Why Confession?

Why Confession? | One of the most unfortunate things about confession is that we’ve warped the meaning of confession. Today, most people understand confession in a very legalistic way. https://t.co/B1SgfV4xmZ pic.twitter.com/8VpzwK7anZ

— Pravmir.com (@Pravmir_English) April 2, 2021

Why No Teleconfession?

First Things: Why We Can’t Confess Over Zoom by Dominic M. Langevin, O.P.

The sacrament of penance can be described in its signification and effects as a conversation. The sacrament’s goal is to forgive serious postbaptismal sin so that we are restored to friendly and familial conversation with God and the Church. That conversation is itself brought about by a conversation. The ceremony for the sacrament of penance basically involves a discussion between two persons. The penitent confesses to the priest his sorrow for individual past sins, promises to do a satisfactory work, and asks for forgiveness. The priest-confessor assigns a satisfactory work and absolves the penitent, perfecting him in grace. Herein, the priest acts in persona Christi.

Unlike most other sacraments, an inanimate physical object is not needed. There is just a conversation. Some medieval understandings of penance placed the sacramental action exclusively in either the priest-confessor or the penitent. St. Thomas Aquinas clarified that both persons have an essential sacramental role. The Council of Trent confirmed this understanding. One could call the sacrament a “concelebration” between penitent and priest. The sacramental rite involves four specific acts: the penitent’s contrition, confession, and satisfaction, and the priest’s absolution. It is not a monologue, but a dialogue.

This salvific conversation cannot occur through electronic means because the sacrament of penance requires both joint physical presence and live, interpersonal action between the penitent and priest-confessor. The conditions for a full, natural, human conversation must exist.

Confession

How to Make a Good Confession

St. Dmitri of Rostov's Confession Prayer

Julia Flyte and Charles Ryder Could Have Had a Happy Ending!

If only Evelyn Waugh had lived to the pontificate of Pope Francis and written Brideshead Revisited now. Then they could have gotten "married" and received Holy Communion and been good Catholics and lived happily ever after!

So have they tried to re-interpret the story of the Samaritan woman at the well? She could have remraried too, Christ was understanding and merciful!

Pope Francis's non-response from a few weeks ago; he hasn't given any other response to the dubia since then. Francis: “The Church is not a football team in search of fans”

Fr. Spadaro Comments

Edward Peters: Cardinals in the Church have rights too

Today:
The Four Cardinals and the Encyclical in the Room
The essential questions remain what they have always been: "what is freedom and what is its relationship to the truth contained in God's law? what is the role of conscience in man's moral development?"
By Carl E. Olson

Related:
Full text: Cardinals’ letter to Pope Francis on Amoris Laetitia

Rorate Caeli: De Mattei: Contradictions at the closing of the Jubilee

Humility in Seeking Forgiveness

A Missionary of Mercy

Dominican Foundation: A Missionary of Mercy: Q&A with Fr. Benedict Croell, O.P.

An Examination of Conscience Based on Chapter 4 of the Rule of St. Benedict

NLM: A New Examination of Conscience for Lent

Is a notion of ritual impurity sustainable in Christianity?

Via Byzantine, Texas: Purify Her Uncleanness by Carrie Frederick Frost
December 11, 2012

"Gregory" attempts to explain certain practices not through "ritual impurity" but concerns about physical integrity and safeguarding the mysteries, or something. Do the prayers and practices admit of this interpretation? This topic is somewhat new to me.

Sister Vassa Larin's opinion. And a response to Sister Vassa Larin by Fr. Sergei Sveshnikov. (He also has a follow-up article.)

Also from Byzantine, TX: Confession and the contrite heart