I’ve started taking photos of confessionals when we go into churches. Up to now they were the “open” kind where the priest is inside the center box with a sliding window on each side. The confessee kneels on the side. This was the only kind I saw from Saint Jean to Burgos.
In a church in Burgos I finally found the kind I am used to where the confessees are also enclosed in a box.
But wait, let’s zoom out.
Hey Burgos, what with all the sinning?
I grew up Catholic and when into those boxes many times, always on a Saturday so I could take communion on Sunday. Or do you receive communion? I forget. But I did not forget what you said when the priest slid the slider open:
“Forgive me father for I have sinned. My last confession was (well, let’s see, hmm…) 63 years ago. My sins are: …”
I just checked with Claude and it says the second part is “It has been [length of time] since my last confession” and it used the word “penitent” where I have been using “confessee” which is probably not a real word.
Another confession: I never confessed all my sins. Somehow masturbation never made the list. Even at age 13 I was aware of the irony of lying to the priest at confession. On the other hand the “get out of jail free” aspect of the whole confession thing always appealed to me.
Photographing confessionals is really neat. Reminds me of when I photographed post boxes in Scotland (they are interesting as they bear the name of the king/queen at the time of installation — sometimes you find one from Victoria!).
Question about the open boxes: is the confessee out in public kneeling so that everybody can see who is confessing their sins? Sort of a public shaming, although we all sin (according to church doctrine and probably true anyway).
I think that’s right, we all are sinners. Confessing a lot is the prudent thing to do to optimize your chance of going to heaven in case you die unexpectedly. People see you waiting in line anyway, at least there were always lines when I went.
I was always the detail guy and wondered about sinning between confession on Saturday and communion on Sunday. With the Catholic doctrines of thought-crime that would be pretty easy to do.