Thursday, January 15, 2009

Now, Vatican confessions go public

ROME: One of the Vatican's most secrecy shrouded tribunals, which handles confessions of sins so grave only the pope can grant absolution, is


giving the faithful a peek into its workings for the first time in its 830-year history.

The Vatican has long lamented that fewer and fewer Catholics are going to confession, the sacrament in which the faithful can receive forgiveness if they sincerely confess their sins to a priest.

To combat the decline, the "tribunal of conscience" invited the public into the frescoed halls of its imposing 16th-century palazzo for a two-day conference that ended on Wednesday. By lifting the veil of secrecy surrounding the tribunal's work, the Vatican hopes to emphasize the fundamental role the sacrament plays in saving souls, the Vatican's No. 2, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, said.

Confessions of even the most heinous of crimes and sins - such as genocide- are handled at the local level by priests and their bishops and are not heard by the tribunal. Its work involves those sins that are reserved for the pope - considered so serious that a local priest or bishop is not qualified to grant absolution.

source-times

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