top picture reminds me think of this:
drunk staggers into the church, goes into the confessional box, sits down but says nothing. The priest coughs a few times to get his attention but the drunk just sits there.
Finally, the Priest pounds three times on the wall. The drunk mumbles, “No use knockin' - there's no paper on this side either.”
If they would just go to the source and confess to God himself you can eliminate all of this nonsence.
Well, it only took 20 minutes.
I have been to Confession there several times. The first time was quite startling. However, this Priest is very kind and humble and as he gives absolution he places his hands on the Penitent's head.
Confessing that way is very powerful, humbling, and, for me, only increased the realisation I was Confessing to Jesus Himself through the Priesthood He established
Dilbertian[tm] confessional would require a pointy-haired priest in it, or maybe Alice administering penance by bonking the sinners' heads against the table.
Not in my parish they aren't. It's a 20 to 45 minute wait for Confession on Saturdays.
Maybe we just sin a lot...
Yet, I have found the face-to-face confession experience to be truly tremendous, and soul-cleansing, far-beyond anything I experienced in the mor convention booths I grew up using.
The life of the Cure of Ars is a story that really shows that with God all things are possible. John Vianney was a famous confessor, and was loved and revered by his parishioners. People travelled for miles and stood for hours in the rain just to speak to him for a few minutes, or hear him preach...This feast day is a good chance for anyone who has been away from the confessional to return. Pray to St John Vianney to help you make a good confession.When Father Vianney heard confessions, people would stand in line for hours.
It was as a confessor that his true talents lay. His spiritual directions and hearing of confessions was distinguished by common sense, remarkable insight, and supernatural knowledge. He would sometimes know what sins had been withheld in an imperfect confession. People travelled for miles and from around the world to make a confession to him. Sinners were converted at a few words from him. By the end of his life, he spend 16 to 18 hours a day in the confessional, and he was mobbed whenever he appeared. He heard 20,000 confessions a year, up to 300 a day.
By the end of his life, Saint John Vianney was visited by people from all over the world. He spent from 16 to 18 hours in the confessional each day, and survived on a few pieces of bread and a few hours of sleep. He performed miracles of aid and healing.
For me confession is the hardest part of my Catholic faith. St John Vianney has been a great help.
bump for later reading
You make some good observations about confession relative to privacy. Certainly other people should not be in any way privy to what is communicated.
But in the final analysis the ultimate confidence has to be in the priest. The old closed "box" confessional reinforces the notion that the act itself is something that should be clandestine and hidden.
I've found that many people will come to a confession where both parties are in a church pew in an empty - or near empty - church but would be repulsed by the idea of the shrouded box.I'm referring primarily to younger people.
By the way, confession is not one of the sacraments.