The confessional Fulton Sheen used at St Patrick’s, Soho Square, London.
Do everybody a huge good deed and go to confession. Sin hurts everyone. Reconciliation helps everyone.
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I don’t understand – where are the doors for the people to go in? [This is the old fashioned confessional often seen in Europe. The sides, where the penitents kneel, are not enclosed. That projection topped by the scroll-work suffices mostly to shield the penitent from view.]
I think the priest sits in the middle and the people go on each side where there is a kneeler. So the people are not totally enclosed and there seems to be a bit of a divider in the front so one cannot see the person kneeling. That’s my besy guess.
The point of the confessional, whether one door or three, is to enclose the priest so that he cannot be accused of physically assaulting or molesting penitents. It was a very sensible idea from the Counter-reformation when clerical concubinage was being rooted out. So all that is needed is one box with two outside kneelers, but personally I feel much more comfortable as a penitent being similarly enclosed.
“physically assaulting or molesting penitents”? Huh? [So that the priest cannot be falsely accused.]
Perhaps it is so that the priest cannot see the penitent and thereby make it more likely that he or she would feel comfortable about making their confession, especially in the days when the priest knew everyone in the village or neighborhood.
I’ve confessed there!
It is actually fairly enclosed on the penitents’ sides – other people can see your legs from the knees downwards and not much else without actually coming up and poking their head round the corner. It’s a good system because there’s never any confusion about whether someone else is already in the confessional, you can see that it’s occupied and you wait.