The Sacramental Seal
Catholic, General September 18th, 2004Confession is a natural urge: we want to get things off of our chests. As Fr. Francis Randolph notes in his book Pardon and Peace: A Sinner’s Guide to Confession, people confess all the time: to doctors, psychologists, friends, etc. However, there is only one place where a person is guaranteed absolution and that is in the Sacrament of Reconciliation in the Catholic (and Orthodox) Church. Not only that, but a person is guaranteed absolute, complete secrecy. A man who exercised his natural urge to confess found out the hard way that Protestants don’t have a concept of the Sacramental seal.
September 19th, 2004 at 4:00 am
hi jonathan, confession is one of the many things that i believe the protestant church needs to adopt. a safe place to unburden yourself and receive spiritual guidance in return.
September 19th, 2004 at 1:13 pm
Andy,
I think other Christians are starting to see the value of it now. For example, my first confession experience was in an Anglican Church. I think it was the psychologist Jung who noted that most of his patients were Jewish or Protestant. In his opinion, this imbalance was due to the fact that Catholics had confession.
September 19th, 2004 at 5:09 pm
Jonathan:
I have enjoyed reading your experiences with the Catholic Church. Like you, I have been looking into more liturgical worship and have been viewing it from afar (i.e., EWTN masses, etc.) My background is Baptist, Presbyterian and Methodist (currently Methodist) but I have been drawn to more liturgical worship by looking at the Church fathers and generally searching for my roots spiritually. One of things about Catholicism that appeals to me is confession. I think I’ve lived long enough and confessed sins to God privately long enough to realize that that doesn’t totally “absolve” me of those sins. For various reasons I cannot become Catholic right now but I haven’t lost my interest in going on two years now. There is so much here! Enjoy it for me will you?
September 21st, 2004 at 8:14 pm
At a time of personal crisis and newly converted to Christianity, I went to the “Church” and asked to talk with the Pator. I’ll never forget the feeling of God’s love, warmth, and acceptance I felt when I was told to sit down and sign a waiver which included the statement that authorities would be contacted if I said or indicated certain things…
regarding the message above, about Protestants “adopting confession.” The protestant movement cannot be Catholic. They do borrow many Church traditions, even while preaching that Catholics are apostate. But that’s idiotic. The Protestant movement is the runaway child of the Catholic Church.