CONFESSION – AN EVIL PRACTICE
CONFESSION: THE DOCTRINE
The Catholic Church has priests forgiving sins on God’s behalf as if they were
the one offended, as if they were God!
No trace of this doctrine can be found in the Bible.
Jesus told the apostles that if they forgive the sins of any they are forgiven
and if they keep anybody in their sins they are kept in their sins. He is only
saying that if the apostles forgive God forgives too. He is not saying they are
deciding who God must forgive and they are not forgiving as if they were God. Do
you really think a priest has the power to keep you in your sins? Even
Catholicism does not go that far - it says that if the priest refuses you might
get the gift of forgiveness from God directly.
As a result of the doctrine that priests have to forgive sins, the Church
requires that the priest hear your confession of sins. This is necessary so that
he can decide whether to pardon you or not. He needs to know if you are really
being honest and are repentant.
The New Testament says it wants us to be so loving to each other and trusting
that we confess our sins to each other. If John’s gospel envisages absolution
and it follows that sin has to be confessed so that the forgiving minister knows
whether or not to forgive then that is the kind of confession that is needed not
whispering privately into the ear of a priest in a Catholic Church confessional.
Confessionals would be acceptable if
-there was no pressure
-the priest had a recognised counselling qualification
-the main concern is the person's self-compassion and self-development and not
God or sins or whatever
The Church tells people who have serious sins that if they do not confess
they will go to Hell forever if they do not repent. That is bullying. It is
extremely damaging to children. The Church needs to be stopped from demanding
that children be sent to a priest to confess their sins.
THE SEAL OF CONFESSION
The Catholic Church orders priests to act as if they never heard what they were
told in confession.
If you tell your counsellor that you intend to abuse your child sexually he or
she is obliged to tell the police.
The priest will not do that. He will let the child go home for more abuse. Some
would say this isn't right. If religion were a good thing all people would be
saying it is not only bad but terrible. Confidentiality, though important,
shouldn’t go that far. It is more important to stop the crime than to keep the
client’s secret.
The Catholic Church has the nerve to agree with all this up to a point. But it
wants a legal exception. This exception is that priest must never be legally
compelled to reveal what was told to him in confession even if it necessary to
save a city from a nuclear attack. You need proof to justify such an extreme
position. If the Catholic Church gets such a privilege what is to stop some new
religion from arguing that it is a sin for it to report its clergy to the police
for child-sex abuse?
DEGRADATION IN THE CONFESSIONAL
Roman Catholics are bound by Church law to confess their sins to a priest at
least once a year. The Third Chief Commandment of the Church is, “To go to
confession at least once a year.” Breaking the rule is a mortal sin - you go to
Hell for it if you die unrepentant.
St Augustine of Hippo, the giant who virtually made Christianity, never went to
confession. That was hardly surprising for what could he have confessed anyway?
The church of the time seems to have imagined that only adultery, murder and
apostasy were the sins that cut you off from God. Nothing else was bad enough to
do that. Interestingly, child rape was not in the list.
The notion taught by Pope Francis that if you sin against God you offend his
people too and must be forgiven through their representative is a strange one.
Mostly the people will not know if you went to confession. They will not know
that you really repented if you did. The priest does not mention what happened
to anyone so he is not in a position to tell the community to accept you again.
Christ said you must confess to the person you hurt. Catholic confession is just
a way out of that reasonable demand. It is a placebo for cowardice.
Confession is supposed to have been sanctioned by Jesus when he told the
disciples that any sins they forgave would be forgiven and any they don’t
forgive would not be (John 20:22, 23). It is reasoned that if they have to
decide what sins to forgive or retain they have to be told the sins. This logic
is deliberately false for forgiving and retaining can only be based on whether
the person is sorry or not and not on them telling their business. Catholicism
does occasionally permit absolution without confession. This shows that she
believes that you don’t have to know sins in order to pardon or retain them.
Telling sins does not mean you are sorry.
True forgiveness is part of an agreement between yourself and the other person
that the bad deed will not be repeated.
The Catholic Church settles for a person going to confession and telling God
they will not sin again. Nothing is mentioned about saying you will not do it
again to the people you hurt. Nobody who gave bad example is told to explain to
others what they have done.
Over time Catholics get used to telling shameful things knowing that the priest
has heard it all before from others or they can go to a stranger what who thinks
they don’t care about. The Church does its best to prevent confession deterring
for priests are not allowed to turn nasty in the confessional.
