Path: utzoo!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!sdd.hp.com!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!decwrl!sun-barr!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: dhosek@euler.claremont.edu (Don Hosek) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Sin and Reconciliation Message-ID: Date: 6 Mar 91 04:05:32 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: Harvey Mudd College Lines: 22 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article , conan@twinkies.berkeley.edu (David Cruz-Uribe) writes: > I'd like to start a tangent from this discussion. Next month, I am > giving a talk in my parish on penance and the (Catholic) sacrament of > reconcilation (formerly known as the sacrament of penance / > confession). As you may or may not know, this is one of the least > utilized sacraments in the Catholic Church today. I am not so arrogant > as to believe I can reverse this trend single-handedly; I would be satisfied > if I could come to understand forgiveness and reconciliation better myself, > and then share this with others. Talking this over with friends, one aspect of the sacrament of reconciliation as it is practiced today, is that it tends not to be as penance-oriented as it has been in the past: rather than the priest simply saying, "say two Our Fathers and three Hail Marys and have a nice day," there's more a tendency for the priest (at least younger ones) to instead discuss your problems with you. In our parish, face-to-face (as opposed to being in the dangerous dark box) confession is gaining adherents although I'm not sure how much of this is related to the personality of the priests. -dh