The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1896-08-31
The Speaker Quotes From the
Apostles to Show Its
Divine Origin.
HOW SINS ARE FORGIVEN
Confessional Only One of Six Require.
ments for the Remission of
Transgressions.

Rev. L. J. Nugent of Des MONIES lee
tured at st. Brendan's Church last even
ing upon 1.-The Last Confessional" Father
Nugent is an accom- plished speaker, and
throughout the course of a two hours ad-
dress the interest of his auditors never
faltered.
"It is perhaps not known to the people
of this congregation" he said, that there
are two kinds of confessions. One of these
was instituted by Christ and is in the ma
ture of sacrament. The other was insti-
tuted about 300 years ago and is in the ma
ture of a campaign document.
1.-The institution of confession is one of
the most remarkable in the world. l
know of nothing which has been written
about so much by people who know abso-
| lutely nothing about it. The confession
| in the nature of a sacrament is known to
the Catholic church. That in the nature
OF campaign document is known TO the
| outside world.
Among those who have succeeded
moderately well in following the law of
God many will tell you that they owe
their salvation largely to the institution
| OF the tribunal of penance. The confess
sion in the nature of campaign docu-
ment has also done some good good. 1t
has kept many an apostate priest and
escaped nun from starving to death.
1.-The tribunal of penance is wonderful
| institution. 1t is the last fortification of
| the new convert and IL is the first one
yielded up by the backslider. Priests
know we'll when man is beginning to get
morally rotten within by the distance he
! puts between himself and the confessional.
1t is pity, great pity, that an institu-
ton SO essentially connected with the vi
tally of the church is so little known by
| those outside of IL.
1.-The campaign tribunal of penance was
| intended 10 show the direct opposite of
what the church teaches. The outside
world sees nothing but the negative. You
and | in our early childhood have been
| jeered at on account of the confessional.
People say it is wrong for any Catholic to
| hold Office because be has given his con-
science to the Pope of Rome and he has it
on record. They have taken that idea
! solely from the negative, from the cam
paign document.
No priest in the State of California
ever taught child that his sins wrre for
given by confession or through confession.
We do teach them that their sins are re-
mltted by the sacrament of penance.
Confession is only one of the six require
ments necessary TO the sacrament of pen
ance. Three of these are on the part of
the penitent.
ION the part OF the penitent he must
nave u SOHlcSS6Q Ills SILlS dS near as he
can remem Der them, he must be sincerely
sorry and resolved 10 amend his ways and
| he must make restitution. On the part of
| the church there must be ordination, jur-
lsdiction and absolutlon. Though the
priest may be ordained, may have juris-
diction from the Bishop and may hold up
! his hands and give absolution there can
| certainly be no forgiveness unless there is
sorrow. The average non Catholic doesn't
| believe Catholic is ever sorry for his
sins. He just has his sins forgiven as he
pays his taxes, and takes his receipt and
waits until they accumulate again.
III were to make that explanation to
a non-Cathoiic he would say. That's
! plausible enough, but / don't see what
right one man has to receive confessions
from another man. l am going to give
| the best authority in the world-the au-
| thority OF Jesus Christ. We take up St
Mark, xviii:18, and we read: Whose sins
you shall forgive they are forgiven; whose
sins you have retained they have retained
Them he same words occur IN ST.
John. The church retains those texts as
a charter for this institution.
There IS something peculiar about
these texts. After the world had been
reading these texts for over fifteen CEN
turtles, about 300 or 400 years ago a lot of
people woke up and declared tnat we had
been reading them wrongly. If those
words don't mean that, in the name of the
English language what do they mean ?
There is not word that child need ask
the meaning of. 1t has been before the
people for nineteen centuries, put people
who say the words of st. Mark mean lust
what the say are called Romanists and are
laughed at"
The speaker then drew upon the history
OF The church to reute the statement that
the confessional was not known prior to
the twelfth century. He quoted extracts
from eminent doctors of the church in re-
gard to this institution as early as the first
century. In conclusion he depicted the
practical benefits of the confessional, and
showed how sin-burdened souls were re-
lieved at the tribunal of penance.