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Confession booths go silent
The Times Union ^ | June 24, 2007 | MARC PARRY

Posted on 06/24/2007 12:58:20 PM PDT by Alex Murphy

Albany -- Saturday afternoon Mass at St. Catherine of Siena draws 400 people. The confession period beforehand draws two.

The second makes it just before closing time. It's been about three months since Mariam O'Brien's last confession, and a few days since she skipped Mass.

The 84-year-old shuts the door and enters a soothing room with a red carpet, a box of tissues and a priest, the Rev. Kenneth Doyle, who confesses that hearing confessions is one of his favorite duties. She steps out minutes later.

"I feel like the Lord is listening to me through the priest," O'Brien says outside the confessional, talking candidly with a reporter about things her priest is forbidden from saying to anyone. "I get consolation from it, and blessings."

This scene in Albany speaks volumes about the state of confession in America. The sacrament, once a pillar of Catholic practice, is crumbling. And the way people confess, both what they say and where they say it, is shifting from the old laundry lists of minor misdeeds recited in austere anonymous boxes.

Only 26 percent of Catholics go to confession at least once a year, according to a 2005 poll by Georgetown University's Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate. A University of Notre Dame study in the early 1980s put the number at 74 percent.

It's an alarming trend for Catholic leaders, who see confession as essential to spiritual health. What's at stake is a route, laid out in the Bible, to examine your conscience, overcome sin and achieve grace.

Signs of concern keep popping up. Pope Benedict XVI talked up the sacrament in at least three recent public appearances, even casting it in modern psychological terms as a remedy for "guilt complexes."

And earlier this year, the Washington Archdiocese tried to lure folks back to confession with a marketing campaign -- catch phrase: "The Light Is On For You" -- that slapped ads on buses and subway cars, and passed out how-to guides and wallet-size contrition cards.

Confession has become so foreign to so many Catholics that priests like Doyle keep sample acts of contrition on hand so sinners can read aloud words they once would have known by heart.

"In the old days the priest wouldn't help you," said the Rev. Gerald Mudd, 67, of St. Francis Chapel in Colonie. "You'd get hell if you didn't know it."

Doyle, also 67, remembers how it used to be when he and his buddies biked to Sacred Heart Church on Saturdays as kids in Troy.

The dark box. The screened-off priest. The second-grader's fear of that first confession.

Now confessionals are sometimes called reconciliation rooms. And sitting for an interview in the one at St. Catherine of Siena recently, Doyle estimated that 80 to 90 percent of penitents choose to come clean in a chair facing him rather than behind an optional partition. ("I have trouble kneeling anyway," one 78-year-old said.)

The Vatican approved this style in the 1970s. The idea was that worshippers, abandoning confession in droves, would find such sessions more meaningful.

"That option certainly didn't bring the large numbers back," said James O'Toole, a history professor at Boston College who studies confession.

An emerging confession style that is attracting interest -- and the scorn of Catholic leaders -- replaces the whisper of priests with the click-clack of computer keys. Protestant churches and secular groups have created Web sites that let users anonymously cyber-dish their confessions to the world.

And what confessions!

Nothing like the G-rated fare that Doyle, who doubles as chancellor for public information of the Albany Diocese, typically hears in his confessional. Those Catholics who still confess regularly "tend to be the ones who are most faithful to their obligations," he said.

So parishioners fess up to not praying enough or not being thankful enough for their blessings. Husbands regret failing to be understanding enough of wives. Parents lament not being patient enough with their kids.

"It's not very often that I meet some people that come in and say, 'I killed the guy next door,' " Doyle said.

You probably won't find any murderers coming clean on confession Web sites like the evangelical service www.mysecret.tv.

But you will find a husband who leads a double life of secret gay hookups. A man disgusted by his addiction to masturbation. A recovering drug addict who molested his little brother.

These Web sites are a new phenomenon. So why, to borrow O'Toole's phrase, has Catholic confession "fallen through the floor"?

"There's a cluster of things," O'Toole said. "People didn't like to do it. And once they stopped thinking that they'd go to hell if they didn't, they could kind of get out of the habit."

Ask Doyle the same question, and he points to one primary explanation: a diminishing sense of sin.

He feels our society chalks up misbehavior to psychological factors. Or socioeconomic influences. Or family upbringing.

"Anything," said Doyle, "but personal responsibility."

O'Toole also pointed to a new emphasis since the 1960s on the social dimensions of sin, the notion that sin isn't so much "I punched my sister" as it is things like racism, sexism and damaging the environment. Stuff that's generally harder to talk about in the confessional.

The professor added that rates of Communion skyrocketed after Vatican II in the 1960s, while rates of confession plummeted. Catholics, he said, got the idea that the Eucharist itself provided forgiveness. For minor sins, Doyle said, that's true.

All of that is much more complicated than the simple reason one parishioner offered for why she prays every night but hasn't confessed in at least 15 years.

"I feel like I don't need somebody between me and God," said Ginny Hartkern, 59, of St. Brigid's Church in Watervliet. "I think you can speak directly to God. You don't need an intermediary."

For those who do, the old ways live on at St. Mary's Church, incorporated in 1796 and the state's second-oldest Catholic parish. It doesn't get more traditional than these confessionals: the lacquered wood, the mustard-yellow curtains, the complete anonymity behind them.

And for parishioners like Ruth, who gave her age as "over 80," this is how confession should be. You remove the anonymity, she said, and "too much personality" gets involved. And doesn't looking at a priest change what you're willing to tell him? "They teach the kids now to go face to face," said Ruth, of Colonie, who did not want her last name published. "I prefer the way I have always gone, behind the screen."

For a newer twist, visit the commercial hub of Colonie's Wolf Road, where if you didn't read the sign you might mistake St. Francis Chapel for the nearby tanning salon.

Here in this strip mall, the Franciscan friars have figured out a two-step formula for keeping confession viable:

1. Make it available where the people are.

2. Be there for them all day.

Instead of just Saturday afternoons or by appointment, the friars are there for you weekdays, too.

They split the day into shifts that end at 7:30 p.m. This lets them hear an astounding volume of confessions by today's standards -- up to 50 a day.

They don't even have to wait in the box for penitents. Every time one enters the confessional, it triggers a sensor that rings a bell in the church office. This happened repeatedly during an interview with Mudd one recent afternoon. Each time, the brown-robed friar excused himself and slipped into the confessional through a back door.

A few minutes from St. Francis, but worlds away theologically, is Lifechurch.tv.

You won't find a confessional there. Most Sundays, you won't even hear a live sermon.

The tennis-bubble-like dome off Sand Creek Road is the "Albany campus" of an Oklahoma-based network of evangelical churches. Lifechurch beams the sermons of its senior pastor to screens at its far-flung member campuses.

Lifechurch launched the confession Web site www.mysecret.tv. Its users include Albany worship pastor Joe Dingwall, who was online in the church's dartboard-equipped office one day when others' confessions motivated him to post his own.

That we're-all-going-through-the-same-thing camaraderie is why Dingwall, 26, prefers sharing his sins online to airing them in a Catholic confessional, something he has tried despite not being Catholic.

Catholic authorities have condemned online confessionals. The Vatican advised bishops and priests not to use them three years ago, the reason being that "ill-intentioned people such as hackers" might read the confessions and use them for nefarious purposes like blackmail.

So is there any bright spot in the Catholic confession landscape?

Yes. Several Catholic priests agreed that the few people who still use the sacrament are using it really well.

Today's penitents are far more likely to talk about "sins of omission," as Doyle put it. People might lament their failures to put in enough effort at work, say, or to be generous with their money or time.

The Rev. Paul Smith, sacramental minister at churches in Altamont and Berne, said parishioners now delve into things like bigotry -- into the attitudes that underlie their misbehavior.

"They're willing to go deeper," he said.


TOPICS: Catholic; Ministry/Outreach; Religion & Culture; Worship
KEYWORDS: catholicism; christianity; vanishingcatholics
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To: The Spirit Of Allegiance

due to a lessened sense of sin and need for repentance?

As a Catholic, I think it is this answer that explains it more. As society has accepted so much that used to be a sin, people find themselves being good and not having any faults. For example, murder would be a sin, but sex with different people is no longer considered a sin in America.


101 posted on 06/25/2007 6:39:43 AM PDT by napscoordinator
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To: Dr. Eckleburg

Interesting that you would think that Deliver us from Evil would be associated with the Catholic Church because of a few priests who were sinful.

I think the same way as you do with the Evangelicals/Protestants when I watch Jesus Camp. Is that representative of your religion??????????

Knock it off!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


102 posted on 06/25/2007 6:51:09 AM PDT by napscoordinator
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To: magisterium; Religion Moderator
As the poster of this thread is not Catholic, it is unlikely that the motivation for offering this thread was spiritual edification and righteous admonishment of Catholics. Rather, one guesses that the airing of this subject matter is a “gotcha!” aimed at Catholics and meant as evidence of the immanent collapse of the Faith.

