Modern Confession: Select all, delete?
As a newly ordained priest it used to bother me when people came into the confessional and began reading a list of sins from a piece of paper they had carefully worked on beforehand. It bothered me so much in fact that I remember one day taking a list out of someone’s hand before they could begin to read from what I then referred to as the “laundry list”. “Just tell me the sins that are most on your mind now,” I said, “you don’t need a list to remember them.” These were the thoughts, words and actions of an immature priest, who didn’t yet fully understand that different people need different tools to help them bring their sins to mind and to allow them into God’s light for forgiveness. It was only when I began to recognize more clearly the damage that sin created in my own life that I could see the need to delve more deeply to discover the sins hidden below the surface. While it was true that I can easily recall my most obvious sins without needing too much of an examination of conscience, there are other dark parts of my life that require more prayer and self examination to see. Sometimes having a list that has been created from a searching inventory of self can be of great use in naming our sins. It is also my belief that for many people it helps lessen the nervousness that often accompanies confessing one’s sins.
This week I have gotten many messages like this one from my friend @JimWogan about the Roman Catholic Church’s new embrace of technology in spreading the Gospel and apparently devising a new way to receive the sacrament of Reconciliation.
@FatherChristian Can I get a ruling on this? RT @JudeCosta: Catholic Church, check-out Confession App for iPhone http://tinyurl.com/4o65dg4
This was the first of many tweets, facebook messages, and emails that I have received as people have responded both positively and negatively to the news that a group of priests have developed an iphone app to assist people in preparing for Confession. The latest email I received pointed me to this article by Maureen Dowd entitled, Forgive Me, Father, for I Have Linked.
One of the things that should be clarified is that this phone application is not a way to receive the sacrament, but rather a tool to help one prepare oneself by making a somewhat tailor made examination of conscience and from what I can discover as step by step guide to how the sacrament works.
Call me new-fashioned if you want, but I really don’t see too much of a problem with creating an electronic version of what many Catholics already use, especially if in doing so the Church is able to invite many Catholics who have been away from Confession in the process. At every communal penance service we hand out programs that contain questions meant to bring to mind the sins of those gathered and to assist them in remembering how the sacrament is ordered. It seems to me that in the same way our churches have moved from carbon paper to photocopiers and from typewriters to computers, we can easily move from handwritten lists to iphones when it comes to bringing our sins into the confessional. Perhaps it is the perfect marriage of modern technology with an ancient practice of the Church.
As always, I welcome your thoughts.
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