Priests can indeed decline to hear confessions face-to-face
e must revive the Sacrament of Penance. Fathers! Preach about it! Also, make sure that you have usable confessionals. Via California Catholic:
Confessionals required in every parish
Sacramento diocese reminds parishes they must “provide a fixed grille between the penitent and the confessor”The following is from the Diocese of Sacramento, posted last week on the diocesan website:
Liturgy Reminders:
Commentary on the General Instruction of the Roman MissalRe: Sacrament of Reconciliation: the Confessional
Confessionals should be built so as to give penitents the option making their confession from behind a screen or ‘face-to-face’. Penitents cannot be required to offer their confession in one way or the other. [Well… I think they can be. See below.]
From the USCCB, October 20, 2000 –
“Provision must be made in each church or oratory for a sufficient number of places for sacramental confessions which are clearly visible, truly accessible, and which provide a fixed grille between the penitent and the confessor. Provision should also be made for penitents who wish to confess face-to-face, [Ummm … NB] with due regard for the Authentic Interpretation of canon 964, §2 by the Pontifical Council for the Interpretation of Legislative Texts, July 7, 1998” (AAS 90 [1998] 711).Thank you for all that you do.
James Cavanagh Director of Worship
Let’s drill for a moment.
Back in 1994 the Pontifical Council for the Interpretation of Legislative Texts, with the Holy Father’s approval, published a response to an inquiry posed by several conferences of bishops regarding confessionals. That response said:
“If, according to Canon 964, paragraph 2, of the Code of Canon Law, the minister of the sacrament, for a just cause and excluding cases of necessity, can legitimately decide, even in the eventuality that the penitent ask for the contrary, that sacramental confession be received in a confessional with a fixed grille.”
EXPLANATION: A priest can refuse to hear a confession if there is no confessional with a fixed grate. Even if the person insists that it be face-to-face, the priest can decline. That means that there doesn’t have to be a provision for face-to-face.
Say some priest or other, just for the heck of it call him Fr. Z, wants to use a confessional that only has the grate and does not have a way to make a confession face-to-face. That’s fine. He is within his rights. At the same time, penitents are also not obliged to go to Fr. Z for confession. But if they insist on face-to-face and he insists on a fixed grate, they will be at loggerheads.
The response from the Holy See underscores that a) confessionals are important and that b) there should be a grill or grate. The Church considers the grate or grill to be important. So does the letter from the Diocese of Sacramento, which is a good thing.
That said…
GO TO CONFESSION!
