Confession and Absolution

by T. J. Capel

First, from God, and through the appointed sacrament, must man be constituted a priest—that is, an offerer of sacrifice. This comes direct from God, and is called the power of Order, and is obtained by ordination. This was given to the Apostles at the Last Supper, when our Lord said: "Do this in commemoration of me." After His resurrection, there was given the power or capability to forgive sin, by the words "Receive ye the Holy Ghost: whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained."

The second element comes also from God, but indirectly, as it reaches the individual minister through the Church. It is the authority or commission of the Church to a priest or bishop to exercise the power of pardoning which he has received of God. This is called jurisdiction. It is included in the words said to Peter: "To thee will I give the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound also in heaven, and whatsoever then shalt loose on earth shall be loosed also in heaven."[56] Of the which, Tertullian, writing more than sixteen centuries ago, says: "For if then thinkest heaven is still closed, remember the Lord left here the keys thereof to Peter, and through him to the Church."[57] Many a man has all the innate and acquired talent to be an excellent judge, a proficient ambassador, an efficient naval or military officer; but over and above capability, there is needed commission or appointment by competent authority. So, in like manner, bishops and priests possess the power to pardon, but jurisdiction is needed to say on whom and where this power is to be exercised. Merely because a man is ordained validly, this does not give him the power to absolve; without jurisdiction, his absolution has no more value than would that of a layman.

It will be evident that as jurisdiction comes from God but through the Church, she can control those who are to exercise the power of pardoning sin. Hence, she insists that her priests shall carefully study the moral law, just as a lawyer does civil law. She exacts that those who hear confessions shall, by examination, prove their competency in the way of knowledge. She trains from boyhood her Levites to the sacred work they have to do, and she permits only those to be admitted to the Ministry of Reconciliation whose piety, past conduct, and judgment commend them for confessions. To those so approved she gives jurisdiction—or, as it is technically called, "faculties"—specifying where and on whom such power may be exercised. This jurisdiction is always granted for a limited period of time, during which it may be withdrawn if deemed advisable by the grantor.

Thus, then, is every care taken in the selection and in the preparation of priests for the work of hearing confessions and absolving from sin. Even after they are duly appointed, the restriction of the power to time, places, persons, and causes, together with the varied tests of competency afforded by the conferences on cases of conscience and other theological knowledge, held at frequent and regular intervals in each diocese, under the direction of the bishop, constitute a solid control over those exercising the Ministry of Reconciliation. Then the priest's own belief and conscience, as well as the obligation to confess his sins and seek absolution for them, add to the faithful exercise of his duties as confessor.

Beyond these human precautions and considerations, the very fact that God instituted the Tribunal of Penance as the usual channel for pardoning sin, obliges us to realize that He himself would protect the administration of the sacrament. For this sacred work, His priests, during many years, are trained to a life of piety, prayer, and mortification. The spiritual education of their own souls, by meditation and examination of conscience, fits them to know the workings of the souls of others. Before undertaking the study of painfully distressing treatises on certain parts of the moral law, the Levite strengthens his soul by prayer, enters thereon simply for the glory of God and the good of souls, and is aided by experienced discreet professors.

Medical men and lawyers are not trained and selected for their profession as are priests, nor are they aided in their duties by special divine protection. Yet, relying on them as gentlemen and on their professional honor, clients, without fear or suspicion, entrust to these, themselves and their affairs.

Why then not concede to priests at least this same measure of honorability? They, like doctors and lawyers, must for their work be theoretically cognizant of the crimes, iniquities, and weaknesses of mankind. But they, no more than doctors or lawyers, speak of these things, unless the penitent has been guilty of and confesses some such offence. On the contrary, those who enter the Ministry are taught to be most prudent and discreet in putting questions; never to ask more than what may be necessary. The rule is to err on the side of too little. Nay, rather than suggest or make known that which a penitent may be ignorant of, the minister must consult more what is for the good of the soul than for the integrity of the Confession.

2. Again, let it be remembered that it is not as in a court of justice, where the plea of "not guilty" is set up, and all has then to be wormed out by examination in the most detailed manner. For the penitent enters the confessional as self-accuser, states the offence, together with the number of times it has happened, and any circumstances which may alter or aggravate the deed. There are, therefore, in Confession, none of the nauseous details and descriptions of crime which may be heard in our courts and read in our newspapers.

The remarkable testimony of a Protestant gentleman—Doctor Forbes—may here be of much value. In his memorandums, made in Ireland in the autumn of 1852, he says: "At any rate, the result of my inquiries is that—whether right or wrong in a theological or rational point of view—this instrument of Confession is, among the Irish of the humbler classes, a direct preservative against certain forms of immorality at least."[58] "Among other charges preferred against Confession in Ireland and elsewhere, is the facility it affords for corrupting the female mind, and of its actually leading to such corruption. * * * So far from such corruption resulting from the Confessional, it is the general belief in Ireland—a belief expressed to me by many trustworthy men in all parts of the country, and by Protestants as well as by Catholics—that the singular purity of female life among the lower classes there is, in a considerable degree, dependent on this very circumstance."[59] "With a view of testing, as far as was practicable, the truth of the theory respecting the influence of Confession on this branch of morals, I have obtained, through the courtesy of the Poor Law Commissioners, a return of the number of legitimate and illegitimate children in the work-houses of each of the four provinces in Ireland, on a particular day, viz: the 27th of November, 1852. * * * It is curious to mark how strikingly the results there conveyed correspond with the confessional theory: the proportion of illegitimate children coinciding almost exactly with the relative proportions of the two religions in each province; being large where the Protestant element is large, and small where it is small."[60]

Good sense ought to make objectors remember that priests have mothers and sisters and relations whom they love; and priests would be the first to prevent these beloved ones from the demoralizing influences which enemies ignorantly attribute to the confessional.