Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Parish in Quezon City, Philippines had advertised the event would be available by livestream, and was set to take place on April 3.

On Thursday, the parish issued a retraction and an apology.

"Fr. Nelson wants to correct himself. General absolution cannot be given via online," said a statement issued by the parish.

"The penitent must be physically present— meaning, the priest who absolves and the penitent who receives the absolution must be in the same place," the statement clarified. Read more

Cambridge academic John Cornwell made this call after the Church of England announced it would look at whether abuse admitted in the confessional should stay confidential.

Dr Cornwell, who has written a book on Confession and is a contributor to The Tablet, acknowledged that withholding absolution could dissuade abusers from seeking the sacrament at all.

But he said that withholding absolution might also bring to an end cycles of abuse and absolution.

Dr Cornwell was sexually propositioned by a priest during Confession as a child.

Last week, he told The Times: "Catholic priest abusers appeared to use Confession routinely to square their pastoral and offending lives."

"In one court case in Australia a priest admitted to confessing his abuse 1400 times," he reportedly said.

An investigation by The Times exposed a leading Anglican priest, Rev. Robert Waddington, as a serial sexual abuser of children in England and Australia for more than 50 years.

An inquiry showed the Church of England failed to act adequately to stop the abuse.

The Anglican Archbishop of York, Rev. John Sentamu said that "what happened was shameful, terrible, bad, bad, bad".

Archbishop Sentamu said that one of those who reported abuse to the inquiry believes that disclosures made in the confessional should not be confidential.

The archbishop said he had sympathy with this view and announced that the Church has commissioned theological and legal work on the question.

Rev. Waddington, who died in 2007, was head of education for the Church of England.

He was also a dean of Manchester Cathedral and governor of a music school where he was alleged to be responsible for mass abuse against children.

In July, Anglicans in Australia backed a change to the conventional confidentiality of the confessional in cases of serious crimes.

Sources

• The Tablet
• Huffington Post
• Image: Catholic Exchange

From what I've been told, Father Charles has never been known to withhold his forgiveness and mercy.

He understands the frailties of human virtue.

He knows about the appetites of the flesh.

In fact, I'll wager he has surrendered to a few of them himself.

So I expected to be forgiven.

I did not, however, expect to be pitched into a full-blown midlife crisis as penance.

Father Charles, whose last name contains no vowels so it can't be pronounced except by first-generation Eastern Europeans, is unlike any priest I've ever known.

Normally you might expect to find a Catholic priest in his study, poring over ancient biblical texts, chanting over incense, or polishing his chalice.

If he isn't in church, you expect to find him out and about dispensing communion to the sick and homebound, not up on the roof of the church, where Father Charles spends an inordinate amount of his time.

If he isn't up there patching leaks or reinforcing the bell tower, he is out back with a chainsaw messing with the vines and the branches, or down in the cellar where it is rumored he brews his own beer.

On Saturday afternoons, though, you can expect to find him in the confessional.

For faithful Catholics who subscribe to the legitimacy of priestly absolution, preparing for confession is punishment enough.

You have to stop whatever you're doing on a Saturday afternoon—hanging out laundry, weeding the garden, or napping on the couch—to wash up and change into something presentable, not fancy but at least clean.

When you get to church, you line up in the back with all the other sinners and wait your turn.

This affords you plenty of time to prepare a list of your most shameful transgressions, lest you forget how bad you've been.

And if your list isn't long enough, suggesting that you're too holy for words, you can always throw in a few of the old standards.

Greed, jealousy, and laziness are usually high on my reserve list. Continue reading

Source

• Janet Cincotta in U.S. Catholic

Janet Cincotta is a family physician and author.

Even a cardinal, Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, has called for "proper reform to the sacrament" - an idea Pope Francis has signalled he does not want to look at.

Recently I came across some models of the life journey.

The first was of a wavy line that began with the 'I' at the bottom and 'God' at the top.

Life was a journey to God, and was about taking up one's cross, denying self, acquiring virtue, learning to pray, and stop sinning. That was the way to get to God.

I suspect that model will resonate with older people but I have been told by younger Catholics that they, too, drift into that mind set as well. Weekly confession, especially for priests and religious was part of the journey in this model.

Model two was the same wavy line but right beside the contours was a second parallel line, the God who was with us, from birth to death, encompassing, carrying, accompanying us every step of the way. Continue reading.

Br Kieran Fenn is a Marist teaching Brother who lives in a young adult community in Wellington, and has spent many years teaching the Bible in New Zealand and abroad.

Source: The Tablet Blog

Image: CNS/The Catholic Sun

The study involving a group of devout Catholics found that when they felt absolved of sins and a sense of guilt they were more likely to give generously.

Researchers from Royal Holloway College, London, and the University of Oxford assigned participants two memory tasks.

In the first they were asked to privately recall a sin they had committed in the past. In the second, they were asked to recall going to confession for this sin, or imagining doing so if they had not confessed it in reality.

Each participant was also given an opportunity to donate to a local Catholic church by placing some money in an envelope. For some participants, this donation was collected before they recalled being absolved of the sin, whereas for others the donation was collected afterward.

The results showed that recalling — or imagining — absolution strongly increased church donations, especially among the more devout participants.

The lead researcher, psychologist Dr Ryan McKay, said earlier research had shown that people are "more likely to behave pro-socially, such as helping, sharing, donating, co-operating and volunteering, when they feel guilty.

"This raises the question of whether religious rituals of absolution, in which people are absolved of their sins and released from guilt, would actually make people less pro-social.

"However, the results of our study suggest the opposite — that ‘releasing' people from their sin has a positive pro-social effect. This indicates that the Catholic ritual of confession is an effective means of promoting commitment to the Church."

Sources:

The Telegraph

HealthCanal

Image: The Guardian