1. - The questions that people raises upon the sacrament of penitence are diverse and deep. Even taking into account the renovation efforts carried out after de Vatican Council II, the sacrament continues in crisis. The knowledge of the changes that have taken place along history may help to solve the problem.
2.- During the six initial centuries, public penitence is carried out: it assumes a second conversion process after the baptism. From the VII century, private penitence becomes normal; it takes place alone with the priest and may be repeated along all the life. Council Vatican II establishes the penitential rite revision in order to manifest “the nature and effects of the sacrament” in a clearer way. (SC 72).
3.- Penitence is the same that conversion: it implies a change in mentality, heart and behavior. During the first centuries the first conversion begins with the answer given to the first evangelization and is developed in a catechumenal process culminating in the baptism. But, the baptized may commit grave sins. In this case, the second conversion is applied. It is necessary if it is desired to participate again in the life of the community.
4.- An experienced Church in the practice of the pardon appears already in the Evangel. We can see, for instance, the passage of the fraternal correction: If your brother has sinned against you, go and speak to him alone, and if he listens to you, you have won your brother. If he does not listen to you, take with you two or three others so that the case may be decided by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he still refuses to listen to them, inform the assemble church about him. But of he does not listen to the church, then regard him as a pagan or a publican. I say to you: whatever you bind on earth, Heaven will keep bound; and whatever you unbind on earth, Heaven will keep unbound. (Mt 18, 15-18). What here is said to all of the disciples it is said, in a especial way, to Peter (16,19). The words bind and unbind mean to separate the sinner from the community (excommunication) and to receive him again in it. The Lord resurrected assigns to his disciples the mission to forgive or retain the sins: Receive the Holy Spirit; for those whose sins you forgiven they are forgiven; for those whose sins you retain, they are retained (Jn 20, 22.23). On his part, Paul says to Corinto´s community: .. entrusting to us the message of reconciliation (2 Co 5,19). The parables of the lost sheep, the lost silver coin and the prodigal son make evident God’s mercy (Lk 15).
5.- Even though there are some, the indications of the forgiveness of sins practice in the New Testament, are not frequent. Thus, in Corinto´s community the incestuous is expelled from the community (1Co 5,1-13). For someone who has offended Paul, the apostle request to renew the communion with him (2 Co 2,5-11). Paul adversaries try, by any means, to decrease his prestige (10-12). There are rivalries, grudges, disputes, slanders, gossip, conceit, disorder (13,20). There are those who live in sin, on seeing that they have not yet given up an impure way of living, their wicked conduct and the vices they formerly practiced.(1,21; see Acts 15,29 and Lev 18); if they do not repent the apostle will have no pity (13,2). In the letter of James, the possibility of someone deviating from the truth is considered (James 5,19-20). In the Revelation grave sins are mentioned (Rev 2,5. 16.20 follow on).
6:- Up to the VII century, the Church acknowledges three ways for the forgiveness of sins: 1) the baptism, that cleanse the man of any sin previously committed; 2) the daily penitence for the less grave sins, through the prayer, listening the Word, the property communication (1P 4,8), and the fasting. Besides, from the beginning the liturgy includes a general confession of the sins that serves like a preparation for the Eucharist;
the public penitence, demanded for the grave sins, like adultery, homicide and apostasy (the abandonment of the faith). The Decalogue indicates, like summary, the limits out of which communion is not possible (Ex 20; see Lk 18,20). Talking about the fasting, it is said in the Hermas Shepherd, a book written in the II century: “You don’t know how to fast for the Lord, neither this useless fast you offer him is truly a fast…. Fast, for a change, for God a fast like this: you shall not make any evil in your life, but you shall serve the God with a clean heart; keep his commandments, walk on his precepts and no bad desire step up to your heart” (fifth comp., 4-5).