Further evidence of controvertialist motivations can be found in post 81, where the thread originator (for the umpteenth time) creates an artificial argument about allegations concerning the number of Protestant denominations in this country. The often cited 33,000 figure was used by someone, and he then makes a big deal out of “variations” on that number in earlier threads, apparently unable to distinguish rounding (”30,000”) and hyperbole (”a million”) in the examples he cites.

This type of continued intra-Christian sniping is outstanding witness to the many seekers wading through these threads, I’m sure! It’s one thing to disagree on theological particulars within a thread; it’s something else again to *initiate* threads whose purpose is to denigrate particular brands of Christianity that differ from the thread poster’s. That’s childish.

Ping me the next time you attack me, please.

103 posted on 06/25/2007 7:00:56 AM PDT by Alex Murphy
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To: The Spirit Of Allegiance
Speaking as a Protestant, is this reported trend:

* due to more people confessing sin directly without a human mediator, or is it

* due to a lessened sense of sin and need for repentance?

Given the overall free-fall of our society into the sewer of secular relativism/atheism/agnosticism, the percentages make sense. The more we suckle at the teat of the mass media/pop culture, the lower the sense of guilt and sin. It certainly didn't help that, institutionally, the American (and European) Catholic Church went into a self-induced spiritual atrophy which made the unfortunate departure of countless adherents go unchallenged.

This has all been foretold, at any rate. As mankind delves deeper and deeper into the horror of sin, the Church will become smaller and smaller. The "outer court" will be cast out (Rev. 11:2), but the inner court - the remnant of faithful still in the temple - will be preserved until the Day of Judgment.

104 posted on 06/25/2007 7:20:18 AM PDT by Rutles4Ever (Ubi Petrus, ibi ecclesia, et ubi ecclesia vita eterna)
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To: Rutles4Ever
This has all been foretold, at any rate. As mankind delves deeper and deeper into the horror of sin, the Church will become smaller and smaller. The "outer court" will be cast out (Rev. 11:2), but the inner court - the remnant of faithful still in the temple - will be preserved until the Day of Judgment.

I wasn't aware that Catholic eschatology/interpretation of Revelation described a "shrinking church". That sounds more like the evangelicals' dispensationalist views than the Amillennialism I had expected from the Catholic Church. Can you go into more detail/provide any resources to better my understanding?

105 posted on 06/25/2007 7:28:49 AM PDT by Alex Murphy
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To: Alex Murphy

I should be glad to in the future, but consider the omission in this instance to be something of a parable.

Just as you take exception to what you consider blindsiding references to you, so, too, consider that sometimes people take exception to blindsiding references to what they hold dear. The offenses are at least equal in any circumstance; when they involve religion, the disparity grows.

You have no personal stake in the topic matter discussed on this thread. It is hardly flattering to one particular group of Christians, of which you are not a member. You know many Catholics on this forum. If you seek honest discussion of the issue (and I admit you are far less egregious in your bias than many overt anti-Catholics who post here), wouldn’t it be better to give a heads-up on this to a Catholic member and invite them to post it with the option of caucusing it? Posting negatively slanted stories about other denominations leaves the poster open to questions of motive; far less acrimony finds its way onto these threads when the same subject matter is proposed for discussion by a member whose confession it directly concerns. We would *all* give better witness on these threads if we gave each other the courtesy of “first right of refusal” for posting threads involving negative stories or stereotypes of our widely varying denominational foundations. Just a thought.


106 posted on 06/25/2007 7:31:18 AM PDT by magisterium
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To: magisterium; Salvation; Frank Sheed; Religion Moderator
We would *all* give better witness on these threads if we gave each other the courtesy of “first right of refusal” for posting threads involving negative stories or stereotypes of our widely varying denominational foundations.

Which explains all of those FReepmails that I get from Catholics, giving me "first right of refusal" on their threads and posts giving "negative stories or stereotypes" about Protestants and Evangelicals.

If you really want to find a better witness on the Forum, then give a better witness. Stop trying to douse a perceived fire with gasoline. Stop second-guessing peoples' motivations. Stop the personal attacks, based upon said second-guessing. Follow the Religion Moderator's posting rules.

107 posted on 06/25/2007 7:47:26 AM PDT by Alex Murphy
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To: dangus

Are you a Catholic?


108 posted on 06/25/2007 7:49:27 AM PDT by nanetteclaret (Our Lady's Hat Society)
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To: The Spirit Of Allegiance

I think convenience plays a big role in this trend.

There is a church in downtown Hartford that has confession at 11:30 am every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. People generally walk there during their lunch break. I typically drive there about once a month when the timing is right. There is ALWAYS a line, and often the line has more than 20 people in it.


109 posted on 06/25/2007 7:58:18 AM PDT by kidd
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To: magisterium; Religion Moderator
From the article:

An emerging confession style that is attracting interest -- and the scorn of Catholic leaders -- replaces the whisper of priests with the click-clack of computer keys. Protestant churches and secular groups have created Web sites that let users anonymously cyber-dish their confessions to the world.

And what confessions! -snip-

You probably won't find any murderers coming clean on confession Web sites like the evangelical service www.mysecret.tv.

But you will find a husband who leads a double life of secret gay hookups. A man disgusted by his addiction to masturbation. A recovering drug addict who molested his little brother.

IMO, a caucus designation for this article would have been inappropriate, because it included "confessions" by some non-Catholics.

110 posted on 06/25/2007 8:07:49 AM PDT by GoLightly
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To: magisterium

Discuss the issues all you want, but do NOT make it personal.


111 posted on 06/25/2007 8:07:55 AM PDT by Religion Moderator
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To: Alex Murphy
Only 26 percent of Catholics go to confession at least once a year, according to a 2005 poll by Georgetown University's Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate.

Confession at least once a year is one of the 7 precepts of the Church. If a man hasn't been to confession in the last year, he should no longer be considered Catholic.

112 posted on 06/25/2007 8:15:29 AM PDT by Nihil Obstat (Kyrie Eleison)
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To: Nihil Obstat
Confession at least once a year is one of the 7 precepts of the Church. If a man hasn't been to confession in the last year, he should no longer be considered Catholic.

You'll get no argument from me. Of course, if they did so, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops couldn't boast of having the largest body of Christians in the United States any longer.

Roman Catholics total 64 million in U.S. ["counting Catholics is really more art than science"]

113 posted on 06/25/2007 8:24:30 AM PDT by Alex Murphy
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To: Alex Murphy

I found the statement of people failing to report deaths to the Church in that article somewhat interesting. If people aren’t going to a Catholic Priest for last rites & their family members don’t have a Priest involved in the burial, it would be hard to argue that the dead individual or their family was Catholic.


114 posted on 06/25/2007 8:34:40 AM PDT by GoLightly
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To: Gamecock; Alex Murphy
When these extremely high numbers of Protestant denominations started appearing on Free Republic's religious forum I was taken aback. I was very suspect and being a Catholic was concerned that it was fabricated and hoped some Catholic group was not responsible since I believed the information did not put non-Catholics in a good light,given Christ's desire that we be as One as He and the Father were.

I traced some links back to the group responsible and it was either commissioned by,or established by non-Catholic Christians. No question that Catholics have used that data to support some of their points but please know that those figures were not gathered by a Catholic group originally.

115 posted on 06/25/2007 9:09:55 AM PDT by saradippity
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To: saradippity
I traced some links back to the group responsible and it was either commissioned by,or established by non-Catholic Christians.

What group do you believe to be responsible? If you could provide those details behind the origin/pedigree of the "30,000 denominations" claim, it would be greatly appreciated. I have only seen it postulated by Catholics myself (and, as you saw, it's all over the map).

116 posted on 06/25/2007 9:18:53 AM PDT by Alex Murphy
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To: Alex Murphy

Catholics, encourage the lapsed to go to confession. I see almost everyone go to communion without any regard to their sinful state.


117 posted on 06/25/2007 10:11:28 AM PDT by rbosque
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To: Salvation
There is no Scripture telling us to go to anyone but God for mercy.

The use of the confessional box came much later than the apostals

118 posted on 06/25/2007 10:36:04 AM PDT by ears_to_hear (Pray for America)
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To: NYer
Good to see you back,I hope you are doing well:)

I disagree with the Catholic churches reading of this Scripture.The is an ecclesiastical gift dealing with the process of excommunication ( which we do read later in scripture)

But let say your reading is correct..where in scripture does Jesus say
they could pass on any of the gifts given for the building of the church

119 posted on 06/25/2007 10:40:53 AM PDT by ears_to_hear (Pray for America)
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To: stfassisi
When I sin and God calls me to see the sin I do openly speak to it to the one I sinned against.
What is done in the dark should be brought to the light
120 posted on 06/25/2007 10:43:18 AM PDT by ears_to_hear (Pray for America)
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