Theology by the Slice: "Confessions of a Confessor"

Last Monday we made our annual trip to Boston College, where our own Fr. John Gavin, S.J. gave a talk on the Sacrament of Confession. Fr. Gavin was invited by our sister group at BC, the St. Thomas More Society, to give a presentation, and a group of about fifteen members of the Society of Saints Peter and Paul accompanied him. Fr. Gavin’s talk to the two groups was entitled “Confessions of a Confessor;” Father spoke about the priestly formation that goes into becoming a Confessor, some stories from his first year as a priest and confessor, and about what we the faithful can do to make our priests better confessors.

It should be noted that at no time did Fr. Gavin reveal anything he had heard in Confession, nor reveal the identity of anyone to whom he had administered the Sacrament.   

Fr. Gavin began by saying that, although the efficacy of a Sacrament does not depend on the spiritual state of its minister (ex opere operato), it is nonetheless important for priests to be of high moral quality if they are to be good confessors. Priests should frequently go to confession themselves so that they can be a firm witness in the confessional and have an enriching impact on the penitent’s encounter with Christ. Priests need to be aware of their own weaknesses and their need for God’s mercy. Priests also need a sound theological formation, especially in the Bible, ways of interpreting the scriptures and in moral theology. They should also be up to date on ethical issues and Canon Law.

In the seminary, priests must take an ad audienda exam to become confessors, in which they are presented with scenarios and have to respond as they would in the confessional. Prior to the exam, priests are trained by being given cases they might encounter and practice responding to them. Cases include a person’s first confession, a child’s confession, or someone who had an abortion. They also receive training with regard to the Seal of Confession, where they are presented with situations in which they have to refrain from revealing and block out something they learned in the confessional.

After this, Father went on to tell some stories form his first year as a priest. He was ordained on June 15, 2002, and within a week he went off to Italy (where he would remain for nine years) to continue in his studies. It was there he heard his first confessions, at the Duomo in Florence. He admits to having been thoroughly terrified. As he was waiting for someone to come in, he was praying to Jesus to give him the right words, all the while wondering how he was going to bring the gospel to his penitents. After he heard his first few confessions, however, he found that his terror was subsiding and being replaced with joy. He loved seeing the humility and sincerity of the penitents and the outpouring of God’s grace.

He also recalled hearing confessions at the Gesù in Rome, the mother church of the Society of Jesus. The Jesuits are famous as confessors, and the church was always packed with people eager to go to Confession. The confessionals in the Gesù are marked with plates detailing which languages the Confessor speaks, and the priests there hear confessions from people all over the world and from all vocations. Fr. Gavin heard confessions there two hours a week for eight years. He loved hearing confessions, and would pray for the people he heard and always pondered how he could do better.

Father also told us about a shrine he heard confessions at in Lecco, a town in northern Italy. The shrine is famed as a place to go to confession. Once, during Holy Week, Father was one of eight priests at the shrine who heard confessions for nine hours a day, every day. After hearing confessions one day, one of the priests invited father to go see a monastery nearby. Although he was exhausted, Father went to go see it. When they arrived, they found a Franciscan outside the monastery door. The Franciscan was delighted to see them, and told them that they were having a confession service, and he invited them to help out. And they did.

Father also recalls how on one Good Friday he and other priests heard confessions for nine or ten hours straight. After all was done, father heard the church go quiet, and the lock slide on the church door. He left the confessional and saw all the other priests emerging too, stumbling from sitting so long. And this is exactly as it should be, for by hearing confessions priests nourish their own spiritual lives.

And this led nicely into the last part of the talk: how to make our priests better confessors. The answer is, simply, go to confession. The confessional is where priests mature. Like in marriage, where by entering into a union one grow outside himself to care for his spouse and child, so a priest grows by going outside of himself and seeing God’s grace being given to those who are in need of it.

We sincerely thank Fr. Gavin for his fantastic talk, and the St. Thomas More Society for hosting us. It was wonderful to hear it among our friends in our sister group.