7.- Altogether with those of the New Testament, the most ancient testimonies upon the practice of the public penitence belong to those named the Apostolic Fathers. In Clement´s first letter, near the end of the I century, it is said: “Let us pray even us for those who are under sin so that modesty and humility are granted to them, so they may submit, not to us, but to God’s will”. (56,1). It is clearly established at the beginning of the Hermas Shepherd the principle of a unique penitence after the baptism. The Christian falling in grave sin only once in his life could resort to it: “Those that with all their heart made penitence… and do not add again sins to sins, will receive from the Lord the cure of their passed sins”. (Eighth comp. 3). At the beginning of the III century, Tertulianus talks about the “Second table (of salvation) after the wreck that means the loss of grace” (Upon the penitence, 4,2).
8.- The second conversion penitential process was like follows: At the beginning, the confession like a sins disclosure was really less necessary : the sin was public, due to the intimate and familiar character of the initial communities. The sinner was separated from the community. The confession like an acknowledgment of the own sin (see Ps 32), was publicly manifested with the ingress in the order of the penitents. The bishop signaled a penitence period according to the graveness of the sin. Once accomplished the penitence, which consisted in satisfactory signs of conversion, reconciliation was celebrated with the return to the community of the sinner.
9.- This process still appears in the III council of Toledo (year 589), in which it is advised that “in some Spanish churches , men perform penitence for their sins, not according to the canons, but in a reprovable way that includes to ask for reconciliation to the priest every time they sin”. It is also said that “in order to finish with this execrable practice, this saint council establishes that the penitence must be administered according to the canonic way of the ancients” (Can 11). The separation from the community not always is carried out neither it is done everywhere in the same manner. According to a Nicaea´s Council disposition (325, canon 11), the sinner must be included with the catechumens.
10.- In practice, public penitence was restricted to a very limited number of cases, it was left for the moment of the death, it raised animadversion between most of the christians, and the situation reached a point of confusion and inefficacy. What has happened?. With the official protection from the emperors, the crowd of people joined the Church without any catechesis: little by little, the listening to the Word, the catechumenal process and the communitarian dimension of the faith was decreasing. While the penitential practice of the old church existed, the active participation of the whole community remained. But, little by little penitence lost his communitarian dimension, adopting an individualist trend
11.- Already in the fifth century, these changes begin to take place: the private character of the penitence (Saint Leon Magnus) and the reiteration (Saint John Chrisostomus). Some of his contemporaries condemned John horrified because his teaching and practice of the following: “If you sin a second time, carry out penitence a second time, and every time you fall in sin, come to me and I will cure you”. So, while the public penitence is decaying, the private penitence begins to be practiced; this late one will slowly extend through all the Latin Church, upon all thanks to the Irish monks. The sacramental penitence is applied in a more personal and flexible way. The official resistance opposed to it was useless: about the year 1000 it already was practice by all the Church.
12.- In the East the public penitence coincides with that of the West in its most essential aspects, although its disappearance was much quicker. In their letters great bishops like Saint Athanasius of Alexandria and Saint Basil of Cappadocia (fourth century) establish that the penitence must be imposed for the gravest sins. The penitence is thought like a soul cure and means a dialogue that trends to discover the opportune remedy. It is possible to observe already since 391 in the Eastern Churches a softening of the public penitence. In its place the individual (monastic) confession delivered to a spiritual director, not necessarily a priest, appears more and more. The strength to erase the sins is also attributed to some liturgical elements like the incense smoke: the confession is delivered to the incensory. In the Reformation Churches, the Augsburg Confession (1530) recommends the private confession, but in general disaffection to that practice is the normal conduct. Without have never been abolished, it disappears in 1800.
13.- In the private penitence the penitential process is as follows: The sinner, repented, confesses his sin to the priest, who imposes him a satisfaction (very severe at the beginning) and, when this has been accomplished, absolution is granted. From the eighth century, the sins confession passes its name to the sacrament of the penitence. From the ninth century the custom is to grant the absolution at the end of the confession, before the satisfaction is carried out, and in this way we arrive to the present penitential form.