Confession is often endorsed because of its alleged therapeutic value. This is
fraudulent for it does not justify forced confession. If you feel comforted by
something that has the potential to force and which adapts to a framework that
enforces then you are twisted or desperate.
Some Catholics praise the confession system for it enables the priest to give
advice and educate on spiritual matters. This can be done without the system.
Catholics always start their confession by saying how long it was since their
previous confession and Church law binds them to. This should not be compulsory
unless the once a year rule is broken.
DETERRENT?
Catholics allege that confession is a valuable deterrent to sin.
Imagine most baptisms that forgive sins and put you into the Church were
invalid and thus as spiritually potent as drinking tap water. The Church
says that if people find out and get baptised for real they will learn that the
sacraments they got did not work even though they feel they did. If they
sinned a lot they don't need to confess those sins though it is clear they
intended the same malice as a real baptised person would intend. Real
baptism removes the need to confess sin since an invalid baptism. If
confession is so important then why does nobody need to confess their
pre-baptism sins? What kind of repentance are they taking with them into
the baptismal font?
The Church advises that you tell the priest about your bad desires that you
cannot help. It commands that you tell the priest your bad desires that you
entertain. When the filthy desire has to be confessed one will see that one
might as well carry out the desire so confession encourages sin. And if some do
not behave as if it does it does not prove they were not encouraged.
Some would say they were put off many shameful sins for they couldn’t bear
having to go and tell the priest that they did them. But say if I could commit
child sexual abuse. If the fear of having to tell it in confession is putting me
off then it is telling it that bothers me not the sin. I still wish I could
commit the sin. That wish would have to be confessed so I still have a shameful
sin to tell. It is the heart that counts not the actions in morality. I would be
more likely to commit the abuse when I have committed it in my heart anyway. I
still have to tell I want to do it so I might as well do it. Thus, you see that
instead of deterring sinners, confession makes them keep their sins inside so it
only looks like they were deterred.
What about people who feel that God will forgive them no matter what they do?
These people might think God forgives them all the time even if they are not
sorry so that they can do what they like. They believe in God so they will say
they repent and ask God for forgiveness sometimes. Or they might believe that
God will save them on their deathbed and they can repent and make peace with him
then. The Church says that it is a sin to believe you can do what you wish and
presume on the mercy of God. It says you need to repent meaning you wouldn't
commit the sins again and you need at least resolve to make up the damage you
did. In other words, you need to repudiate the bad things you did and resolve
never to do them again. The promise to change is taken to be okay and you don't
have to do the making up first before God will pardon you. The silly thing about
this is, the person has proved that he or she takes advantage of mercy and here
we have God forgiving the person without waiting until the person proves their
sorrow first. Actions speak louder. Actions not words would speak in such a
case. The person is being rewarded for their taking advantage and mockery of
mercy.
If you avoid sin because you don’t want to describe your sins to the priest then
that is selfish. You avoid the sin not for God but for yourself. It is not the
sin you hate but telling it. This attitude makes you as bad and guilty as if you
committed the sin because you would commit it if you did not have to go to the
priest. Catholics would say that that is fine if one of your motives is the
avoidance of sin for the love of God. But if you really loved God you would cast
away the other motive. So, it is not fine. You won’t be perfect for God so how
can you really love him? The deterrence argument for confession probably is the
reason Catholics can believe in confession but it is incorrect. It denies that
sin is to be hated for the love of God. Jesus would not authorise anything as a
deterrent.
THE NEED FOR DETAIL
I commit a mortal sin and go to confession.
Many just tell the name of the sin and how many times they did it. That is
obviously unconcerned about spiritual development. Telling sins is no good in
itself. If that is what you have to do then you are only trying to dodge
punishment for sin.
The Church says that some mortal sins are worse than others. I can commit
adultery. You may do exactly the same. But if I intend more evil and malice than
you did, my mortal sin is worse than yours. So outwardly the evil is the same
but inwardly my evil is the greatest. Circumstances decree exactly how malicious
the sin was. Clearly if confession is worth going to, detail about the sin has
to be gone into. It is not enough to say, "I committed the mortal sin of
adultery." The person must state any factors that may increase or decrease
culpability. For example, adultery with your friend's wife is worse than
adultery with a stranger's wife. Then you have two mortal sins - one seriously
betraying your friend and adultery.
