are capable of attending church, but it is frequently necessary to hear the confessions of persons who are confined to bed. The priest is urged, in such cases, to leave doors open and take various precautions to avoid scandal, but those directions are seldom acted upon and would not be appreciated, as a rule, by the penitent herself. Cases are not unknown in which women have feigned or exaggerated illness for that purpose. But such appointments are attended with great danger, and cannot be widespread.
Indeed, I do not believe that there is any unusual amount of immorality in connection with the confessional; rather the reverse, for the legislation of the Church on that point is stringent and effective, and the priest is well aware that the confessional is the worst place in the world for him to indulge improper tendencies. He is involved in a network of regulations, and sooner or later his misconduct is bound to come to the knowledge of his authorities, with very disastrous consequences to himself. In the first place, as I explained in the last chapter, improper suggestion on the part of the confessor is a sin reserved to the bishop. He cannot say Mass until he has received absolution (for it is assumed that he has not lost all sense of obligation[1]), and no brother priest can absolve
- ↑ In that case his infidelity might not be revealed until death, when any priest can absolve. A curious case was mentioned (by a priest) in the Daily Telegraph a few years ago. At the death of a Catholic military chaplain a woman presented herself to the army authorities as his wife, and actually produced a certificate to that effect.
