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Catholic World Report

More Vatican pressure on Australian bishops
Lingering concerns in Rome over practices for Confession

Twelve months—almost to the day—since the Congregation for Divine Worship sent a strongly worded document entitled Sacrament of Penance (March 19, 1999) to Australia’s bishops, another equally strong document came from the same Congregation, entitled Circular Letter concerning the integrity of the Sacrament of Penance (March 20, 2000). The new Vatican message carried the signatures of Cardinal Jorge A. Medina Estévez and Archbishop Francesco Pio Tamburrino, the prefect and secretary, respectively, of the Vatican dicastery.

Such a move is indicative of the Holy See’s continuing concern over the manner in which the sacrament of Penance is administered in parts of Australia. The Vatican is clearly sending a signal to Australia’s bishops that it will not let matters rest until all irregularities disappear. Such persistence on the part of Rome is quite unique in the history of the Church in Australia. Clearly, the Holy See regards the sacrament of Penance as a litmus test for the overall health of the faith; the efforts by Australian bishops to remedy problems with the use of that sacrament is being used as a key indicator of the bishops’ overall seriousness in correcting problems in the Australian Church as a whole.

Background of concerns

The Circular Letter seems to have been prompted by reports of continuing use of the Third Rite of Reconciliation (general absolution), along with illicit adaptations of the communal Second Rite (with individual absolution) to substitute for the Third Rite.

Sacrament of Penance was a follow-up to the earlier Statement of Conclusions, which had called for strict enforcement of the terms of canon law governing use of the Third Rite. Despite the Statement’s unambiguous words and the Holy Father’s follow-up address to the Australian bishops after the Synod of Oceania and the bishops’ ad limina meetings in December 1998, some Australian bishops were continuing to allow the Third Rite in their dioceses.

Recalling the Statement of Conclusions (a consensus document arising from discussions between a representative group of Australian bishops and senior Vatican officials on the state of the Church in Australia), the Congregation for Divine Worship said in its 1999 document that it had “considered it opportune to bring to the attention of the Catholic faithful in Australia, the essential conditions for the ordinary and extraordinary celebration of the sacrament in the Latin Church.” Its concluding words could not have more forceful: “. . . all deviations from the authentic practice of the Church in this regard constitute a serious and wrongful deprivation, also punishable in accordance with the sacred canons.”

In April 1999, the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference met to discuss the Statement of Conclusions, and the bishops issued a concluding statement committing themselves to implement the Statement. That statement by the Australian bishops included an indication that they would follow the Pope’s request that use of the Third Rite “be kept strictly within the conditions laid down by Canon Law”—in other words, not used at all under normal Australian conditions. Still, some bishops continued to discover loopholes that they used to justify the continued application of the Third Rite.

In this respect, the most notable resistance to the Vatican efforts came from Archbishop Leonard Faulkner of Adelaide, who made it clear during a radio interview on June 1 that he saw a large number of different circumstances that could justify the use of the Third Rite—a position that hardly seemed to match canonical requirement for a “grave necessity.” However, shortly after granting that interview, the archbishop issued a “statement of clarification” in which he acknowledged that the “requisite conditions” for the Third Rite were “highly unlikely” to occur in Adelaide “in the foreseeable future.” The fact that this “clarification” by Archbishop Faulkner was published on the letterhead of the Congregation for Divine Worship made it obvious that the archbishop was bowing to Vatican pressure to end the routine use of the Third Rite in Adelaide.

New innovations

The new Vatican document of March 20, 2000, reiterates what the Congregation for Divine Worship had said 12 months earlier, apparently because reports of Third Rite usage in some Australian dioceses continue to reach Rome.

Of further concern for the Holy See is an apparent rise in the employment of an illicit form of the Second Rite; this new form is being used to replace the banned Third Rite.

Thus for example, several parishes in the Archdiocese of Perth had incorporated a version of the Second Rite into Sunday Masses. The procedure was to distribute to the congregation a sheet of paper including the headings “My sins and failings (write anything you think is a serious sin, plus perhaps one or two others)” and “How I want to change with God’s help.” The faithful were then instructed:

When you hand the sheet to the priest, say something like “I am sorry for these sins.” The sheet may then be burnt as a symbol of God’s forgiveness and our desire to give our lives to him. For your penance, when you return to your seat, say a prayer for each other.

After some preliminary prayers, penitents stood in line, communion-style, in front of one of several priests and one by one handed the priests their scraps of paper. The priests read them and then gave individual absolution. The penitents burned the paper and returned to their seats.

Earlier this year, a number of lay people had written to Archbishop Barry Hickey expressing their misgivings about the practice, given that confessions were supposed to be “heard.” They were informed that while he had serious reservations about it, the archbishop was tolerating the practice for the time being, while awaiting further authoritative advice. These concerned Catholics then contacted the Congregation for Divine Worship, asking for any authoritative statements that might clarify the question of whether or not this new practice was licit. The Congregation in turn contacted Archbishop Hickey directly, asking him to suppress the experimental practices. Enclosed in the Vatican’s message to Archbishop Hickey was a copy of the new document: Circular Letter concerning the integrity of the Sacrament of Penance.

“Unauthorized innovation”

The Circular Letter makes it clear why the peculiar form of the Second Rite adopted in Perth is illicit:

In accord with the law and practice of the Church, the faithful must orally confess their sins (auricular confession), except in cases of true physical or moral impossibility (e.g., extreme illness or physical condition inhibiting speech, speech impediment, etc.). This disposition would exclude communal celebrations of the sacrament in which penitents are invited to present a written list of sins to the priest confessor. It should be noted that such innovations also risk compromising the inviolable seal of sacramental confession.

The Vatican statement also includes a warning against innovations that interfere with the “inviolable and inalienable right” of the faithful to “individual and integral confession of sins . . . such as when penitents are invited or otherwise encouraged to name just one sin or to name a representative sin.” Such innovations, the document insists in unmistakably clear language, are “to be eliminated.”

The Circular Letter further prohibits any integration of either “the Rite of Reconciliation of several penitents with individual confession and absolution” or any other form of Penance “into the celebration of the Mass.” Aside from the fact that these practice constitute an “unauthorized innovation” in the liturgy, the Vatican observes that “such abuses run the risk of creating confusion in the minds of the faithful as to whether a sacramental absolution may or may not have taken place.” The document explains:

The Eucharist is not ordered to the forgiveness of mortal sins—that is proper to the Sacrament of Reconciliation. The Eucharist is properly the sacrament of those who are in full communion with the Church.

The Circular Letter repeats earlier calls made in the Statement of Conclusions and Sacrament of Penance for Australia’s bishops vigorously to promote a return to the practice of individual confession, even when people are not conscious of any mortal sins.

Archbishop Hickey has since instructed the priests of his archdiocese to cease using their peculiar adaptation of the Second Rite. It is unclear how widespread this practice has become elsewhere in Australia, but the present Vatican document may have nipped a new trend in the bud.

As this report is being written, the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference is meeting, and a reliable source suggests that the Circular Letter has caused a considerable [**??] among the bishops. Discussion of the latest message from Rome reportedly occupies an important place in the bishops’ agenda.

—Michael Gilchrist

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