Every sin is different so a "because" would be important. You have to say, "I
did x because..." Some say that this risks lessening your own culpability. But
to confess and say that you did something and that is all that matters is
risking slandering yourself. That is increasing your culpability.
If confessing sin is about growing, then you cannot grow unless you put the
becauses in there. How else will you understand the reasons for why you fell
into sin?
Any feedback from the priest is not going to help unless he is helped to
understand the reasons for your sins.
Catholics are instructed to give the disgusting details about their sin to show
what its level of gravity is but only when it is necessary. But if it is
unnecessary and when they want to they are told to do it. Catholics are not
expected to answer the priest when he asks a question that is unlawful – that
is, one that serves no useful or relevant purpose. They are to mention all their
mortal sins and state as accurately as possible the number of times they
committed each type of mortal sin.
Religion admits the importance of consistency because you can’t really believe
in a doctrine if you repudiate something that flows logically from it. If we
have to confess our mortal sins then we have to go into all the relevant
details.
Since circumstances which extenuate or increase the gravity of an individual
mortal sin have to be recounted then people have to describe their sexual sins
in salacious and explicit detail. Take adultery. Each sexual act employed in it
is a separate mortal sin in itself. And so is every second of time. Every second
you maintain a mortal sin is a fresh mortal sin. The sins have to be described
in full detail. How you felt during each one has to be mentioned plus the
temptations and physical responses it awoke in you for you are tempting yourself
which is a sin. You have to say what you wanted to feel and wanted to do next.
If it is right to be vague on any sin or to leave it out then confession is
pointless.
The sincere priest will ask filthy questions to help the penitent unburden
herself or himself only if she or he has confessed sexual sin and needs to tell
more. It is the penitent’s business to examine her or his conscience so
otherwise the priest isn’t supposed to ask questions. The priest will know that
a person who hasn’t been at confession for a while must have some sexual sins
even if he or she hasn’t mentioned any. God commands whatever reduces the
likelihood of sin being committed for sin is the worst evil so it is the
priest’s duty to ask the penitent if he or she has done this and that in a
gentle way to encourage her or him to talk. He has to do this to discourage bad
confession or to remove a person’s fear of confessing such things in case it
forces her or him not to tell it.
People feel better about doing bad things if they think enough of their
neighbours do them too. Priests are bound to feel encouraged in sin by listening
to the sins of others. It gives them ideas too!
It is a mortal sin not to get cleansed of mortal sin as soon as possible which
requires running along to the parish priest who may know or suspect who you have
committed your sexual sins with when you confess them. No true Catholic would
wait to go to a strange priest for they would not be as readily available.
Confession is such a curious practice that one wonders why the papal Church
really commands it. It is possible that some priests use it to glean information
to pass on to the Vatican that it can exploit to construct some power-grabbing
strategies.
The priest cannot absolve unless he judges first. It is all right for him to
judge you as deserving Hell. It seems so smug. The priest has no right to put
people through the ordeal of confession and the feeling that if they die they
should go to Hell forever. To go to confession is to assist in the priest’s
self-conceit and in his self-aggrandizement at your expense. Don’t do it.
So we see the priest has to spend ages with each penitent trying to judge their
guilt, the degree of guilt and the sincerity of their sorrow. When you sin it is
only a symptom of many other sins. For example, if I confess to an act of
adultery, a mortal sin, with a woman who is not my wife. It is not enough to
confess that. I have to confess the first time I felt the attraction when and
why I decided to do something about it. The less temptation I had to sin the
worse the sin is. So I have to discuss every temptation. I have to confess what
it was like when I first kissed her and what happened after for there is a whole
series of sins surrounding it. Normally small sins that I commit to encourage
the adultery to happen are thereby turned into mortal sins for adultery is a
serious matter. So if Jesus meant to start a sacrament based on confession and
absolution we reach some ridiculous conclusions. It means that the apostles and
their delegates who he commissioned to preach the gospel first and foremost were
to be bogged down with this sacrament in those precarious and difficult early
days. The absurdity of Jesus doing this proves that the Roman Catholic
interpretation of the verse from the John gospel is wrong.
It gets a hundred times worse when one realises that the idea that venial sin
exists is foreign to the Bible which says that even sins that do little or
almost no harm are still serious hell-deserving offences – mortal sins.
FINALLY - Confession is just an excuse for invading and intruding in your conscience.