A Catholic priest in Indiana is offering putting a new spin on confession—he’s offering it on the back of a golf cart. Father Patrick Baikauskas is director of Campus Ministry at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church on the campus of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. To better reach the faithful, he’s launched what he Read more
Posts Tagged ‘Confession’
We must not criminalise what is said in the confessional
Monday, August 19th, 2019
What’s said in the confessional stays in the confessional. It’s been a precept of the church for centuries. Penitents enter the booth to confess their sins and transgressions to a priest to receive spiritual comfort, advice and absolution. A forgiving of the sin in the eyes of God’s representative on Earth. But not in Victoria Read more
Priest’s trial for violating confessional postponed
Monday, April 29th, 2019A long-awaited ecclesiastical trial for a priest who allegedly broke the seal of confession to inform members of a controversial lay group in Italy of a police investigation of their leader for sexual abuse of minors has been postponed indefinitely. The decision has not played well with alleged victims of the group and their families. Read more
India wants to ban confessions to protect women
Monday, July 30th, 2018
Church leaders are resisting India’s National Commission for Women’s call to ban confessions. The women’s group says it has proposed the ban because information disclosed in confessions is being used to blackmail the women who confessed it. There should be a federal inquiry into into complaints of rape and sexual assault involving priests, the group Read more
I have a confession – the Catholic Church’s sins
Monday, November 27th, 2017
By the time ye are reading this I will possibly be roasting eternally already in the hottest corner of hell for having dreadfully broken the centuries-old sacred tradition of the Seal of Confession of the Catholic Church. Mighty priests and saints were burned at the stake in the past for refusing to break that seal, Read more
Why the seal of the confessional will remain
Monday, August 21st, 2017
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has published a 2000-page three volume Criminal Justice Report. One of its recommendations is that the states and territories “create a criminal offence of failure to report targeted at child sexual abuse in an institutional context”. If such an offence were created, those of us who Read more
Maybe it’s time to rethink how we do confession
Monday, August 14th, 2017
In the BBC remake of G. K. Chesterton’s Father Brown mystery novels, the intrepid title character sometimes makes use of certain special knowledge when sleuthing crimes. This particular superpower is not the result of radioactive mutation or dark magic. It has to do with his priesthood, but it is not the Holy Spirit, exactly. It Read more
Confession in Australia may not remain sealed
Thursday, February 23rd, 2017
Whether what is heard in confession stays in confession is being considered by the Australian Royal Commission investigating sexual abuse. Throughout the hearings the Royal Commission has heard a number of perspectives on this issue. For example, a priest (later jailed) said while continuing to abuse his victims he confessed his paedophilia several times. When asked Read more
US priest hears man’s confession at gunpoint
Friday, July 1st, 2016A priest reportedly heard a man’s confession at gunpoint in an Ohio church on June 11. The priest said that after confession started, the man pulled a gun out and pointed it before sitting down. But the man issued no threats, the priest said. “I’ve never done confession with somebody pointing a gun at me Read more
Divorced demand absolution following Pope’s document
Tuesday, April 26th, 2016
Early reaction to Pope Francis’s recent document on family life has seen some divorced and remarried Catholics demanding absolution at an Italian cathedral. This was stated in an article by major penitentiary at Milan Cathedral, Msgr Fausto Gilardi, a translation of which was published on the Crux website. In the article, he mentioned the reaction to a Read more