Confessional

Quote: Evenbob

So when somebody confesses they
want to molest a
child, you just tell them to come back
after they've done it because it doesn't
count yet? Really?

I highly doubt that. I think a competent priest would ask the where and why. At some point he would suggest they "set aside the sacrament" and enter into some kind of counseling, possibly ending with a professional referral.

FR, I recommend you take a few days to think this through. Your arguments are not logical. It is certainly possible someone in the planning stage of a crime can come to confess..... Bob gave some examples. "I killed a young girl 10 years ago. And I feel terrible about it. But what worries me is a new girl has just moved in next door and I think I'm going to kill her, too. Please give me the strength to not kill her."

So please give me a simple yes or no answer..... do you alert the authorities?

Very true AZ.

Quote: SOOPOO

FR, I recommend you take a few days to think this through. Your arguments are not logical. It is certainly possible someone in the planning stage of a crime can come to confess..... Bob gave some examples. "I killed a young girl 10 years ago. And I feel terrible about it. But what worries me is a new girl has just moved in next door and I think I'm going to kill her, too. Please give me the strength to not kill her."

So please give me a simple yes or no answer..... do you alert the authorities?

No.

Quote: FrGamble

No.

Thanks FrG. I know you would try your hardest to dissuade the sinner from sinning again. I am glad there was an exception for us.... that you apparently don't have.

Quote: SOOPOO

Thanks FrG. I know you would try your hardest to dissuade the sinner from sinning again. I am glad there was an exception for us.... that you apparently don't have.

Not quite sure what you mean?

Quote: SOOPOO

Thanks FrG. I know you would try your hardest to dissuade the sinner from sinning again.

I've suggested this before and
FrG said I obviously 'didn't
understand confession'.
Apparently the priest just
sits there like a lump on a
stump and offers no advice
at all.

If a priest can't tell police of
a planned crime, and Betty Jo
ends up dead on Saturday just
like he was told in confession,
that makes the priest complicit
in the crime. He know about it
and did nothing to stop it.

That's messed up, just like
everything else about this religion.

I am a little lost here. SOOPOO asked for simple yes or no answer to his hypothetical. I think it is of course the duty of anyone to try our hardest to dissuade anyone from sinning, I would hope that was a given.

I also don't know why an anonymous place where people can express their sorrow for sins without fear so that they can be forgiven and encouraged to do what is right, where they are reminded of God's call to love others and are treated with mercy is a bad or messed up thing. Where else is someone with murderous thoughts to go. He should go to the police or to the hospital, and that is of course where the priest will tell him to go in the strongest ways possible, but if he cannot do that for whatever reason where else will he hear the advice he needs to hear in order to stop these heinous thoughts before they become actions? Maybe the priest doesn't talk him out of it, but we don't often in our hypothetical situations think about how many times this desperate man changes his mind because of the one place in the world he feels safe to go and confess these things. How many times in confessional are grievous sins stopped? I don't know but I like to think it is a lot. Someone who is already truly sorrow for thinking these things but has no where else to go can receive help for free. He can be reminded of what is right and what he should do and be reminded of the eternal consequences of his actions. So in the case presented by SOOPOO I nor any priest would be able to turn him in to the authorities, but I do think that without confession available to this person he would have no where to go for help he so desperately needs.

Quote: FrGamble

I think it is of course the duty of anyone to try our hardest to dissuade anyone from sinning, I would hope that was a given.

I've asked you in the past, what kind
of advice do you give people in
confession that have problems.
Your answer is always something
like, 'Oh Bob, you understand
nothing about confession. We
don't give advice, we just listen
and forgive.'

Now you say you try your hardest
in confession to 'dissuade anyone
from sinning'. Which is it, you do
or you don't.

I do of course try my best to give advice. I can't ever remembering telling you that we just sit there, listen, give a pennace and absolution. If I gave you that impression I am sorry.