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The Pope insists on individual confession
“The
faculty of absolving collectively penitents during Advent and Lent has
therefore been withdrawn. The aim of this letter is to inform you
officially about this decision. It is important for us to stand by the
universal Church by respecting, as faithfully as possible, the norms
established for this issue. The work begun to help the faithful of our
Diocese rediscover the richness of the Sacrament of Penance must
therefore continue.” Another Canadian Bishop, from the Maritimes, wrote to his faithful: “When
we made our Ad Limina visit to Rome in September, two Congregations were
very clear about General Absolution. Either we brought it to an end or
we would receive detailed orders telling us how to do it. Faced with
these alternatives, there is no choice... The truth is that there is a
much larger problem. We need a massive education on the Sacrament of
Confessions and all its elements. Among the things to teach are the
following: “That
Jesus gave to the Church the power to forgive sins, and that this power
is exercised by the priest in the Sacrament of Confession. Do all
Catholics understand and believe this? “That
to be forgiven our sins, there must be sorrow and a sincere plan and
desire to change. Therefore, for example, people living in sinful
relationships have to end them, before they can make an honest and valid
confession. Do all Catholics know and believe this?” Several Bishops have abided by the request of the Pope and asked their
priests to put an end to this practice of general absolution, but
unfortunately, many priests do not want to obey to the orders of their
Bishops. Let us pray for these recalcitrant priests so they will humbly
submit to the teachings of the Catholic Church, which is led by the Holy
Spirit as regards dogma and morals. Divine institution The Sacrament of Penance is not an invention of man. It is Our Lord
Himself who instituted it when He said to His Apostles: “Whose sins you shall
forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they
are retained” (John 20:23). This power to forgive sins has
been given by Our Lord to His Apostles and all of their successors, the
Bishops and the priests. In his Letter to the priests for Holy Thursday 2001, Pope John Paul II
recalled the importance of the Sacrament of Penance: “We
need to declare with firmness and conviction that the Sacrament of
Penance is the ordinary means of obtaining pardon and the remission of
grave sins committed after Baptism. We ought to celebrate the Sacrament
in the best possible way, according to the forms laid down by liturgical
law, so that it may lose none of its character as the celebration of
God's mercy.” The Prefect of the Congregation for
Divine Worship In October, 1999, Cardinal Jorge Arturo Medina Estevez, Prefect of the
Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments,
spoke about the Sacrament of Penance and “general absolutions” at
the Special Assembly for Europe of the Synod of Bishops, gathered in the
Vatican: “The
constant teaching of the Church affirms that the Sacrament of
Reconciliation is composed, like travail, of pain for sins committed,
the resolution to sin no longer, the integral confession of sins to the
priests, and his absolution. The Church's doctrine and norms admit that
in cases of the danger of imminent death and other well-determined
cases, the priest may absolve penitents without prior integral
confession of sins, as long as penitents desire to do this afterwards,
as soon as possible.” In many parishes, “general absolutions” have led the vast majority of
parishioners to abandon individual confession. This is wrong, as
Cardinal Medina Estevez points out: “It
is necessary to emphasize that individual and integral confession of
sins is the only ordinary way to celebrate this sacrament, and that `general
absolutions' are an absolutely exceptional form, for occasions when it
is impossible to have recourse to the ordinary form.” General absolutions can be given only in extraordinary circumstances,
like a sinking ship: a priest on board, seeing the impossibility of
hearing the individual confession of all the people on the boat before
it sinks, asks them to examine their consciences, sincerely regret their
sins, and he gives them general absolution. If there are people among
them who survive the tragedy, they must still go to a priest for
individual confession to have their mortal sins forgiven. Otherwise, the
general absolution they received is invalid. Cardinal Medina Estevez
continues: “One
must keep in mind that refusing integral individual confession after
receiving general absolution causes the latter to be invalid. All
priests know what has been sacrificed to the ministry of the
confessional, but the example of Blessed Padre Pio, whose shrine is the
second in the world as to the influx of pilgrims, demonstrates how
fruitful that ministry of sacramental mercy is.” Alas! How many Catholics today no longer go to the confessional! For
marriages and funerals, you see them all go and receive Holy Communion,
although many of them do not practice their Faith, or are not in the
state of grace. Someone who has committed a mortal sin, even if he
regrets it, must go and confess it to a priest before receiving Holy
Communion: “But
let a man prove himself: and
so let him eat of that bread, and drink of the chalice. For he that
eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh judgment to himself,
not discerning the body of the Lord” (1 Cor. 11:28-29). The integrity of the Sacrament On March 20, 2000, Cardinal Medina Estevez wrote a Circular
Letter concerning the integrity of the Sacrament of Penance. Here
are some excerpts: “The
divine constitution of the Sacrament of Penance requires each penitent
to confess to a priest all mortal sins, as well as any specifying moral
circumstances that he remembers after a diligent examination of
conscience. For this reason the Code
of Canon Law states clearly that ‘individual
and integral confession and absolution is the sole ordinary means by
which a member of the faithful who is conscious of mortal sin is
reconciled with God and with the Church. Physical or moral impossibility
alone excuses from such confession’
(can. 960). In specifying this obligation, the Church has insistently
reiterated that ‘all
the faithful who have reached the age of discretion are bound faithfully
to confess their mortal sins at least once a year’.
‘Energetic
efforts are to be made to avoid any risk that this traditional practice
of the Sacrament of Penance will fall into disuse.’...
This disposition would exclude communal celebrations of the sacrament in
which penitents are invited to present a written list of sins to the
priest confessor. It should be noted that such innovations also risk
compromising the inviolable seal of sacramental confession. “In
giving consideration to the authentic discipline of the Church
concerning ‘general
absolution’,
the recent interdicasterial meeting of the Roman Curia with a
representation of Bishops of the Episcopal Conference of Australia noted
that: ...communal celebrations have not infrequently occasioned an
illegitimate use of general absolution. This illegitimate use, like
other abuses in the administration of the Sacrament of Penance, is to be
eliminated. “The
teaching of the Church is reflected in
precise terms in the requirements of the Code
of Canon Law (cf. esp. canons 959-964). In particular it is clear
that `A sufficient necessity is not... considered to exist when
confessors cannot be available merely because of a great gathering of
penitents, such as can occur on some major feastday or pilgrimage'
(canon 961, 1, 2). “Local
Ordinaries and priests, to the degree that it applies to them, have an
obligation in conscience to ensure that penitents have regular and
frequent scheduled opportunities for individual and integral confession
of sins in all parish churches, and insofar as possible in other
pastoral centres. In addition, priests are called upon to be generous in
making themselves available outside of those scheduled times to
celebrate individual and integral confession whenever the faithful would
reasonably ask for it. Other works, for lack of time, may have to be
postponed or even abandoned, but not the confessional.” Let us pray so that Christians deepen their knowledge of the Faith, in
order to understand the importance of having recourse to the Sacrament
of Penance, and of receiving worthily the Holy Eucharist, where Our Lord
is really present with His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity: “He that eateth My flesh,
and drinketh My blood, abideth in Me, and I in him... He that eateth
that bread, shall live for ever” (John 6:57-59). Yvette
Poirier This article was published in the January-February, 2002 issue of “Michael”.
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Pope
John Paul II recently asked all the Bishops in the world to put an end,
in parishes, to penitential celebrations with general absolution, and to
make parishioners rediscover the importance of the Sacrament of Penance,
through individual confession. For example, Cardinal Jean-Claude
Turcotte, of Montreal, Canada, sent, on Oct. 22, 2001, a letter to all
the priests of his Diocese about this request of the Holy Father. Here
are some excerpts: