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THE RELIGION FILES
Yet More Adventures in Catholicism
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DISCLAIMER: This is a humor piece, meant to elicit laughter, or at least a smile and/or some giggles. I am a pretty pious Catholic, and this is not meant in any way to be a criticism of the religion. I wrote it to show that even pious Catholics can laugh at ourselves. But I think you will all figure this out. I give you credit for being intelligent.
Confession
The Sacrament of Confession has lately come to be called the Sacrament of Reconciliation, probably because that sounds less threatening. Actually, this sacrament, during which you confess your sins to a priest and to God and ask for forgiveness, can be a powerful psychological help in many ways. I, personally, am not complaining about it.
To go to Confession — er, Reconciliation, you step into a dark, closet-like room. There is a priest on the other side of a wall with one of those windows that you can’t really see through. This is to guarantee that Father So-and-so doesn’t know who you are. Many modern confessionals are built to allow the person confessing their sins the option to sit and face the priest, but not everyone chooses that, for obvious reasons. I guess it depends on what you are confessing and how well you know the priest.
