Confessional

Quote: FrGamble

If I gave you that impression I am sorry.

Impression? You told me flat out
you don't give advice in the
confessional. I asked you once
what you tell people who confess
they are in bad marriage and
are confused. You said something
like, oh Bob, priests are not marriage
counselors in confessional. Our job
is to listen and forgive.

So now you're saying you do give
advice to on marriage in confession.
Now I'm wondering why you told me you
didn't.

If I dd tell you that it was probably because you were making it sound like confessions was therapy, which it is not. While we do give advice in confession all the time it is not the primary reason we are there.

Quote: FrGamble

I While we do give advice in confession all the time it is not the primary reason we are there.

Confession baffles me. I have never
felt the need to unburden myself
to anybody, let alone a stranger
in a booth. I never tell anybody
anything they don't need to know.
I've heard others confessions, and
it's always uncomfortable for me
and them. I'm a big believer in
keeping secrets, that way you have
a life that's just your own. Not
yours and the people you've blabbed
to who really don't care anyway.

The few people that have told me
intimate secrets about themselves
changed the way I felt about them
forever. Long ago, for instance, a
woman told me she faked a pregnancy
to catch a guy, then faked a miscarriage
by putting some raw liver in the toilet.

This changed how I felt about her forever,
how could it not. I really resented her
for telling me such an ugly story, keep
your secrets to yourself. The rest of us
have enough problems of our own.

Quote: FrGamble

If I dd tell you that it was probably because you were making it sound like confessions was therapy, which it is not. While we do give advice in confession all the time it is not the primary reason we are there.

You are there because it benefits you

The church continues to hold itself above society and above the law.

Quote: petroglyph

You are there because it benefits you

How so? I'm there to be an instrument of God's love and to serve people who are hurting.

Quote: Dalex64

The church continues to hold itself above society and above the law.

How so? I believe that confession is a great blessing to society.

Quote: FrGamble

How so? I'm there to be an instrument of God's love and to serve people who are hurting.

That is what you are doing, but the why is because it benefits you. And I don't mean a paycheck.

The same reason anyone gives is because it makes them feel better. I don't put a buck in the red kettle for the benefit of the poor so much, as I enjoy donating. I tip because I like to, not because I think the bartender will increase the liquor content of the next drink.

Don't priests notice in their peripheral vision, the respect and admiration of the lookers on? Doesn't it feel good at all?

Quote: FrGamble

How so? I'm there to be an instrument of God's love and to serve people who are hurting.

Well, first of all the United states has very favorable laws regarding religion and confession, in that crimes disclosed during confession are considered privileged. This is a legal exception made for religious organizations that does not apply to ordinary people.

In other countries, though, it is a crime not to disclose knowledge of a crime, or plans to commit a crime, to the authorities. In those cases, the church places its own rules regarding the confidentiality of confession above the laws of the country in which they are operating.

In addition to that, there are the church's rules regarding the disclosure of crimes by their own clergy.
https://apnews.com/ae64aa69d90043caaa38e52ee58eae2c
"Pope mandates reporting of sex abuse to church, not police"

Before that decision by the pope, the church had a total cover-up policy.
After that decision, the reporting rules of the church are STILL to keep it within the church, and not disclose crimes to the authorities.

In my opinion, if you find out about crimes that have been committed, or about crimes that are planned to be committed, that you have a moral responsibility to report it to the authorities. The church doesn't see it that way.

In this way, the church is putting itself above society, and above the moral rules it should expect its members to follow, and in some jurisdictions is putting itself above the law.

What purpose are you serving by keeping criminal knowledge secret? It is to preserve the confidence of someone to confess to their crimes and seek forgiveness, to save their "soul", with no fear of criminal prosecution.

Quote: FrGamble

How so? I believe that confession is a great blessing to society.

There's a book, written be a Catholic
seminarian, called The Dark Box. It's
the history of confession in the Church.

It started slowly, hundreds of years
after the Church began. It was casual
for centuries. The penitent would sit
at the priests feet and he would stroke
their hair and touch their neck and
shoulders. As time went by it got
more intimate. They would sit on a
bench next to the priest and this
gave him much more access to the
bodies of women.

It got so bad by 1600, the Vatican
was receiving a deluge of complaints
from assaulted women. For it to
reach the Vatican's ears, it had to
be an epidemic. The leaders of
the diocese would do their best
to cover up complaints because
it made them look bad. But they
leaked out anyway,

So the confessional box was invented.
Supposed anonymity, with a wooden
screen between them so the priest
couldn't fondle breasts or shove his
hand up dresses.

This meant new tactics had to be
used. Priests became sweet talkers
in the dark, whispering platitudes
and gaining trust and setting up
affairs with married women outside
the Church walls.

Then in 1903 the big event happened.
The pope allowed kids from the age
of 7 up to take confession. This started
the golden age pf pedophilia that
we're living with today.

So yeah, the Church has always benefited
from confession. Too bad 90% of Catholics
avoid it now.