14.- According to the Trent council (1551), the sins are forgiven by the priest absolution, requiring on the part of the penitent: contrition, confession and satisfaction (DS 1673). Detailed sins confession is urged. (DS 1679). Heart’s contrition (perfect repentance) gives the man an immediate justification before God, even before receiving the sacrament of the penitence, which, at least implicitly must be desired (DS 1677). Attrition (imperfect repentance) does not reach pardon, but places the sinner in disposition to obtain it through the sacrament of penitence (DS 1678). The priest is judge and doctor; like judge he must know the cause to be able of judgment; like doctor he must know the illness to be able of curing it (DS 1679,1680). The absolution is like a judicial act in which the priest pronounces the sentence in the penitence court (DS 1685). It is supposed that the Church always practiced from the beginning “the way to confess in secret, alone with the priest” (DS1706), which does not corresponds to the historic truth. Trent´s doctrine and roman Ritual (1614) provoked an increase of the penitential sacramental practice, that is even applied to the venial sins (devotion confession). Saint Charles Borromeo (about 1584) introduced the use of the confessionary.
15 .- Trent´s council gives an answer to the reformers, which doctrine may be summed up in the following aspects: The penitence is not a sacrament; the sacrament that forgives the sins is the baptism; what is taken into account in the forgiveness of sins is not the repentance, the confession and the satisfaction, but the sin’s conscience and the faith in the Gospel; contrition is simple compunction; priest’s absolution is not a judicial act, but a simple declaration that the sins have been forgiven to the believer; there is no obligation to confess; a new life is the best penitence; reconciliation with God is not due to the penitential actions; the satisfaction can hurt the true satisfaction which is that of Jesus Christ; private confession is not a divine institution; absolution capacity is a responsibility of each one of the Christian believers; roman practice to reserve many sins absolution to an upper authority is not just.
16.- The fourth Letran council in 1215 imposes the annual confession of the grave sins, once reached the age of reason (DS812). This precept appears in the Catholic Church Catechism: “Every believer reaching the age of reason must confess the grave sins of which he has conscience at least once a year” (num. 1457; CDC, c.989). Nevertheless, the Gospel does not establish by law the moment of conversion: the prodigal son comes back when he comes back (Lk 15,20). Same happens with Zacheus (Lk 19,1-10), the publican (18,13-14; Ps 51,19), the sinner woman (Lk 7,47-50), the adulterous woman (Jn 8,10-11), Peter (Lk 22,60-62), the good thief (23,42-43). It is necessary to go back to the Gospel fountains.
17.- The children’s confession is a totally unknown practice in the initial centuries of the church. Children’s confession is imposed not like a possibility but like an obligation, above all from Pius X, who recommends the frequent communion in the conscientious years of the infancy. (Quam singulari, 1910; Catechism, numbs. 1420-1422; CDC, c 914). We must recall here Jesus attitude towards the children and his anger because of his disciples attitude: Let the children come to me and don’t stop them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. (MK 10,14). It should be added: Don’t impose it to them. By the same reason.
18.- In the eleventh century French bishops and confessors began to deliver indulgences, id est, the remission of the penitential actions due to the sins. About the year 1300 Boniface the Eighth established the universal jubilee. In this plenary indulgence was granted to every one peregrinating to Rome and there some conditions were met. At the end of the middle age the indulgences becomes a money source that popes and bishops handle to their discretion. Against reformers opposition, Trent´s council establishes a doctrine upon indulgences: for living people like absolution and in intercession form for the dead (DS 1447 foll.).
19.- The new Ritual of the Penitence (1975) presents three different celebration ways: a) individual; b) communitarian (several or many penitents, confession and individual absolution; c)collective (of an exceptional character: many penitents, confession and posterior individual absolution). The Ritual underlines three fundamental aspects for the sacrament renovation: conversion, God’s Word, community. According to the second Vatican council, “ liturgical actions are not private actions, but Church celebrations” (SC 26); so that, in general, the communitarian celebration of the sacraments “must be preferred, as far as possible, to an individual celebration, almost private” (SC 27).
* Dialogue
- Most important questions about the sacrament of penitence
- The sacrament is in crisis
- It anguishes to many people
- It raises a general rebound
- It rouses general indifference
- It is a control instrument upon our consciences
- It is a devotion act out of fashion
- It is in a revision and renovation process
- It has a sense even to day
- Without conversion, it is an empty and useless act
- Without the Word of God, it is missing a fundamental reference
- Without a community, it is an individual, perhaps anonymous, act
- Different experiences