Case LXVIII: Children’s Confessions

If school children have been well prepared for their first confession by the catechist, and if a brief instruction preceding subsequent confessions is not neglected, the tender conscientiousness peculiar to childish years grows and is strengthened, and the children, as a rule, will be anxious to realize all their sins and to confess them. It happens indeed that children, a few moments after having received absolution, or just before Holy Communion, if this takes place the day after, come to the confessional again, to mention some sin or other they had forgotten.

Catechists sometimes try to come to the relief of a too great conscientiousness or anxiety in children, by giving them a printed form of examination of conscience, and advising them to mark in this form the sins of which their conscience accuses them. Other catechists, at least during instructions for first confession, dictate to the children a schedule following the Ten Commandments, the capital sins, etc., bidding the children to make use of it in their examination of conscience. Other catechists again advise candidates for first confession to write their sins on a piece of paper and read them off in the confessional. It becomes frequently the practise of children to confess their sins from such written notes. There are then confessors who take away these notes and require the child to confess from memory, others again take the notes, read them through hurriedly, put some questions and then proceed with exhortation and absolution.

What is to be said of these practises?

As regards printed examination of conscience, I must admit that their use by school children appears to me as not advisable. The forms of examination of conscience, at least those with which I have become acquainted, are too detailed, entering into minute details (in one such form for children I counted one hundred and fifty sins) and are thus calculated to burden the children’s memory, and, as they do not always sufficiently understand the details, lead them to confess sins which they have not committed. These printed forms sometimes cause children, who are inclined either to fear or to indolence, to memorize all the sins there enumerated; the former do it so as to be quite safe, the latter to save themselves the trouble of examining their conscience. A schedule for the examination of conscience should not be put in a prayerbook intended for the young, nor in a catechism; for children will underscore with pencil certain sins and read them off in each confession. It certainly is a lesser evil if the child in the examination of conscience, which the catechist goes through with the whole class, does not realize some committed sin, than if he, following the printed form, would trouble himself with a long list of possible sins and either get an aversion to confession, or fall into one of the faults above mentioned.

A printed examination of conscience leads some children to only mention in confession the sins found therein, and not others which they may really know to have committed, not making therefore a complete confession at all.

Even with proper use of the printed form, the catechist worries himself and the children with the enumeration of all possible kinds of sins, the attention is anxiously directed toward every possible failing, and over the solicitude for the material completeness of the confession the most essential part, perfect contrition and earnest resolution of amendment, are either entirely neglected or not properly considered.

Writing on a blackboard the chief classifications of sins is to be preferred to the use of printed examinations of conscience; those preparing for first confession should be made to take down for themselves these classifications, as a help in the examination of conscience to be made in private, and as an effectual incentive to methodical reflection.

; Under each classification the catechist will mention the different kinds of sins which fall under that head, and bid the children to reflect upon them now, and more so in their examination of conscience, and to commit to memory those transgressions of which they find themselves guilty. The treatment, in this manner, of the Second Commandment may here serve as an example:

“What is the Second Commandment? How is the name of God profaned? Use of the Holy Name irreverently, or in vain. Now reflect: Have I uttered the name of God irreverently? Have I cursed? How often? Have I taken God’s name in vain? How is the name of God desecrated? I will write down: Cursing, blaspheming. Reflect: Have I cursed? How often? Have I blasphemed against the good God? Have I spoken irreverently of God? Of the saints? In what further way is the name of God misused? I will write down: Swearing. Reflect: Have I taken an oath? Have I called God to witness a lie? Would you mention in Confession all the sins I have mentioned? Which only? Who must mention them all?

If the children are aided in this manner to examine their consciences, they will be enabled to comprehend the scope of the individual commandments, and accustom themselves to confess without notes. But even with an instruction of this kind, there will be many children who feel the need of writing down their sins, and of making their confession from written notes. What are we to think of this manner of confessing sins? Is it to be rejected entirely, to be forbidden?

This will hardly be maintained by any catechist or confessor. As regards those who make their first confession, nearly all catechists agree that they should not only be allowed to make notes, but should even be so advised. The children are thus impressed that the examination of conscience, and the confession of all sins committed is of great importance when receiving the Sacrament of Penance, and that this part should for this reason be done with great care and diligence.

The children will also be protected against anxiety, by the consciousness that they have told everything and not forgotten anything that appeared to them as necessary to be confessed. And this is not to be undervalued. Every catechist and confessor knows from experience that children can not well distinguish between forgetting and purposely concealing, and those who are disposed to be anxious, easily doubt the validity of their confession if they have forgotten to mention something which they had been prepared to tell.

