Page:Twelve Years in a Monastery (1897).djvu/123

Rh church for the purpose of hearing confessions are quite exclusive of such an opinion. The penitent usually remains in sight of the congregation, and, in any case, priest and penitent are not in the same compartment: a wire gauze-work, set into the partition, enables them to talk in whispers, but contact is impossible. These ‘boxes’ or confessionals are open for inspection in any church. In hearing the confessions of nuns the precautions are still more stringent, as a rule; the confessor is enclosed in a kind of bureau, the nun remaining entirely outside.

One circumstance, however, should not be overlooked: it is, that the priest is not bound to hear every confession in the ‘box,’ and that he frequently hears them in less guarded places. Indeed, I have heard the confessions of a whole community of nuns where no such precautions existed: they entered singly and entirely unobserved into the room where I sat to hear them. Their usual confessor was a venerable and harmless old priest, and it was not thought necessary to alter the arrangements for me. During certain hours on Saturday, the priest sits in his box for all comers: outside those hours he will hear confessions in the sacristy or anywhere, and the anti-papal lecturer may find legitimate food for reflection in that section of his practice.

Confessions are also frequently heard at the private houses of the penitents. The Church does not sanction the practice with regard to people who