Confession During the Coronavirus

The Seven Sacraments During the time of the Coronavirus
Today's Topic: Confession

On Janaury 20, 2020, the United States had its first confirmed case of the coronavirus. This dreadful disease originated in China, many believe from consuming an unusual animal such as a bat. Of note, bat is a prohibited animal to eat in the Old Testament in books such as Deuteronomy and Leviticus.

So the first case came to the US in January, but it wasn't until mid-March that churches really started closing in the US and Canada. That's only a couple of weeks ago. From most places, it seems like a very long time since this measure was enacted, but it really hasn't been.

The big concern many Catholics have had during this time is the availability of the sacraments. That's why I have devoted the next 7 topics on dealing with these issues. I will go through each of the 7 sacraments and discuss the issues surrounding them and how I feel it is best to deal with the threat of this virus.

So on the topic of confession. Confession is of vital important to faithful Catholics. During a good confession, a penitent is forgiven of the eternal punishment due to mortal sin, which is eternal suffering in hell and separation from God in heaven.

As you can imagine, therefore, making this sacrament available is of utmost importance. In fact, it is more important than merely earthly considerations. If one were to understand the true gravity of something like hell, the risk of illness or even death would be minor in comparison.

Therefore in my perspective, confession should not be totally cancelled no matter how grave the threat of disease is. Therefore, during this time of coronavirus, I believe for the spiritual well-being of Catholics around the world, confession should be made available to those who need it.

Having said this does not remove the necessity to practice caution in how the sacrament is offered. Placing people in harm's way, by for example, having dozens of people wait in crowded lines to receive the sacrament, could put them in excess and unnecessary risk. This would be immoral. So what is the solution?

Thankfully many priests around the world have considered the risks and the necessity of having confession and have come up with very ingenious ways of offering reconciliation to parishioners. A priest in Maryland, Fr. Scott Holmer, of St. Edward the Confessor Catholic Church, was one of the first priests in the United States to offer confession in a sort of Drive Through fashion.

Parishioners wait in their car for the car ahead of them. Once the car ahead is done, they drive up and the priest is waiting. He is wearing a blindfold so that he can maintain the anonymity of the confessional. As this is optional, I assume the penitent could ask him to remove the covering. So the person confesses his sins and drives away after receiving absolution.

In this case, risk is minimized while offering an invaluable service to the people.

Some might ask why an in-person confession is required. Couldn't it be done over the phone or maybe even webcam? The answer is no. And I am personally glad of this fact. As we know in the Church often an exception will become the norm. Once something is allowed, even if discouraged, it tends to grow more and more. And I believe that would be very detrimental to the sacrament. It would become a lot less personal, a lot less close. It would become rather transactional, and "convenient". The purpose of confession is to receive forgiveness of sin which ultimately comes from Jesus Christ himself as the second person of the Trinity who acts within the priest who is an Alter Christus.

The closeness and proximity are integral parts of the confession which takes place and I believe they must be preserved. Part of the experience is being in the presence of the priest which is normally in a Church. There is a physical aspect to it because we are physical beings. It is similar to when Jesus Christ would forgive people of their sins in person.

One more point I would like to address is that of a mass confession. No, not a confession which occurs during the Sacrifice of the Mass, but a group confession of many people. It is officially called a general absolution.

The Code of Canon Law has this to say about General Absolution and its permitted use:

Can.  961 §1. Absolution cannot be imparted in a general manner to many penitents at once without previous individual confession unless:
1/ danger of death is imminent and there is insufficient time for the priest or priests to hear the confessions of the individual penitents;
2/ there is grave necessity, that is, when in view of the number of penitents, there are not enough confessors available to hear the confessions of individuals properly within a suitable period of time in such a way that the penitents are forced to be deprived for a long while of sacramental grace or holy communion through no fault of their own. Sufficient necessity is not considered to exist when confessors cannot be present due only to the large number of penitents such as can occur on some great feast or pilgrimage.

The only possible justification for general absolution during Coronavirus would be the second condition that priests would have insufficient time to hear the confession of a large number of people and that they would be deprived of the sacrament for an extended period of time. This would probably not work as a justification. The reason is that as of right now, it is not foreseen that all human interaction, even from a distance, will be completely prohibited. If, however, people were given 24 hours before all contact with others would be strictly forbidden, I could see the possibility of a general absolution being given.

It is important to note that it is not an absolute require that someone receive sacramental confession to receive absolution from their sins. A person having perfect contrition can be forgiven the eternal punishments due to sin by expressing sorrow directly to God. This is, however, premised on the idea that once given the opportunity, the person who received absolution in this manner, would avail of sacramental confession as soon as possible.

I hope this clarifies this question somewhat. If you would like add a comment or ask a question, please feel free to do so!