Out of the Box

Confession now in Room of Reconciliation. This provides both the traditional approach or face-to-face confession with the priest. The choice is yours.

So reads a hand-printed sign in St. Paschal's Roman Catholic Church in Oakland, Calif. Similar notices have appeared--or soon will--in Catholic churches in the U.S. and round the world. They herald a quiet but significant revolution for Catholics, who will henceforth be allowed to choose between old-fashioned anonymous confession and the new face-to-face-style sacrament. While it will remain an option, as will the modified form of a screen set in an open room, the traditional cramped confessional box could gradually become a relic.

Rushed Sins. With the start last week of the penitential season of Lent, many priests began educating their parishioners in the revised sacrament of Penance--now also called the Rite for Reconciliation--that formally takes effect next year. Face-to-face confession --the last reform of the sacraments that stemmed from Vatican Council II--is intended to enable the penitent not only to confess specific sins but discuss spiritual failings and work out appropriate good deeds for penance. Traditional confession, by contrast, has tended to be a rushed recitation of sins and routine prescription of "ten Hail Marys" or "five Our Fathers."

The new confession takes longer than the traditional rite--15 or 20 minutes v. five or so--and is more demanding for priests and parishioners. But where it has been tried, the option seems popular. While some older Catholics find the open style uncomfortable, many younger parishioners seem to feel, in the words of one California seventh grader, that "it makes much more sense than going in and talking to a wall." Theologically, the old liturgy "evolved into a rite of fear and guilt, emphasizing sin more than God's love and mercy," says Father John Tivenan of St. Catherine of Sienna Church in St. Albans, N.Y. The new rite is "a celebration rather than an unearthing of shame."

The new Penance also offers group services; but to be one of the seven sacraments, such rites must include time for worshipers to confess individually. The Vatican permits en masse sacramental confession and absolution only when there is an extreme shortage of clergy, as in mission lands or war zones.

The reform follows a drop-off over the past decade of 60% or more in individual confessions, once a weekly or monthly routine for the devout. Says Robert Burns, executive editor of U.S. Catholic magazine: "The church realized it had to do something--the situation was rapidly deteriorating." Among the causes: the waning of the once common belief that confession must always precede Communion, and the spread of more liberal concepts of sin. Another Catholic editor, Commonweal's John Deedy, believes the church is already "well down the road" toward elimination of individual confession. Whether those low-lit "reconciliation rooms" will prove him wrong remains to be seen.

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