Posted on 12/23/2013 5:34:11 AM PST by NYer
Father Romuald P. Zantua, the system’s inventor, told CBCP News that his invention will help increase the practice of confessions, especially for deaf people who have limited access to priests who know sign language.
The website for the system, called St. Damien’s Confession Box, says it is primarily aimed at the deaf and those with speech impediments who may not be able to communicate well to the priest hearing their confession.
“Most priests are also not trained or proficient enough in sign language conversation,” the website said.
About 500,000 Americans use sign language as their principal means of communication.
The system runs special software that uses two dedicated, secured computers. All network connectivity options are disabled except for an Ethernet connection, which connects the devices with a network cable.
The penitent and the priest each have their own computer. They communicate through typed messages on a chat program. The messages are erased at the end of each confession.
The system is still awaiting approval from the Holy See. The National Catholic Office for the Deaf and the National Catholic Partnership on Disability have helped assess and revise the system in its development.
Church law recognizes that the deaf may confess through written communication or an approved interpreter, though all confessions must be made in person.
A video presentation for St. Damien’s Confession Box said there will “always be a need” for priests who know American Sign Language, but the system provides an alternative in the absence of such priests.
The system is named for Saint Damien of Molokai, a priest who ministered to Hawaiian lepers and contracted leprosy himself. He was forbidden to leave the island of Molokai and faced great difficulty making his own confession.
The St. Damien’s Confession Box website is http://stdamien.org.
Satire?
That is outstanding! LMAO
However if I may briefly state: God as Creator is just that, He is presently creating. It is not possible (in the Catholic religion) to believe God is some omnipotent "watchmaker" who at one time created everything and now sits back and watches with casual bemusement. Indeed, this would make Him out to be quite cruel indeed.
We believe He is constantly creating today, for many reasons but one among them is precisely because of the problem of evil. We believe He constantly creates so as to always bring out greater good from evil, this defeating it at every turn.
Again, that's a very brief treatment of the subject. The work by C.S. Lewis I mentioned earlier is very helpful in this regard. I shall keep you in prayer as you struggle with this issue.
Haha! Both of your posts made me chuckle, thanks.
“No, Mary is not God’s mother.”
Jesus is God. Mary is His mother. Mary is the mother of God. She is NOT the mother of the Trinity.
The mortal human Mary gave birth to Jesus, who was God become Man. She really has no more important significance in Christianity other than that.
“She really has no more important significance in Christianity other than that.”
Sure she does. There’s no way the God who chose her to carry and give birth to His Divine Son could possibly have her be of “no more important significance.” I bet your mother played a role in your doings after your birth - even if only in your thoughts of her if you were given up in adoption.
Born of a woman. Mary. Mary gave birth to the God-man, Jesus, Second Person of the Trinity made flesh.
Whatever floats your boat.
I’d add Elizabeth, moved by the Holy Spirit, asks, “How is this, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” Elizabeth was the wife of a Jewish priest, and the daughter of a priestly family. What else, exactly, would she have meant by that?
My boat is the barque of Peter.
No. This computer has been developed strictly for use at the parish level. The entire confession is erased upon its completion. If your parish had such a device, would you find it easier?
Oh believe me, I know Mary is not the mother of God. God is self-existent. God had no beginning and will have no end. God is the Creator. Mary is the created. However, Catholics constantly refer to her as the mother of God. Such as in the “Hail Mary”. “holy Mary mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death, amen.
Christs divinity is shown over and over again in the New Testament. For example, in John 5:18 we are told that Jesus opponents sought to kill him because he "called God his Father, making himself equal with God."
In John 8:58, when quizzed about how he has special knowledge of Abraham, Jesus replies, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I Am"invoking and applying to himself the personal name of God"I Am" (Ex. 3:14). His audience understood exactly what he was claiming about himself. "So they took up stones to throw at him; but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple" (John 8:59).
Who is he, Lord, that I may believe in him? the blind man inquired. thou hast both seen him: and it is he that talketh with thee, answered Jesus. (John 9:35)
The Council of Chalcedon established in AD360 that Jesus is fully man and fully God. The unique and altogether singular event of the Incarnation of the Son of God does not mean that Jesus Christ is part God and part man, nor does it imply that he is the result of a confused mixture of the divine and the human. He became truly man while remaining truly God. Jesus Christ is true God and true man.
Joe, confession is a profoundly intense and serious exchange between penitent and God Almighty. Would you really trust a computer program to properly translate (=interpret) your confession into a meaningful experience?
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