Chapter III (Confessorium) P1

It is currently required that an ordained priest must hear, in person, the confessions of each individual. Two reasons have led the committee to propose a new approach to, and requirements for, this sacrament of absolution:

First is a matter of financial and demographic necessity. In our current state, the number of our clergy is at pitiable levels in relation to the population we seek to serve. This has led to local priests being unable to allocate the time needed to hear the daily confessions of each of their parish members.

Second is the rising sentiment in society that absolution can be gained through a generalised sharing of one’s faults. From personal internet diaries to newspaper tell-alls, man has become accustomed to the idea that so long as one confesses to one’s peers and is not denounced, then a kind of penance has been undertaken, and absolution attained.

We seek both to remedy the first point and utilise the potential of the second. The Church strongly recommends and encourages the practice of frequent confession, and to this effect we propose that for the hearing of Venial sins, man be brought together in a group of penitential voices. He will divulge his sins to his immediate brethren in Christ’s community, and following this he will hear the atonements of those to whom he has just confessed. As a final act he will bestow his forgiveness on those who have forgiven him by proclaiming the following: “God the Father of mercies, through the death and resurrection of his Son, has reconciled the world to himself and sent the Holy Spirit among us for the forgiveness of sins; through the ministry of the Church may God give you all pardon and peace, and I absolve you from your sins as you have absolved me, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”

The community will expiate itself in a shared fervour for penance, and will absolve itself in a sea of earnest mutterings. We propose Mutual Confession.