolution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Absolution</span> Traditional theological term for the forgiveness experienced by Penance

Absolution is a theological term for the forgiveness imparted by ordained Christian priests and experienced by Christian penitents. It is a universal feature of the historic churches of Christendom, although the theology and the practice of absolution vary between Christian denominations.

In the Catholic Church, the Seal of Confession is the absolute duty of priests or anyone who happens to hear a confession not to disclose anything that they learn from penitents during the course of the Sacrament of Penance (confession). Even where the seal of confession does not strictly apply – where there is no specific serious sin confessed for the purpose of receiving absolution – priests have a serious obligation not to cause scandal by the way they speak.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Penitential Act</span> Form of confession of sinfulness practiced in Roman Catholicism

The Penitential Act is a Christian form of general confession of sinfulness that normally takes place at the beginning of the celebration of Mass in the Roman Rite of the Catholicism, as well as in Lutheranism.

Sacramentum Poenitentiae was an apostolic constitution promulgated by Pope Benedict XIV in 1741, discussing the offense of solicitation, which is the crime of making use of the Sacrament of Penance, directly or indirectly, for the purpose of soliciting sexual activity.

Latae sententiae and ferendae sententiae are ways sentences are imposed in the Catholic Church in its canon law.

The clergy–penitent privilege, clergy privilege, confessional privilege, priest–penitent privilege, pastor–penitent privilege, clergyman–communicant privilege, or ecclesiastical privilege, is a rule of evidence that forbids judicial inquiry into certain communications between clergy and members of their congregation. This rule recognises certain communication as privileged and not subject to otherwise obligatory disclosure; for example, this often applies to communications between lawyers and clients. In many jurisdictions certain communications between a member of the clergy of some or all religious faiths and a person consulting them in confidence are privileged in law. In particular, Catholics, Lutherans and Anglicans, among adherents of other Christian denominations, confess their sins to priests, who are unconditionally forbidden by Church canon law from making any disclosure, a position supported by the law of many countries, although in conflict with civil (secular) law in some jurisdictions. It is a distinct concept from that of confidentiality.

The Sacrament of Penance is one of the seven sacraments of the Catholic Church, in which the faithful are absolved from sins committed after baptism and reconciled with the Christian community. During reconciliation mortal sins must be confessed and venial sins may be confessed for devotional reasons. According to the dogma and unchanging practice of the church, only those ordained as priests may grant absolution.

In persona Christi is a Latin phrase meaning "in the person of Christ", an important concept in Roman Catholicism and, in varying degrees, to other Christian traditions, such as Lutheranism and Anglicanism. In Catholic theology, a priest is In persona Christi because, in the sacraments he administers, it is God and Christ who acts through the instrumentality of the priest. An extended term, In persona Christi capitis, “in the person of Christ the head,” was introduced by the bishops of the Vatican Council II in the Decree on the Ministry and Live of Priests, Presbyterorum Ordinis, December 7, 1965.

The doctrine of priest–penitent privilege does not appear to apply in English law. The orthodox view is that under the law of England and Wales privileged communication exists only in the context of legal advice obtained from a professional adviser. A statement of the law on priest–penitent privilege is contained in the nineteenth century case of Wheeler v. Le Marchant:

In the first place, the principle protecting confidential communications is of a very limited character. ... There are many communications, which, though absolutely necessary because without them the ordinary business of life cannot be carried on, still are not privileged. ... Communications made to a priest in the confessional on matters perhaps considered by the penitent to be more important than his life or his fortune, are not protected.

The Seal of the Confessional is a principle within Anglicanism which protects the words spoken during confession. Confession has certain censures on disclosure as there is an understanding among the clergy that there is an inviolable confidence between the individual priest and the penitent. This principle should not be confused with the rarer practice of lay confession, nor with the public confession of sins which is an element of most eucharistic liturgies throughout the Anglican Communion. The "Seal of the Confessional" refers specifically to the private confession of sins by an individual, in the presence of a priest, the form of which is regulated by the 1662 Book of Common Prayer and later liturgical sources.

The doctrine of priest–penitent privilege does not apply in the UK. Before the Reformation, England was a Roman Catholic country and the Seal of the Confessional had great authority in the English courts. However, the Reformation was followed by a period of, often fierce, persecution of Catholics.

The Seal of the Confessional is a Christian doctrine which affirms the special protection and privilege of the words spoken during confession between a penitent and his or her pastor. A form of this principle exists in the doctrine and practice of many modern Lutheran churches.

Lay confession is confession in the religious sense, made to a lay person.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Confession (Lutheran Church)</span>

In the Lutheran Church, Confession is the method given by Christ to the Church by which individual men and women may receive the forgiveness of sins; according to the Large Catechism, the "third sacrament" of Holy Absolution is properly viewed as an extension of Holy Baptism. Unlike Catholicism, the practice of private confession in the Lutheran Church is voluntary, not obligatory.

The Lutheran sacraments are "sacred acts of divine institution". They are also defined as “an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace.”.

The Seal of the Confessional is a Christian doctrine forbidding a priest from disclosing any information learned from a penitent during Confession. This doctrine is recognized by several Christian denominations:

In the canon law of the Catholic Church, excommunication is a form of censure. In the formal sense of the term, excommunication includes being barred not only from the sacraments but also from the fellowship of Christian baptism. The principal and severest censure, excommunication presupposes guilt; and being the most serious penalty that the Catholic Church can inflict, it supposes a grave offense. The excommunicated person is considered by Catholic ecclesiastical authority as an exile from the Church, for a time at least.

References

  1. ↑ Schmucker, Samuel Simon (2013). American Lutheranism Vindicated: or, Examination of the Lutheran Symbols, on Certain Disputed Topics. Simon & Schuster. p. 81. ISBN   978-1627935715.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Wikisource-logo.svg One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain :  Phillips, Walter Alison (1911). "Confessional". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica . Vol. 6 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 904–905.
  3. ↑ 1983 Code of Canon Law, Canon 964.3
  4. ↑ Cunningham, Lawrence (2009). An Introduction to Catholicism. Cambridge University Press. p. 113. ISBN   978-0521846073.
  5. ↑ "Private Absolution and the Confessional Seal" (PDF). Evangelical Lutheran Synod. 1 October 2019. p. 2. Retrieved 20 April 2021.
  6. ↑ "Shrove Tuesday". Trinity Church. Retrieved 20 April 2021.
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