The Dark Box: A Secret History of Confession (35 page)

19
. John Cornwell,
Breaking Faith
(London, 2002), 265ff. My interview with Cardinal Martini originally appeared in full in the
London Sunday Times Magazine
, 25 April 1993.

Twelve:
Varieties of Confessional Experience

1
. The testimonies quoted from my research throughout this chapter are from correspondence I received in response to my article in
The Tablet
on 18 August 2012 entitled “Where Are All the Penitents?” at
www.thetablet.co.uk/article/163100
, and are in my personal files.

2
. Norbert Mette, ‘Children’s Confession’, in Mary Collins and David Power, eds.,
The Fate of Confession
, Concilium Series, vol. 190 (Edinburgh, 1987).

3
. See, for example, John O’Donohue,
Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom
(London, 1998).

Epilogue

1
. Julia Kristeva,
New Maladies of the Soul
, trans. Ross Guberman (New York, 1995), 27ff.

2
. Thomas à Kempis,
The Imitation of Christ: Four Books
, trans. William Benham (London, 1874), Chapter II: paragraph 2.

3
. See Alasdair MacIntyre,
After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory
(London, 1985).

4
. See Hans Küng and David Tracy, eds.,
Paradigm Change in Theology: A Symposium for the Future
(Edinburgh, 1989). In his opening remarks for the symposium, Jerald Brauer emphasised, for example, the new factor of ‘pluralism in the modern world and in all forms of Christianity today.’ He added: ‘Some admit that fact grudgingly, and do everything possible to eliminate it. For others, pluralism is truth and practice of a tradition in the face of inevitable finite efforts to understand, appropriate and articulate their tradition’ (p. 206).

5
. Genesis 3.5. For further discussion, see Richard Kearney,
The Wake of Imagination: Ideas of Creativity in Western Culture
(London, 1988), 39ff.

6
. William Golding,
Pincher Martin
(London, 1956). For discussion of the significance of
Pincher Martin
and the nature of sin, see Terry Eagleton,
On Evil (New
Haven, CT, 2010), 52.

7
. Golding,
Pincher Martin
, 179.

8
. In
On Evil
, Eagleton comments on
Pincher Martin:
‘There could no more be anyone “in” hell than there could be anyone in a material location called debt or love or despair. . . . The damned are those who experience God as a Satanic terror, since he threatens to prise their selves apart. His love and mercy loosen their hold on themselves, and in doing so risk depriving them of their most precious possession’ (pp. 24–25).

9
. See Nicholas Lash, ‘Teaching or Commanding?’,
America
, 13 December 2010.

10
.
Lumen gentium
, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Solemnly Promulgated by His Holiness Pope Paul VI, 21 November 1964,
www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19641121_lumen-gentium_en.html
; Pope Paul VI,
Presbyterorum ordinis
, Decree on the Ministry and Life of Priests Promulgated by His Holiness Pope Paul VI, 7 December 1965,
www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_decree_19651207_presbyterorum-ordinis_en.html
; Henri de Lubac,
Catholicism: Christ and the Common Destiny of Man
, trans. Lancelot C. Sheppard and Elizabeth Englund (San Francisco, 1988), 37.

11
. Karl Rahner, SJ,
Theological Investigations
, vol. 10 (London, 1984), 148.

12
. Corneliu C. Simut,
The Ontology of the Church in Hans Küng
(Bern, 2007), 168ff; James Joyce,
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
(London, 1992 [1916]), 172.

13
. Herbert McCabe, OP, ‘Self-Confessed Sinners’,
The Tablet
, 5 March 2011,
http://archive.thetablet.co.uk/article/5th-march-2011/14/self-confessed-sinners
; Karl Rahner, SJ,
Theological Investigations
, vol. 2 (London, 1963), 164.

