Forgiveness and Reconciliation
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Preliminary QuestionsBibliography |
Dallen, Chapter 3: Canonical Penance, pp 56-99History of the Sacrament of Reconciliation |
To Think About |
"We are a church polarized and we have to bring it back together. The pro-choice people don’t feel they are in the same church with the pro-life people. We need a greater sense of humility for our own failings, a greater sense of reconciliation, reaching out for what joins us rather than looking for what can divide us. And a number of my priests, my pastors don’t feel the church is taking their experiences into account. They tell me over and over again the teaching and discipline of the church are not as flexible as they should be. And they feel they don’t have enough input to the decision making process of the church — yet they are the ones who have to implement those decisions." (Paul Wilkes "This Pope and the Next" The New York Times Magazine. December 11, 1994, p 82.)
Apply your General Liturgical Principals to the practice of Canonical Penance: which aspects of Canonical Penance were good liturgy? Which aspects were poor liturgy?
Where have you learned about the history of the Sacrament of Reconciliation? Do you think most people know this history?
Canonical Penance. Read Osborne, "Justification and Reconciliation in the Patristic Period, 150 to 700 A.D.," pp 52-83.
Richard M. Gula, S.S. To Walk Together Again, Chapter 6 "Reconciliation Through the Ages" pp 187-226.
H. C. Lea, A History of Auricular Confession and Indulgences in the Latin Church, 3 volumes, 1896. [Osborne O.F.M. in the eucharist paper says "As far as Roman Catholic theology is concerned, it is perhaps the publication of H. C. Lea’s book, A History of Auricular Confession and Indulgences in the Latin Church, a publication which appeared in 3 volumes in 1896, that moved Roman Catholic scholarship into an intense study of the historical development of each of the sacraments. His book was so obviously anti-Catholic, a Catholic response was clearly needed.]
James Dallen. The Reconciling Community: The Rite of Penance, pp 5-77.
Dallen, James. A Decade of Discussion on the Reform of Penance, 1963-1973: Theological Analysis and Critique. Unpublished S.T.D. dissertation. Catholic University of America, 1976.
____________. "The Absence of a Ritual of Reconciliation in Celtic Penance." The Journey of Western Spirituality. A.W. Sadler (ed.). Cholo:Scholars Press, 1981,
Monika K. Hellwig. Sign of Reconciliation and Conversion. Chapter 2: "Rites of Penance and Reconciliation in the Patristic Church."
Cyril Vogel. Le Pecheur et la penitence dans l’eglise ancienne. Paris: Cerf, 1966.
Adrian Nocent. "Reconciliation," The Liturgical Year. Vol 2: Lent, pp 203-217.
Rahner, Karl. "Some Forgotten Truths Concerning the Sacrament of Penance," Theological Investigations. Vol. II. Baltimore: Darton, Longman and Todd, 1964.
____________. Theological Investigations, v.15. New York: Crossroad, 1982.
Schillebeeckx, Edward, ed. Sacramental Reconciliation. Concilium 61. New York: Herder and Herder, 1971.
Vogel, Cyril. "Sin and Penance." In Pastoral Treatment of Sin, ed. P. Delhaye. New York: Desclee, 1968.
____________. Le Pecheur et la penitence au moyen-age. Paris: Cerf. 1969.
Gerosa, Libero. Concilium, Canon Law - church Reality, "Penal Law and Ecclesial Reality: the Applicability of the Penal Sanctions Laid Down in the New Code," Vol. 185, T & T Clark LTD., Edinburgh, 1986.
Review and self-test: Can you put the following statements into the author’s context and see their role in the history and meaning of the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
Page 56. Legislation and liturgy developed in tandem to make the penitents a distinct class in the Church.
Page 57. ...the Christian’s identity could no longer be determined simply by contrast with pagan society. Sin began to lose something of its public character...Page 74. The penitent’s relationship to the Church official became more private as the minister’s role became that of a spiritual counselor. Page 77. With sin regarded more as a matter of individual behavior than as a public affront to community holiness, why the order of penitents?
Page 62. The disintegration of the Easter sacrament obscured the relationship between initiation and reconciliation. Penance then began to upstage baptism. Page 73. Only with the disintegration of initiation did eucharist cease to be the sacramental apex of conversion and reconciliation.
Page 66. It has become increasingly clear that private confession in any form even approaching our modern understanding did not exist in the ancient Church.
Page 67. Confession for the ancient Church was praising God for compassion to the sinner.
Page 67. Leo I in 459 was angry at hearing of penitents being required to read off a list of their sins in public and forbids it.
Page 70. Innocent I, in a letter written in 416, stated that Holy Thursday was the traditional day in Rome for the reconciliation of penitents.
Page 84. The self-righteous character of canonical penance, sharply distinguishing between sinners and saints, eventually led to sinners avoiding it and saints entering it.
Page 87. The word penance itself lost its original meaning of conversion and began to take on the connotations of difficulty, sacrifice, and penalty.
Page 88. Later termed Ash Wednesday because of the symbol that replaced the imposition of hands, it became the day for receiving penitents. ... All Christians were expected to become Lenten penitents.
Page 90. Reception into the Church’s communion and reconciliation to the Church are the same theological reality.
Page 95. ...in the late sixth century the Eucharist was the sacrament of reconciliation for those not subject to the canonical discipline.
History of the Sacrament of Reconciliation |
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| Name | (Jesus and Sub-apostolic Church) | Canonical Penance (Order of Penitents) | Celtic Penance (Tariff Penance) | Confession | Reconciliation |
| Dates | 30-300 | 250-600 | 600-900 | 900-1974 | 1974-present |
| Paradigm (Think...) | Jesus in the Gospels | Baptism | Doctor visit | Juridical trial | Eucharist |
| Process (Stages) |
Former life conversion catechumen elect faithful |
Sin contrition penance eucharist (=absolution) reconciliation |
Sin telling penance |
Sin conscience confession absolution penance |
Sin Word sorrow reconciliation shalom |
| Liturgy | Baptism-confirmation-eucharist |
Order of Penitents: weepers kneelers hearers |
None |
[None] words of absolution |
Gathering Story Telling Reconciling Commissioning |
| Ministries | Community and its ministers and its overseer | Community and its ministers and its overseer | Holy person (who can read a tariff from the book) | An ordained priest with proper jurisdiction | The community and its ministers and its pastor |
| Positive Aspects | Part of the ongoing journey of the holy Church | A liturgical process involving the whole community | Healing; quicker; repeatable | Repeatable; eradicate sins, sin by sin | The celebration (and the sin) is ecclesial and public |
| Negative Aspects | No provision for exceptional tragic situations | Once only; long and very hard; punishment | Private; no liturgy; (danger of money abuses) | Sin is private; not liturgical but devotional; routine | ? |
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