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	Confession, Celibacy and the Catholic Church By Robert Obiorah The Daily Sun December 28, 2007 http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/opinion/2007/dec/28/opinion-28-12-2007-001.htm As a Catholic, two doctrinal issues that worry me and I think many other faithful, are confession and celibacy. The aspect of the confession that is most detestable to me is the manner of the confession. Catholics usually go to the priest and confess their sins before those sins can be forgiven by God. The dilemma of the confessor, beside the psychological crisis it induces, is that some of the sins, assuming the confessor had many, will one way or the other crop up again. At times it can happen as you are going home to continue to dwell in your newfound state of grace, which the catechist keeps repeating before Holy Communion every Sunday as if the faithful are not aware of such inhibiting proviso. If such happens as they are bound to happen, the confessor will rush to the priest again and pass through the same ritual stating the sins committed and their frequency to regain his holiness, sometimes to the consternation of the priest who keeps memory diary of the confessors. The church has been trying over the years to justify this mode of confession, which is psychologically wrecking to the extent that some sins are deliberately left out while some tolerable ones are eloquently pronounced to the hearing of the priest who is not tired of hearing those evil deeds. A fictional representation of this inherent abuse in Catholic confessionals can be gleaned from Mongo Beti's Poor Christ of Bomba. I have taken up this issue with some Catholic priests, both blacks and whites, and all of them acknowledge this weak angle of confession but insisted that it is liberating and somehow emotionally satisfying. Some Catholics do not like it but are just keeping face; after all it is God that will be the ultimate judge in the last day and not the priest or any other person. Beti also touched on the inherent abuses of celibacy, which I will dwell on in the latter part of this article. But each Sunday in our local church where I worship in Lagos, the numbers of those who come out for Holy Communion keep decreasing when compared to the number of the congregation. I believe that the dwindling number of communicants is an indication of the general disapproval of the mode of confession. I would be glad to learn the contrary and perhaps other views on this. This brings to the fore the need to change the Catholic mode of confession which is not only un-African but also does not allow the whole truth to be told in some circumstances. The current mode, which calls for modification, is rather inhibiting, unnecessary and not liberating or emotionally satisfying. During the Biafran war, the white priest then administered general absolution type of confession. What it entails is that you confess your sins to God directly wherever you are in the church and the priest grants all of you general pardon. This practice remained a little after the war but it was popular among the white priests than our black priests. It is economical, time saving and emotionally and psychologically rewarding than the current face- me- I- face-you type of confession where the priest will listen to every detail of your life before granting the needed pardon. It will lead to total confession. It is even more African and will ultimately lead to confessing everything to God because they are meant for God's ears and it is God that really forgives those sins. I wish the church should consider changing to the general absolution because the current method appears not to be working well with us. Many Catholics have run to other churches because of this and celibacy. The church hierarchy cannot continue to pretend that all is well with the way Catholicism is practised here in Africa. Just as the church has allowed some clapping of hands, dancing and Igbo songs and instrumentation in its worship to stem the intrusion of Pentecostalism, it must do something urgently about confession and celibacy. Confession and celibacy are some of the themes well portrayed in Purple Hibiscus, a novel by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. It also mirrors other inhibit.
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