Cellphone Addiction Exists in the Confessional - A Movement to Banish Them

“I am told that certain priests intervene on social networks in the middle of a confession: this is a very serious act that consists in a form of practical atheism and shows the weakness of the confessor’s faith in the sacramental act,” lamented Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, Major Penitentiary of the Holy Church, on March 6, 2018. He was speaking at the annual course on the internal forum, traditionally organized during Lent at the palace of the Apostolic Chancery.

The high-ranking prelate added that it is not uncommon “to receive complaints from faithful who are scandalized by the distraction of a confessor who paid little attention to their words or was even preoccupied with something else; on this point, allow me a word of advice that applies to everyone: we should never enter the confessional with a cellphone[.]”

The sacrament of Penance, through the sacramental absolution of sins, consists in a “real action of Christ and the Church,” recalled Cardinal Piacenza, and not in a “simple self-demonstration of the personal faith” of the penitent.

These beautiful words from the St. Curé d’Ars cannot but help renew the faith of the faithful in the greatness of the sacrament of Penance and reawaken the generosity of pastors of souls:

When the priest gives absolution, we should think of only one thing: that God’s blood is pouring over our soul to wash it, purify it, and make it as beautiful as it was after our baptism. At the moment of absolution, God throws our sins over His shoulder, that is to say, He forgets them, reduces them to nothing: they will never appear again.