So here it is, my take on why Catholic priests can’t offer sacramental absolution to non-Catholics. As it turns out, there are nuances to the question that need to be addressed.

Preliminary point #1: There are times when a priest can’t offer absolution to Catholics!

In order for a sacramental confession to be valid, a person has to come offering both contrition and conversion.

I once had a Protestant woman become quite upset when she was told by a Catholic priest that, while he would be very happy to hear her sins and to pray with her, he could not offer her absolution. A number of her Catholic friends, while less upset, did wonder why this was so. As it turns out, there are nuances to the question that need to be addressed.

Preliminary point #1: There are times when a priest can't offer absolution to Catholics!

In order for a sacramental confession to be valid, a person has to come offering both contrition and conversion.

Tonight I’m going to see “The Movie” yet again, this time with some good friends, and we’ll go out for coffee afterward to discuss it. As it turns out a bunch of my students are going to go and see it as well, along with some members of the Montreal Challenge movement.

So I presided the funeral for Shawn Bourget today, at a small church (not my own) in the East end of Montreal. It was heartbreaking to see his two little daughters, aged 8 and 4, kissing the casket to say goodbye to Papa. Of course everyone was quite upset, which is normal. But what made some people even more upset was the behaviour of an employee of the parish, who was responsible to handle the administrative end of things.

I’ve been meditating recently on the book of Revelation (always a fun read), and I had a sudden “aha” moment regarding the entrance procession to the Mass.

Now I’m a priest, which means I have been configured by the Holy Spirit to act in persona Christi capitis, that is to say, to represent Christ as the Head of his Body.

The people, gathered together in church, represent (nay, *are*) the New Jerusalem, i.e. the Bride of Christ awaiting the Bridegroom for the wedding feast.

“You will know them by their fruits.” (Matthew 7:16) How very true, especially when it comes to proposed changes to the liturgy. For myself, I am very allergic to any proposed changes that are designed to somehow make the liturgy more “relevant” to post-modern man. The last time I checked, we are the ones who are supposed to be conformed to the Gospel, not the Gospel (embodied in the liturgy, for example) conformed to us.

One of my parishioners asked me for some advice on how to grow closer to the Father (you know — the one in heaven, hallowed is His Name). Now obviously the whole point of the Christian life is to enter into the joy of the Father, but the question was really asking about how to worship and love God-the-Father as the Father, and not just as "God".