Editing Confessional

{{Short description|Small, enclosed booth used for confession}}
{{Other uses}}
[[File:Cathédrale Saint-Étienne de Toulouse - chapelle des reliques - Confessionnal PM31000752.jpg|thumb|Confessional at the [[Toulouse Cathedral]]]]
[[File:Luther-kirkko, rippituoli.jpg|thumb|300px|A confessional in [[Luther Church, Helsinki|Luther Church]] ([[Helsinki]], Finland)]]

A '''confessional''' is a box, cabinet, booth, or stall where the [[priest]] from some [[Christianity|Christian]] denominations sits to hear the [[Confession (religion)|confession]]s of a [[penitent]]s sins,i.e., wrong-doings", mistakes, errors, regrets. It is the traditional venue for the [[sacrament]] in the [[Roman Catholic Church]] and the [[Lutheran Church]]es,<ref name="Schmucker2013">{{cite book|last=Schmucker|first=Samuel Simon|title=American Lutheranism Vindicated: or, Examination of the Lutheran Symbols, on Certain Disputed Topics|year= 2013|publisher=[[Simon & Schuster]]|language=English|isbn=978-1627935715|page=81}}</ref><ref name="EB1911Confessional"/> but similar structures are also used in [[Anglican]] churches of an [[Anglo-Catholic]] orientation.  In the Catholic Church, confessions should occur only in a confessional or [[Oratory (worship)|oratory]], except under special circumstances or just reason.<ref>[[1983 Code of Canon Law]], Canon 964.3</ref>

The confessional is usually a wooden structure, with a centre compartment—entered through a door or curtain—where the priest sits, and on each side there is a latticed opening for the penitents to speak through and a step on which they kneel. By this arrangement the priest is hidden, but the penitent is visible to the public. Confessionals sometimes form part of the architectural scheme of the church; many finely decorated specimens, dating from the late 16th and the 17th centuries, are found in churches on the continent of Europe. A notable example, in Renaissance style, is in the {{interlanguage link|Saint Michael's church, Leuven|lt=Saint Michael's church|fr|Église Saint-Michel de Louvain}} at [[Leuven]], but more usually, confessionals are movable pieces of furniture.<ref name="EB1911Confessional"/>

In modern practice of the Catholic, Lutheran and Anglican churches, apart from receiving absolution in the confessional, many churches offer private Confession and Absolution at the [[altar rails|chancel rails]] or in a reconciliation room, as well as during communal penitential rites (cf. ''[[General Confession]]'').<ref name="Cunningham2009">{{cite book |last1=Cunningham |first1=Lawrence |title=An Introduction to Catholicism |year=2009 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0521846073 |page=113 |language=English}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Private Absolution and the Confessional Seal |url=https://www.els.org/wp-content/download/doctrine/Private%20Absolution%20and%20Confessional%20Seal.pdf |publisher=[[Evangelical Lutheran Synod]] |access-date=20 April 2021 |page=2 |language=English |date=1 October 2019}}</ref>

In [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Eastern Orthodoxy]] and [[Oriental Orthodox Churches|Oriental Orthodoxy]] confessionals are not used: the confession often occurs in sight of other believers, e.g., those waiting in the row for the same purpose, but at some distance from them to not break the "seal of confession". Let it be understood that the "seal of confession" is technically of Roman usage.

==History==
The confessional in its modern form dates no further back than the 16th century. [[Du Cange]] cites the year 1563 for an early use of the word {{lang|la-FR|confessionale}} for the {{lang|la-FR|[[sacrum poenitentiae]]}} tribunal. The term was applied to the burial place of a [[martyr]] or "confessor", that being one who confesses [[Christ]]. There are also instances where the name was attached to the spot, whether cell or seat, where noted saints had a habit of hearing confessions. For example, the confessional of [[Church of St. Trophime, Arles|Church of St. Trophime]] at [[Arles]].

In the popular [[Reformed tradition|Reformed]] view, confessional boxes are associated with the scandals, real or supposed, of the practice of auricular [[Confession (religion)|confession]]. However, the boxes were devised to guard against such scandals by securing at once essential publicity and a reasonable privacy, and by separating [[priest]] and [[penitent]]. In the [[Middle Ages]] corresponding and stringent rules were established in [[canon law]] for confessions by women, and especially by [[nun]]s.