INDEX

Abelard, Peter,
13

Absolution

      
baptism,
5

      
for children,
106

      
complicit,
186

      
conditional,
106
,
145

      
confession as prerequisite for,
36

      
general,
20
,
210–212
,
222

      
motives for repentance and,
18

      
by newly ordained priest,
124

      
physical contact during,
43

      
restitution and reparation as condition of,
62

      
sale of absolutions,
28
,
29

      
of sexual abuse by clergy,
190–191

Abuse, sexual.
See
Sexual abuse

Achilli, Giacinto,
71

Adultery,
6
,
7
,
9
,
21
,
141

Age of discretion,
19
,
37
,
103–105

Alacoque, Margaret Marie,
59

Albrecht V,
37

Alcoholism,
49–50

Alexander II,
12

Alvarez, Baltasar,
56–57

Amarcord
,
199

Americanism,
89

Amphibology,
191

Anal intercourse,
14
,
73

Ancient Mariner
(Coleridge),
234

Andrade, Alonso de,
49

Angelica
(confessor’s manual),
32

Annulment,
222–223

Anti-Modernist oath,
97
,
99

Anti-semitism,
73

Anticlericalism,
41
,
66–73
,
85

Antoninus,
104

Apollinario of Ravenna,
48

Apostasy,
7
,
83

Aquinas, Thomas,
18–19
,
62
,
104
,
158
,
159
,
230

Aristotle,
230

Arvelo, Antonio de,
50

Ash Wednesday,
3

Asylums
(Goffman),
123

Atonement,
4

Attrition,
36

Augustine of Hippo,
62
,
206

Augustinus
(Jansen),
63

Auricular confession,
8
,
13
,
18

Avertenze
(Borromeo),
42
,
46

The Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk: The Hidden Secrets of a Nun’s Life in a Convent Exposed
,
70

Banville, John,
199

Baptism,
5
,
111

Beguines,
25

Bell, Rudolph,
58

Benedict XIV,
58

Benedict XVI,
75
,
165
,
187
,
197

Benigni, Umberto,
93–95

Bernardino of Siena,
26

Bernanos, Georges,
88
,
198

Bigotian Penitential
,
10

Bilney, Thomas,
31

Birth control,
73

Boff, Leonardo,
231

Böll, Heinrich,
199

Book of Gomorrah
(Peter Damian of Ravenna),
14

Books, forbidden,
67
,
90

Borges, José,
51

Borromeo, Charles,
39–44
,
106

Boys, sexual abuse of.
See
Sexual abuse

Bread of Dreams
(Camporesi),
54

Buckley, Christopher,
112

Burgess, Anthony,
113
,
199

Cajetan, Thomas,
46

Calasanz, José de,
51–52

Calvin, John,
31

Camporesi, Piero,
54

Canon Law,
98–99
,
129

Canonico, Tancredi,
85–86

The Canterbury Tales
(Chaucer),
15
,
24
,
28–29

Capilupi, Ippolito,
49

Cardano, Girolamo,
54

Carmelites,
51
,
55–56
,
132
,
203

Carvajal, Giacomo,
30

Casti Connubii
(Pope Pius XI),
206

Castration,
156

Catechism,
109–111

Cathars,
16

Catherine of Genoa,
26

Catherine of Siena,
24

Cautio Criminalis
(Spee),
55

Celibacy,
14
,
124
,
133
,
155
,
173

Celibate life,
128

Censors,
100

Censure,
16

Chastity

      
in children,
142–143
,
145

      
of clergy,
133
,
154
,
155

      
rape as sin against,
147

      
virtue of,
141–143

      
women as permanent provocation to,
6–7

Chaucer, Geoffrey,
15
,
23
,
28–29
,
199

Cherubini, Stefano,
51–52

Children

      
age of discretion,
19
,
103–105

      
age of first communion,
19
,
83
,
102–104

      
age of first confession,
19
,
83
,
103–107

      
confession of,
112–114
,
116–122
,
145–146
,
165
,
213–214

      
moral education of,
143–145

      
sexual abuse of,
156–157
,
160–165
,
169–196

      
sin, teachings concerning,
109–111

Christian democracy,
95

Christianity, as a community,
234

Clericalism,
58

Cloyne Report,
182

Code of Canon Law,
98–99
,
129

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor,
68
,
234

Collins, Mary,
101

Columbanus,
9–10

Communion

      
age at first,
19
,
83
,
102–104

      
age of first confession and,
103–104

      
children and,
145

      
daily,
101–102

      
fasting before,
113
,
136–138

      
first,
112–113
,
213
,
218

      
Fourth Lateran Council decree,
17

      
Pope Pius X and,
101–102

Communism,
107

Confession

      
age at first,
19
,
83
,
103–107

      
annual,
17–20
,
37

      
auricular,
8
,
13
,
18

      
of children,
112–114
,
116–122
,
145–146
,
165
,
213–214

      
communal,
210

      
Council of Trent and,
35–37
,
42