Orderly Confession

At Latin mass this past Sunday, we didn’t have the priest who speaks about love, political priest, or philosopher priest (whom I haven’t seen in a long time). Rather, we had another priest, whom I’ve heard on a few occasions.

His topic was confession. He said that we don’t have to confess sins that occurred before baptism, since baptism washes sins away. That caught my attention.

But he also talked about confession and children. He said that the Catholic church has abandoned the idea that kids should enter the confessional and say “Bless me father, for I have sinned.” Rather, the priest talks with the child and tries to move the conversation into confession, somehow. The priest also said that priests should wait until the children say that they’re finished with their confession, rather than cutting the confession off when they pause, for they might still be thinking about sins to confess.

I like the concept of order. I’m not big on, say, therapy sessions that start with small talk and then get onto who-knows-what. I like what you see in AA meetings: a person brings up a topic, and discusses that topic.