Confession

One of the great things about being a Catholic is the Sacrament of Confession. I don’t know if any other religions have anything to compare with Confession. Confession is often referred to the Sacrament of Penance. This is because the sinner is required to do some penance after he or she confesses – more about that later.

For those unfamiliar with the Catholic Sacrament of Penance, I’ll give you a brief outline of what is involved.

·         Examination of conscience: This is what you do before you confess. In involves trying to recall all the sins you committed since your last confession. There are two basic categories of sin, mortal and venial. A mortal sin is a serious sin. Examples of mortal sin are adultery, fornication, murder, armed robbery, telling a lie that ruins a person’s reputation. Venial sin is a lesser offence such as petty theft, lying that has no serious consequence, reading “girlie” magazines, cursing or watching soft porn on the internet. Obviously it is harder to confess a mortal sin than a venial one.

·         Confess your sins: This is the step where you tell your sins to a priest. It is normally done in a confessional, but can be done anywhere. For instance a dying soldier might confess his sins to a priest on the battlefield. The confessional allows the sinner to remain anonymous if the sinner wishes. In my younger days confessionals always had a screen with a cloth between the sinner and the priest. The confessional was also unlit. This combination prevented the priest from seeing who was performing the confession. The Catholic Church later made changes that allowed for a face to face confession if the sinner desired; but the option to remain behind the screen remained.

·         Receive counseling from the priest: After the sinner enumerated his or her sins. The priest my counsel the sinner on how to avoid the sin in the future or provide some words of comfort.

·         Say an Act of Contrition: This is where you verbally say a prayer that acknowledges your sins offended God and you promise to avoid repeating them in the future.

·         Penance: The priest gives you a penance to perform. Usually this is a series of prayers for you to say. For instance the priest might tell you to say three “Our Fathers” and three “Hail Mary’s”.  The priest might also direct you to perform some task you find undesirable such as doing the family dishes for a week. The priest might also order you to make restitution in the case of theft.

·         Absolution: The priest, acting as Christ’s representative, absolves you of your sins.

I always thought the Sacrament of Penance was one of the greatest, if not the greatest, “selling points” of the Catholic Church. The main reason is that your confession to a priest is protected by the “Seal of Confession”. This means that the priest will not repeat anything you tell in confession to anyone else. There have been cases where priests have been tortured and killed because they wouldn’t reveal what they were told in confession. In general, civil law also respects the Seal of Confession. If you are not a Catholic and are troubled by sins you may have committed what are your options for dealing with your inner guilt? Let’s examine some.

·         Talk to a bartender: I guess this is an option for adults. It has the advantage that you can do it over a double scotch; but do you trust the bartender not to repeat what you told him? Of course if you haven’t attained drinking age, this is not an option.

·         Psychiatrist or Psychologist: What you tell a psychiatrist or psychologist may be protected by law as privileged information; but this is a costly alternative.

·         Talk to your spouse: All I can say about this is “Do you want the spouse to know all your sins?”

·       Talk to your parents: This is an option; but, if you’re a kid there is probably a lot of things you’d rather your parents didn’t know.

·         Friends: You may have a friend whom you trust to keep your confidence; but it’s not guaranteed. In addition, there are some things you might not want your friend to know.

So, as a Catholic you can confess your sins, get absolution, and a guarantee of confidentiality at no cost. Can you beat a deal like that?

In my youth I took advantage of the Sacrament of Penance frequently. One of the reasons for this was that I was “encouraged” by my parents to do so. As a child, however, the difference between a mortal and venial sin was somewhat blurred and I tended to perceive some sins as mortal that I would now consider as venial. Going to confession provided a spiritual relief.

Growing up in St. John’s Parish there were a lot of priests to choose from as my confessor. We had five or six parish priests and some of the priests from Creighton University would hear confessions also. As a result, I could go to a different priest almost anytime, thus further ensuring anonymity.

Anonymity was one of the characteristics of confession that drew me to the sacrament. I always felt good that the priest didn’t know who I was. Well on one occasion my cover was blown. You see I was also an altar boy. As a result, I think most of the parish priests knew me.

One of the priests I liked as a confessor was Father Aloysius Wilwerding. Father Wilwerding had a speech impediment which was the result of having been shot in the throat while serving as a Chaplain during World War I. The wound, inflicted on the Argonne-Meuse front, made it hard to understand him; but I don’t think I ever really had a problem hearing what he had to say.

One hot summer day I went to confession to Fr. Wilwerding. I had some embarrassing sins to confess and I was glad for the anonymity of the confessional. After Fr. Wilwerding administered absolution and assigned the penance he said:

“Mike will you go into the sacristy and turn on blowers 3 & 4?”

He was referring to two of the ventilating fans use to exhaust hot air from the church. At that period of time the church had no air conditioning system to provide cooling. Obviously Fr. Wilwerding knew who I was all the time!

That incident didn’t discourage me from going back to him. One reason was that he would help you along in the confession process. For instance, as I indicated before, it can be embarrassing to have to tell certain sins to the priest. As a result, as a penitent, I would tend to be obscure on how I described my sins. The following exchange shows an example of how Fr. Wilwerding assisted me.

Penitent: “I use some bad language three to four times a day.”

Fr. Wilwerding: “Like what? Son of a B?”