This Missionary of Mercy confesses to you that I haven't always followed to the letter the canon law of the Church, namely Canon 964, which states that "the proper place for hearing sacramental confessions is a church or oratory" and that "except for a just reason, confessions are not to be heard elsewhere than in a confessional." I have been very broad in my interpretation of a "just reason."
Scaling particularly deadly mountain walls with friends, or other similarly intense moments, has never been an occasion for me to hear a confession. However, as any priest, I do recall terrible traffic accidents when absolutions were provided. We've all heard confessions in hospitals and rehabilitation centers, as well as in nursing homes and assisted living centers. But those are to be taken for granted.
Some venues for confessions might be considered strange by those who just can't imagine themselves confessing in such circumstances, but others are less inhibited. I've frequently heard confessions in the midst of rushing crowds in airport concourses or train stations, outside supermarkets or on street corners. Cars and trucks and parking lots are most favored, but so are walking confessions, which make their way along city sidewalks or country roads.
A house, a barn, a dog kennel, a chicken coop ... any place will do. Mercy is available everywhere.
The fact of someone wanting to go to confession is a "just cause" for not using a confessional, even when a confessional is right at hand. Sometimes the sacristy is better for any number of reasons. In some places, women's confessions were traditionally heard in "the box," while men's confessions were heard in the sacristy.
Having said this, though, there are limits. Proximity is necessary for the sacrament. No video conferencing. No phones. No radio talk shows. No email or texting or Facebook or Twitter. Not even Snapchat. No sacrilege.
Permit me, though, to bring you to a place to offer your confession so strange that you may not have considered it – not realizing that you have been confessing in this most unheard of place since your very first confession. You'll need your imagination for this, but only because it's so real that it's hard to wrap one's mind around.
Imagine that when you go into the confessional, to your shock you see that there is someone already kneeling down just starting to confess. It's Jesus! You kneel beside Him sheepishly, and see your own priest on the other side of the screen. Jesus then starts to confess all your sins as if they were His own. He's brief and to the point, includes aggravating circumstances and numbers of times for any serious sins. He just enumerates the sins without ambiguity, without excuse. He then concludes: "I accuse myself of all these sins, Father, and I beg absolution and penance." Your priest then gives you your penance and absolves you, and you go away filled with wonder at the great love of Jesus who, in order to provide the grace of that absolution, stood in our place, taking on the death we deserve because of our sin.
When we confess, we do so alongside Jesus, who steps in for us. But because He does that on a spiritual level, we must be loyal to Him by ignoring any fear, any humiliation we might feel. Instead of looking to ourselves, we look to see His goodness and kindness. That's a strange place to confess from, alongside Jesus, is it not? And yet, it is all very familiar, for no matter how strange the place is in which we might confess, we are always right next to Jesus, who loves us so very much.
Father George David Byers is administrator of Holy Redeemer Church in Andrews and one of two "Missionaries of Mercy" commissioned by Pope Francis in the Diocese of Charlotte.
Christ's faithful, according to Church law, have the right and obligation to be assisted by their pastors – especially by the word of God and the sacraments (Canons 386-387).
This right includes preaching and catechetical formation (Canons 756-780); by ensuring that theology is taught in Catholic colleges (Canon 811); by ensuring proper preparation for the sacraments (Canon 843); by care of the sick (Canon 911); and by hearing confessions (Canon 986).
This canon flows from Vatican II's teaching that Christ is present in the Word of God as well as in the sacraments: "To accomplish so great a work, Christ is always present in His Church, especially in her liturgical celebrations. He is present in the sacrifice of the Mass, not only in the person of His minister, 'the same now offering, through the ministry of priests, who formerly offered Himself on the cross,' but especially under the Eucharistic species. By His power He is present in the sacraments, so that when a man baptizes it is really Christ Himself who baptizes. He is present in His word, since it is He Himself who speaks when the holy scriptures are read in the Church. He is present, lastly, when the Church prays and sings, for He promised: 'Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them' (Matt 18:20)." (Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, "Sacrosanctum Concilium," 7)
Given both the responsibility of pastors to provide for the spiritual needs of the faithful as well as the current shortage of clergy, pastors may utilize a number of options. Parishes may be entrusted to a deacon or a layperson or group of persons under the supervision of a priest (Canon 517). Deacons or a lay person may be designated to administer Holy Communion to the sick and dying; be designated to preach; to lead services for the deceased; or to exercise a catechetical role (Canon 776). Lay people may be delegated to act as official witnesses at marriages (Canon 112), and married couples may be relied upon to prepare others for the sacrament of marriage (Canon 1063).
This right may be breached if this might unduly delay the reception of the sacraments, or to force recipients to receive them in forms not determined by law. Pastoral practices which make compulsory those that are not binding in Church law (such as requiring people to receive Holy Communion in the hand as opposed to receiving on the tongue) or prevent an exercise of a right which is in conformity with Church law (such as delaying baptism longer than the time prescribed in Canon 867) constitute an abuse of the right to spiritual assistance.
Editor's note: This series about the rights and obligations of the Christian faithful, as set forth in canon (Church) law, has been written especially for the Catholic News Herald by Mercy Sister Jeanne-Margaret McNally. Sister Jeanne-Margaret is a distinguished authority on canon law, author of the reference guide "Canon Law for the Laity," and frequent lecturer at universities and dioceses. A graduate of The Catholic University of America with multiple degrees including a doctorate in psychology and a licentiate of canon law (JCL), she is a psychologist for the Tribunal of the Diocese of Charlotte and a judge in the Metropolitan Tribunal of the Archdiocese of Miami.