c. 1996 Religion News Service

(Andrew M. Greeley is a Roman Catholic priest, best-selling novelist and a sociologist at the University of Chicago National Opinion Research Center. Check out his home page at http://www.agreeley.com or contact him via e-mail at agreel(at)aol.com.)

UNDATED _ One of the first things likely to change when Chicago gets a new archbishop to take the place of the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin will be the end of the”penitential services”that take place in some parishes.

These services, generally conducted before Christmas and Easter, are composed of Scripture readings, songs, a homily and absolution. The people then choose whether to confess their sins privately to a priest or depart with their sins forgiven by the general absolution.

It was decided in the reforms after the Second Vatican Council that general absolution could happen more often than it used to. Pope John Paul II does not like this new penitential service and has effectively repealed it. He wants people to continue to confess their sins in”species and number”(as in”I committed adultery ten times”). This is presumably because it gives the church more control over the lives of its people; the Vatican seems obsessed by this issue.

First of all, it must be said that the matter is not one of doctrine but discipline. The rules surrounding confession, or what the church now calls”the sacrament of Christian reconciliation”have varied greatly through the centuries; they are likely to vary greatly in years to come. St. Thomas Aquinas, for example, taught that a valid confession could be made to a member of the laity rather than to a priest.

General absolution is allowed by church law under circumstances of”grave inconvenience,”such as when troops are going into battle. Given the shortage of priests and the vast numbers of Catholics who need access to the sacrament, some Chicago pastors who lead absolution services have concluded that it would be a”grave inconvenience”not to have them.

And yet there are many Chicago parishes, including the one where I work, in which general absolution is not an option and people go to confession in the traditional way.

Nonetheless, under pressure, the late Cardinal Bernardin wrote a letter to the priests of Chicago telling them to end penitential services. There was an explosion of rage. Sixty pastors assembled and issued a letter of response, which essentially said they were tired of being treated like members of middle management. I later said to some of them that they were spreading sedition.

These priests did not need to have a confrontation; they simply could have continued with the practice silently _ just as some continued allowing young women to be altar servers when that practice was forbidden by Rome.

All of this may seem trivial, but not to the Vatican. The story is told in Chicago that when Cardinal Bernardin traveled to Rome to tell Vatican officials he was dying, he was chewed out because some parishes in the archdiocese continue to conduct penitential services.

Hence, it is virtually certain that whoever becomes the new archbishop will reassert authority and order priests to stop such services. How will the new archbishop deal with pastors who continue to conduct penitential services? Invoke canon law? Issue solemn warnings? Forbid meetings? Fire them? Have reactionary Catholics spy on the parishes?

When I warned one priest that this was likely to happen, he responded that it would probably be good to start the new administration with a fight. I think that sentiment expresses the way many priests here feel.

Chicago priests have learned to be independent, to think for themselves, to make decisions that are appropriate for the local circumstances. They are not likely to change, despite all the orders in the world. Moreover, they are zealous, dedicated men who work very hard in difficult conditions.

The laity, for their part, have grown accustomed to a sensitive, open,sympathetic, gentle Archbishop Bernardin. Does anyone think they will accept a conservative autocrat? Unless I am mistaken, only the Vatican would think so.

In the unlikely case that the new archbishop asks me what he should do, I would advise him that he will have to earn every bit of respect and every bit of credibility he finally attains. He will not earn respect by giving orders, but by being as much like the late cardinal as he could possibly be.

MJP END GREELEY