Cardinal wants reform of confession to stem decline

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor believes that confession is in need of significant reform and should be discussed at a special synod on the sacraments. 

The Archbishop Emeritus of Westminster has called for “proper reform to the sacrament” and says confession has not received “serious reflection by any authoritative people within the Church” despite declining numbers of Catholics making use of the sacrament.

The remarks come in a private letter to the Cambridge academic and author John Cornwell, who is campaigning for a ban on childhood confession and sent the cardinal a new book he has written on the sacrament.

Cornwell, who says he was himself the victim as a boy of sexual solicitation by a confessor, has also written an open letter to Pope Francis calling for a ban.

A spokeswoman for the cardinal stressed that he was not endorsing an end to childhood confession, had not read Cornwell’s book when he replied to the author, and in no way associated himself with the letter to the Pope.

However, the spokeswoman confirmed that the cardinal wants “further reflection” over ­confession – properly known as the Sacrament of Reconciliation – “given the fact that so many Catholics are not going to ­confession at all”.

The spokeswoman told The Tablet: “The cardinal believes that confession could be considered as a topic for an Episcopal Synod on Sacramental Life. [He] thinks there needs to be much serious reflection in the Church as to why people are not going to confession and what would encourage them to return to the sacrament. He would be glad if people went to confession twice a year, during Advent and Lent, but he also believes that more frequent ­confession is very good for the soul and brings both peace and joy.”

Under Pope Francis, it is expected that the Synod of Bishops will take on a more important role in the governance of the Church.

In September, there will be a synod to discuss marriage and family life which is being informed by a survey of Catholics across the world who were asked for their views on topics such as same-sex marriage, contraception and Communion for divorced and remarried Catholics.

In his letter to Pope Francis, Cornwell cites the response of “thousands of Catholics” to an ­article he wrote for The Tablet in August 2012 on a decline in ­confession. Catholics complained that childhood confession “creates opportunities for priestly abuse – psychological and sexual”, he writes.

Cornwell has compiled what he says is an “extensive dossier” of clerical sexual abuse of children in confession, and estimates that 40 per cent of paedophile offences within the Church around the world have occurred “under the auspices of confession”.

Accounts of the alleged widespread abuse of children in confession are collected in a new book by the author, The Dark Box: a secret history of confession, which is published on 20 February.

The author said: “This is a listening Pope who wants to know what Catholics really think. I hope that he will act.”Pope Pius X decreed in 1910 that children should make their first confession at the age of seven.