This Missionary of Mercy confesses to you that I haven't always followed to the letter the canon law of the Church, namely Canon 964, which states that "the proper place for hearing sacramental confessions is a church or oratory" and that "except for a just reason, confessions are not to be heard elsewhere than in a confessional." I have been very broad in my interpretation of a "just reason."
Scaling particularly deadly mountain walls with friends, or other similarly intense moments, has never been an occasion for me to hear a confession. However, as any priest, I do recall terrible traffic accidents when absolutions were provided. We've all heard confessions in hospitals and rehabilitation centers, as well as in nursing homes and assisted living centers. But those are to be taken for granted.
Some venues for confessions might be considered strange by those who just can't imagine themselves confessing in such circumstances, but others are less inhibited. I've frequently heard confessions in the midst of rushing crowds in airport concourses or train stations, outside supermarkets or on street corners. Cars and trucks and parking lots are most favored, but so are walking confessions, which make their way along city sidewalks or country roads.
A house, a barn, a dog kennel, a chicken coop ... any place will do. Mercy is available everywhere.
The fact of someone wanting to go to confession is a "just cause" for not using a confessional, even when a confessional is right at hand. Sometimes the sacristy is better for any number of reasons. In some places, women's confessions were traditionally heard in "the box," while men's confessions were heard in the sacristy.
Having said this, though, there are limits. Proximity is necessary for the sacrament. No video conferencing. No phones. No radio talk shows. No email or texting or Facebook or Twitter. Not even Snapchat. No sacrilege.
Permit me, though, to bring you to a place to offer your confession so strange that you may not have considered it – not realizing that you have been confessing in this most unheard of place since your very first confession. You'll need your imagination for this, but only because it's so real that it's hard to wrap one's mind around.
Imagine that when you go into the confessional, to your shock you see that there is someone already kneeling down just starting to confess. It's Jesus! You kneel beside Him sheepishly, and see your own priest on the other side of the screen. Jesus then starts to confess all your sins as if they were His own. He's brief and to the point, includes aggravating circumstances and numbers of times for any serious sins. He just enumerates the sins without ambiguity, without excuse. He then concludes: "I accuse myself of all these sins, Father, and I beg absolution and penance." Your priest then gives you your penance and absolves you, and you go away filled with wonder at the great love of Jesus who, in order to provide the grace of that absolution, stood in our place, taking on the death we deserve because of our sin.
When we confess, we do so alongside Jesus, who steps in for us. But because He does that on a spiritual level, we must be loyal to Him by ignoring any fear, any humiliation we might feel. Instead of looking to ourselves, we look to see His goodness and kindness. That's a strange place to confess from, alongside Jesus, is it not? And yet, it is all very familiar, for no matter how strange the place is in which we might confess, we are always right next to Jesus, who loves us so very much.
— Father George David Byers is administrator of Holy Redeemer Church in Andrews and one of two "Missionaries of Mercy" commissioned by Pope Francis in the Diocese of Charlotte.
CHARLOTTE — As the Church begins the Jubilee Year of Mercy, Pope Francis has expressed his intention that the celebration be a way for the Church to "make more evident its mission to be a witness of mercy."
One way the pope wants to show "the Church's maternal solicitude" is to send out "Missionaries of Mercy" – specially selected priests who have been granted "the authority to pardon even those sins reserved to the Holy See," the pope wrote in "Misericordiae Vultus" ("The Face of Mercy"), the document officially proclaiming the Holy Year.
About 50 U.S. priests have been designated a Missionary of Mercy, including two from the Diocese of Charlotte: Father George Byers, administrator of Holy Redeemer Church in Andrews, and Father Patrick Winslow, pastor of St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Charlotte.
According to Archbishop Salvatore Fisichella, president of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization, the priests selected are chosen on the basis of their ability to preach well, especially on the theme of mercy, and be "good confessors," meaning they are able to express God's love and do not make the confessional, as Pope Francis says, like "a torture chamber."
The priests will also have to "be patient" and have "an understanding of human fragility," the archbishop said.
Father Byers notes, "All priests are Missionaries of Mercy in their own parishes and apostolates, and I assume that all would like to have whatever special faculties to manifest the mercy of God to all who desire the same, calling especially those who do not yet desire mercy into the required humility.
"The only thing that makes me different from other priests is that, being in what is perhaps the smallest parish in North America, I was able to make myself available for what might well be a time-consuming activity. None of us Missionaries of Mercy know exactly what this Year of Mercy will bring."
The Missionaries of Mercy will receive their mandate on Ash Wednesday in Rome after meeting with the pope.
"Just how this mandate will practically work out for various individuals undergoing the medicinal application of grave censures or excommunications reserved to the Holy See is yet to be seen. Perhaps what is by far the most important desired effect of the Year of Mercy and the Missionaries is that Christ's faithful will simply be shaken up enough to go to the great Sacrament of Mercy, confess their sins, and rejoice greatly in the Lord's goodness and kindness."
Father Patrick Winslow emphasizes that mercy is not going to be more available now versus any other time.
"The mercy of God is available to us, and has been available to us, thanks to Christ Himself," he said. "These jubilee years are opportunities to highlight. To put it another way, next year on the Feast of Christ the King 2016, when the Holy Doors on the Year of Mercy close, mercy is not being closed to the faithful. Conversely, new mercy is not being made available this Dec. 8."
Missionaries of Mercy are not creating anything new, he added; they are simply being called to highlight the Gospel in such a way that they are helping people to become better disciples of Christ.
"For this Year of Mercy, one of the best ways to get the word out is to preach it," he said. "It's an opportunity to reflect upon something that is so good – to highlight the mercy of God."
— SueAnn Howell, Senior reporter. Catholic News Service contributed.