CONFESSIONALS

Sint-Jacobskerk
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The confessional has long been weaponised by the Roman Catholic church. The Protestants don't know how lucky they are, being able to sort out their spiritual lives in a one to one with the Lord himself.

The very structure of the confessional is designed to induce fear. The penitent kneels behind the bars/mesh while the priest sits majestically in the "parlour" dispensing God's mercy to the compliant. And in spiritually opulent Brugge you often have the gatekeepers, in this case Sts. Peter and Paul, intimidating you before you get near the box. I wonder did people feel the need to posh up their sins in a place like this?

Sint-Salvatorskathedraal

I saw many confession boxes in my recent tour of some of Brugge's (Bruges) churches. Mostly they were very ornate, in keeping with the hubris and wealth of the times that were in it.

They were of the open variety unlike ours with doors, though I am sure they all must have had curtains in their day. Not very effective in preventing the queue relishing the penitent's often salacious stories.

Even with the doored variety this can be a problem. I remember queueing for confession once only to hear my then girlfriend confessing to the priest that she had allowed me to be a bit more forward than the Lord, or at least his representatives on this earth, might have considered appropriate. Mortified I was.

This always resonates with me when I hear the plea in modern times to keep the church out of the bedroom, or wherever.

Sint-Salvatorskathedraal

I was discussing our relative perceptions of confession with a former classmate as we passed in front of one of the boxes. We both had experienced the quest for the most lenient confessor but she had an added dimension that I had never heard before. The quest for the deaf, or nearly deaf, confessor. Fair enough, but there was more. An unholy refinement that could only have come from Lucifer himself.

The ultimate trick was to know which was the deaf, or the deafer, ear and make sure to get on that side of him. Nobody who knew what was going on paid any attention to the long queue for one side of the confessional and none for the other. The Lord, and surely it is he and not the other fella, works in mysterious ways.

There are, or at least there were, plans afoot to take confession out of the confessional and turn it into more of a conversation in more relaxeed surroundings. Something like my confession with the Rector of the College of Europe on my arrival there some fifty years ago. I have no idea if anything is happening on this on the ground.

Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk
Our Lady's Church

And if you have any Baroque sins to confess, where better than Our Lady's Church and you can say your penance in front of the Michaelangelo round the corner.