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Online Confessions
Posted by Paul Szynol on Friday, January 10 @ 12:34:50 EST News
The Vatican has been online since 1997, and has communicated with believers via email and its web site. The Internet has also -- albeit unofficially -- been incorporated into the religion's practical tenets. According to Famiglia Cristiana, for instance, online activities occupy the same moral plane as activities in real life. Chat room flirtation, on this view, amounts to "online adultery".

Confessions appear to be generally exempt from the convergence, however. The Pope has recently admonished bishops and priests not to hear online confessions and not to grant collective absolutions--except under exceptional circumstances.

Check out the article here.

 
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Re: Online Confessions (Score: 1)
by dmoynihan on Friday, January 10 @ 14:02:31 EST
(User Info | Send a Message) http://www.blackmask.com
That's OK, there's always Hearing Aid!


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Re: Online Confessions (Score: 1)
by mcgroarty on Friday, January 10 @ 16:09:09 EST
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So, bad acts performed online translate into sin, but religious activities performed by the clergy do not relieve sin. This makes the Internet sound like a dangerous place for Catholics.
What about good deeds done by Catholics? Do Catholics benefit by these in the same way they benefit when performing actions live? I'm wondering if the dividing line for applicable versus inapplicable actions lies between clerical action and parishoner action, or between good action and bad action. :)


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Re: Online Confessions (Score: 1)
by MurphysLaw on Saturday, January 11 @ 13:25:01 EST
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Ho hum. Confessions over the telephone aren't valid either. Watching a mass on television dosn't meet a Catholic's requirement to attend mass. It';s an absolute requirement that the recipent of a sacrament be physically in the same place as the celebrant.

I really don't know why this is a story.

The "collective absolutions" is probably the bigger issue. This actually called an General Absolution. Confession must still be a one on one activity. In some dioceses, bishops have permitted a General Confession within the mass. There aren't enough priests to hear weekly confessions if Catholics suddenly demanded it. But that's a completely different problem.


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