This erroneous perception may even lead to sacrilegious Communions ex conscientiae erronea, if, namely, the child considers himself bound to repeat the confession but does not do so from shame or fear, or for lack of opportunity.

But even in subsequent confessions one should not forbid children to write their sins down and to confess them from notes. It may be true that such confession lessens the humiliation of the accusation; that it induces scruples; that the reading interferes with contrition; that the confession is deprived of that spontaneousness whereby it becomes a frank disclosure of the heart; that it leaves the soul cold.

But the experienced catechist and confessor will not consider these results as certain and general. On the contrary, the child confessing from notes is before and during confession more at ease, and can, with a good preparation by the catechist, direct his thoughts and feelings more freely and intensely to contrition and resolution. When children leave school they desist of their own accord from writing down their sins. The prohibition to confess from written notes may lead not only to anxiety, and to sacrilegious Communions ex conscientia erronea, but also to fickleness and frivolity at confession, for children may come to the conclusion that without notes it is not possible to make a thorough confession, and that for this reason it does not much matter whether they forget more or less sins. Children must be treated as children. Give the children encouragement, strive to inspire them with the confidence to confess either entirely without notes, or at most to make use only of general classifications; but do not prohibit the writing down of sins and their reading off at confession.

Many confessors are so opposed to children confessing from notes that they do not wait patiently till the child has read to the end. They either take the paper out of the child’s hand and read it hurriedly, or order the child to put the notes aside and confess from memory. Either of these ways shows want of patience; yet, without patience, and a great deal of patience, one is not well equipped to hear children’s confessions. Taking the notes from the child to read them over I can only approve in the case of the child speaking so low and indistinctly that he can not be understood. Taking away the notes and bidding the child to confess from memory is decidedly to be condemned, for it is equivalent to the command: Just mention whatever and how much you can remember; it is immaterial whether you confess all your sins or only a few! The child had relied on his notes, probably the fruit of great pains, he is deprived of this by his confessor who requires him to confess from memory. Confused at this unexpected obstacle to his plans, he is unable to confess fully from memory; his confession will seem to him incomplete and invalid, and he will probably approach Holy Communion with a trembling heart, if, from fear, shame, or lack of opportunity, he can not go to confession again. And if not worried, because prevented from making a thorough confession, he will think the thoroughness of the confession is not so essential as he imagined, since the confessor himself attached so little importance to it.

Experienced catechists and confessors hold therefore that be-ginners should be allowed to write their sins down, and should even be assisted in doing this; the tender and sacred fear will not be destroyed thereby but rather nourished. Nor should older children be forbidden by the catechist to write their sins, even per extensum, and it should be considered a step toward confession from memory if they do not take complete notes with them into the confessional; in time they will learn to confess without any notes at all.

Encouraging children to confess without notes finds its proper place in school, not in the confessional; there it is always ill advised and may either at the moment, or even for the future, result in evil consequences. Juventuti magna debetur reverentia (here consideration) QUINTILIAN very properly remarks, and these memorable words should not be lost sight of by confessors, in order that they may not render themselves culpable of the scandalum pusillorum. Children instructed by a worthy catechist have a sacred awe for the Sacraments of Penance and the Holy Eucharist; sad indeed it is if this precious treasure of the childish heart suffers by the application of a pet theory, or by lack of patience, on part of the confessor. The Holy Sacrament of Penance is so admirable a means of education that Protestant ministers have been known to deplore their lack of it. By frequent confession the child accustoms himself early to the proper conception of sin, guilt and atonement, which has so important an influence upon the moral life, and which the sensuality, vanity and frailty of the irreligious world would so gladly confound. It is proper to child nature that the conscientiousness of guilt weighs upon its tender conscience, and that after a sincere confession the child feels greatly relieved. Hardly anyone else can make so profound and lasting an impression upon the heart of a child, as a prudent, kindly confessor in the confessional. If the Sacrament of Penance is to bear its proper fruit the confessor should not let anything interfere that might destroy or lessen in any way the reverence and sacred awe which the children have for it. This is true in regard to all the five things necessary for the worthy reception of this Sacrament, but most particularly of the confession, because the children consider this, as a rule, as a very important, if not the most important part of the Sacrament, and because it is just this that puts to test the patience, charity, conscientiousness, and prudence of the confessor.

Canon Anthony Skocdopole, D.D.