The Most Rev Justin Welby advised churchgoers that it could be an “enormously powerful” experience to unburden themselves to a confessor, even if it was not always a “bunch of laughs”.
His comments came as he addressed the heads of other churches ”“ including the leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England Wales, the Most Rev Vincent Nichols ”“ about divisions between Christians.
Although Archbishop Welby comes from the evangelical wing of Anglicanism, his personal spiritual director is a Swiss Roman Catholic priest, Fr Nicolas Buttet, and he is a strong advocate of Catholic worship styles.
Really? … If “Catholic” confession is so great, how to explain why so few Catholics actually go to it? Is that just to be ascribed to the invincible viciousness of so many Catholics who decline to confess year after year? In fact, few go. Most of them find the pretense of anonymity undermines the ability of the spiritual direction to be personalized. Many find the spiritual counsel they get in confession to be superficial or unsophisticated. Many confessors are not adequately trained or experienced or spiritually mature enough to give good advice.
Forgive my cynicism, and I’ve known good confessors and good confessions, but at its worst it’s a clerical con game, an instrument to infantilize/control/abuse people. It is most widely practiced in places where the Catholic Church is most abusive in the exercise of its spiritual power.
Again: our wisdom is that “all may, some should, none must.”
” Most of them find the pretense of anonymity undermines the ability of the spiritual direction to be personalized. Many find the spiritual counsel they get in confession to be superficial or unsophisticated. Many confessors are not adequately trained or experienced or spiritually mature enough to give good advice.”
I am curious regarding the source for these assertions, particularly because the claims are so categorical. They are empirical claims that should have some backup from empirical research. JHP may be right; I am not disputing his assertions here. I just wonder how he knows what keeps “most” Catholics out of the confessional.
Especially since anonymity is the exception, not the rule. Most people go to a priest that they know that knows them and most “reconciliations” (aka “confessions”) are face-to-face.
Interestingly, a recent study shows that the practice is becoming more popular, after a long period of decline. Given that the vast majority of Catholics don’t feel any pressure whatsoever to go, it’s hard to see how it used to “infantilize/control/abuse” people. After all 1) nobody can make you go 2) nobody actually knows whether or not you go and 3) nobody can make you say anything you don’t want to say.
It certainly does have a number of very distinct advantages over “general confession” in which you (very briefly) make a mental nod to some general bad habits you have (“I’m so impatient”) or specific bad things that you’ve done (“Like when I was screaming at the kids last week”) and then immediately go on “but God knows about that and he forgives me.”
Confession requires that 1) you spend a period of time thinking about your failures and 2) you actually describe them. I would even go so far to say that if you could do all that with a robot you’d have achieved 75% of the benefits of confession. The other 25%, of course, is that you’re supposed to receive some good advice and guidance. But even if you didn’t, it would be worthwhile.
Or may not. [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODEjAI-FB0c]This[/url] is a pretty funny take on automated confession. It does have some serious bad language [warning] but you can always take a chance on listening to it and then, if you think you shouldn’t have, visit your local Catholic Church for absolution later. 🙂
I found this story quite encouraging. I too am fond of strongly encouraging Anglicans I know to take advantage of the valuable spiritual discipline of the sacrament of reconciliation. Although I’m very familiar with the old adage that #1 cites (I know it in a different order): “[i]All may, none must, some should[/i]” (go), I’ve often modified that traditional saying this way: “[b]All may, none must, MORE should.[/b]”
My experience as a confessor is that parishioners and friends who make us of sacramental confession make significantly faster progress in their growth toward spritual maturity and health than those who don’t. One of the biggest gains in the 1979 BCP is that an official rite for the Sacrament of Reconciliation was included for the first time in any prayerbook in the Anglican Communion.
I’m reminded of the experience of C. S. Lewis. Although he attended an Anglo-Catholic paraish in Oxford, he long hesitated to make a confession to his priest, the famous and godly Austin Farrer. But once he brought himself to do so the first time, he found it so liberating and helpful that he started going frequently to confession. Not because he had to do so, but because he wanted to.
If that sounds “unProtestant,” it’s worth remembering that Martin Luther greatly valued “the power of the keys,” and urged his followers to go to confession regularly. He himself continued to make sacramental confession a regular personal practice until his death. Moreover, Luther’s famous [b]Small Catechism[/b] of 1529 clearly treats confession as a third sacrament, a return to baptismal purity.
David Handy+
Confession and spiritual direction agree two different things. They may come together, but it’s like two gifts given on the same occasion.
Confession is not merely an RC practice. It has its roots in the earliest days of the Church, and is an integral part of Eastern Orthodox practice. At the parish which I visit (I am a friend of and frequent visitor to the parish, and, although very interested in Orthodoxy, am “there” yet) the priest often urges periodic confession, along with prayer and fasting, as essential spiritual disciplines. Many Orthodox writers extol the benefits of confession.
As I understand things, there are some significant differences between Orthodox and Roman Catholic practices regarding confession. For example, in Orthodoxy, the penitent does not confess to the priest, but directly to God (with the priest as a witness). But I will leave it to someone with more knowledge than I to expound on the actual practice.
Although the current BCP includes a rite of reconciliation, I had a terrible experience in my last ECUSA parish, when I approached the rector about resorting to it. He was terribly uncomfortable, and put me off — essentially declining the rite without actually saying “No.” One event among many that contributed to my decision to leave that parish (and, eventually, the Episcopal Church).