Holy and unholy

Part of spending time with my friend from Edmonton was a visit to the Oakland Cathedral, a brand new and very modern Catholic church. It's an interesting project, certainly well thought out, although not really my cup of more traditional tea. She loved it, though, so it was well worth the trip.

One chance item made me sad, however. The confessionals are open S-shaped affairs, with tete a tete seating and a grill between, that can be opened, so the penitent can remain private or be seen, at will. But these little spaces are open, and visible from the body of the church. No doors.


My friend remarked to the docent she was chatting with that this was because of the priest sex scandals and was now a kind of directive. Very sad.

Some priests have behaved badly in the confessional. There is a provision in Canon Law which makes invalid the absolution a priest might attempt to give to someone with whom he is breaking the Sixth Commandment (sexual sins). And as we know, people usually make laws in response to bad behavior. So it's been done more than once. But fearing to have a priest and penitent visually private, for the sake of protecting the penitent against predation in the middle of the sacrament...that is very sad. Although, if Canon 1378 is an indication --because it forbids sexual solicitation by the priest during confession-- this is not new.

Now that I think of it, many European confessionals --the ones in St Peter's included-- leave much open to the eye of the passerby.

I am not claiming angelic status for myself back then, but hitting on someone in the middle of a sacrament --though it was done to me once!*-- was not a behavior I engaged in.

Oddly enough --going back to architectures-- the most sensibly sacred part of the building for me was the underground mausoleum. Brand new, spare and with few occupants as yet, it still felt as I imagine the burial halls of Egyptian pyramids felt. Upstairs seemed to be more the realm of ideas rather than feeling.

*I should clarify. Not by a priest, but by a layman, during communion. All non-verbal, but even usually clueless me could tell.