No confession thru texting, CBCP says

Some things just have to be done the old-fashioned way.

Despite advances in modern communications technology, the Catholic faithful still have to confess face-to-face with the vicars of Christ this Lenten season, Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) secretary general Hernando Coronel said yesterday.

Coronel said confessions sent via text messaging or other means of modern communication, like e-mail and fax machines, are "unacceptable."

While he admitted that many Catholics, most of them youths, are now using text messaging as a mode of confessing their sins, Coronel said the Catholic Church is discouraging the faithful from using such means of going to confession.

Catholic priests, he added, are prohibited from granting absolution for a confessant’s sins using text messaging, e-mail or by faxing the absolutions to the confessant.

The Catholic Church cannot allow confession using these means because confidentiality is very important to the sacrament of penance and reconciliation.

"We have to protect that confidentiality and we insist on personal confession of the penitent to the priests," Coronel said as he encouraged all Catholics to return to the Lord and make their confessions this Lenten season.

Lent will begin with the observance of Ash Wednesday next week.

Based on a survey done by the CBCP last year, Coronel said, some 44.9 percent of Catholic youth seldom receive the different sacraments, including the sacrament of confession.

Despite this figure, Coronel said Catholics should celebrate the Lenten season by confessing their sins the traditional way.

"Lent is a time of prayer, fasting and almsgiving, so we are encouraging Catholics to confess their sins — but the confession has to be personal. They should go to priests and ask pardon with a contrite heart."

Meanwhile, a foreign film that present a vicious portrayal of Catholic priests got a thumbs-up from the CBCP’s Catholic Initiative for Enlightened Movie Appreciation (Cinema).

While the Mexican movie "The Crime of Fr. Amaro" could bruise the sensitivities of some people and endanger the morals of those whose faith is weak, Cinema declared the film both morally and technically acceptable.

Labeled as one of the most successful films in Mexican history, the movie depicts a young and handsome priest named Padre Amaro, who was sent to a small town parish to learn the ropes from its aging parish priest, Padre Benito.

The young priest soon discovers that Padre Benito is engaged in a long-time affair with a parishioner and that the older clergyman is also laundering dirty money for a drug lord.

Like his mentor, Padre Amaro succumbs to the charms of a pretty catechist, whom he gets pregnant but does not marry, as he chooses to remain a priest.

The American Catholic League reportedly denounced the movie, while the Council of Mexican Bishops said the film should be seen as a "wake-up call" for the Church to review its procedure for selecting and training priests.

Due to the sensitive issues tackled by "The Crime of Fr. Amaro" and some sacrilegious elements in the film, it could easily be mistaken as an irresponsible attack on the Catholic Church. Despite the possible misinterpretation of the film, Cinema said "The Crime of Fr. Amaro" should not be taken as a statement about the Catholic Church.

"The movie is simply a melodrama that shows that priests are human and not all humans are good," Cinema said.

Instead of being condemned, Cinema said, the movie should be viewed as the product of people with a particular history and culture that was fashioned by the emotions and pains they have experienced.

Cinema also said the movie was based on a Portuguese novel written in 1875, which indicates that he problem of clerical chastity and priests’ susceptibility to corruption have been present in the Church for ages.

In order for the film to be worth the viewer’s time and money, Cinema said, moviegoers should uncover the root of Padre crimes and find out how a person consecrated to Christ can turn into a criminal.