In Seoul, Covid-19 Format Confessionals

Adapt to survive. This could be the motto of South Korean Catholics. In Myeongdong Cathedral in the heart of Seoul, confessionals - like all confined spaces suspected of making coronavirus more easily contracted - were closed in February 2020, due to the Covid-19 epidemic.

No problem: the archdiocese of the South Korean capital has decided to make the confessionals compatible with the health standards enacted by the Blue House (office and place of residence of the President of the Republic).

In its Covid-19 format, the confessional marks more clearly the separation between the priest and the penitent: in addition to the grid, a plexiglass protection has appeared. A ventilation system has been installed to prevent possible transmission of the virus by particles suspended in the air.

Finally, after a penitent leaves, the entire cabin is disinfected before the next one enters: so many constraints that do not seem to weigh much in this Asian country, accustomed for decades to prophylactic measures in order to stop epidemics.

Fr. Matthias Young-yup Hur, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Seoul and vice-president of the Diocesan Commission for Communications, rejoices: “the reopening of fully equipped confessionals is part of our efforts to provide pastoral assistance to the faithful.”

For the diocese of Seoul, this meticulous concern for bringing things up to standard - which the West may view as restrictive - has an essential impact, because the fact “of ensuring the continuity of spiritual life, of nurturing faith through sacraments, constitutes the principal means in order to overcome, with the grace of God, the difficulties and the tests of the existence,” assures Fr. Young-yup.