In [[England]], before the [[Protestant Reformation]], publicity was reckoned the best safeguard. Thus Archbishop [[Walter Reynolds]], in 1322, says in his ''Constitutions'': "Let the priest choose for himself a common place for hearing confessions, where he may be seen generally by all in the church; and do not let him hear any one, and especially any woman, in a private place, except in great necessity.".<ref name="EB1911Confessional" />

In Italy, men's confessions were heard in the sacristy face to face,or the priest would draw aside the central confessional curtain which separated him the rest of the church and hear a man's confession. Women's confessions were heard in the confessional with a screen between priest and penitent. The maxim,"numquam solus cum sola" was strictly enforced by this method. Hearing a man's confession in the box became common in the United States for convenience sake as sacristies were not as vast as they were in Italian churches.

It would seem that the priest usually heard confessions at the [[chancel]] opening or at a bench end in the [[nave]] near the chancel. There is, however, in some [[churchwardens' accounts]] mention of a special seat: "the shryving stool", "shriving pew" or "shriving place". (On a related note, the observance of [[Shrove Tuesday]] is named after the practice of shriving/confession.)<ref>{{cite web |title=Shrove Tuesday |url=https://trinitypotsdam.org/epiphany__shrove_tuesday |publisher=Trinity Church |access-date=20 April 2021 |language=English}}</ref> At [[Lenham]], in [[Kent]], there is an ancient armchair in stone, with a stone bench and steps on one side, that appears to be a confessional.

With the revival of the practice of auricular confession in the Church of England, confessionals were introduced into some parishes with an Anglo-Catholic bent. Since, however, they formed no part of "the furniture of the church" in the "second year of King Edward VI", some have argued that they are not covered by the "[[Ornaments Rubric]]" in the Prayer-Book. The question of their legality was raised in 1900 in the case of ''[[Davey v. Hinde]]'' ([[vicar]] of the [[Church of the Annunciation, Brighton|Church of the Annunciation]] at [[Brighton]]), tried before Dr Tristram in the [[consistory court]] of [[Chichester]]. They were condemned "on the ground that they are not articles of church furniture requisite for or conducive to conformity with the doctrine or practice of the Church of England in relation to the reception of confession".<ref name="EB1911Confessional" />

"Confessional", in the sense of a due payable for the right to hear confession, is now obsolete.<ref name="EB1911Confessional">{{EB1911|inline=1|wstitle=Confessional|pages=904–905|volume=6|last=Phillips|first=Walter Alison |author-link=Walter Alison Phillips}}</ref>

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:Cornelis-van-Alkemade-Pieter-van-der-Schelling-Behandeling-van-'t-kamp-regt MGG 1146.tif|Confessional in the open air in art. Cornelis van Alkemade: ''Behandeling van 't kamp regt'', 1740
File:Confessional Parma.jpg|Confessional at the [[Parma Cathedral]]
File:PL Wwa, kos Krzyza, konfesjonal, 2023.04.08, fot Ivonna Nowicka corr 3.jpg|A confessional in the [[Roman Catholic church|Roman Catholic]] [[Holy Cross Church, Warsaw|Holy Cross Church]] in time of a confession, [[Warsaw]], [[Poland]]
File:PL Wwa, kos Wizytek, konfesjonal, Wielkanoc, 2023.04.08, fot Ivonna Nowicka corr.jpg|A confessional in the [[Roman Catholic church|Roman Catholic]] [[Visitationist Church]] with the light on to signal a priest is waiting inside, [[Warsaw]], [[Poland]]
File:PL Zakopane, kosc Krzyza, ul Zamoyskiego, 2024.02.10, fot Ivonna Nowicka (4) CORR.jpg|Three wooden confessionals in a row in a Roman Catholic church, [[Zakopane]], [[Poland]]

</gallery>

==See also==
*[[sub rosa]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*{{Commons category-inline|Confessionals}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Confession (religion)]]
[[Category:Church architecture]]