Let's Bring Back the Order of Penitents!

Since the explosion of the clerical sex scandal at the turn of the millennium, I have often thought:  We need to bring back the "Order of Penitents!" Wouldn't it be wonderful if even one of the hierarchs involved in the scandal, either an actual perpetrator or one who allowed it in negligence, were to publicly proclaim: "I did a serious sin. I repent. I ask pardon from God and the Church. I will spend the rest of my life in penance." Such a contrite soul would retire quietly, to a monastery or such, to live simply, prayerfully, sacrificially in a spirit of reparation. If a McCarrick, Maciel, Law, or any one of the perpetrators would do this, it would be a healing tonic for the entire Church. This has not happened!

The Ancient Order of Penitents

In the ancient Church, a contrite sinner could enter the order of penitents, after a serious sin (murder, adultery, sacrilege) by publicly confessing before the bishop and then entering an extended, serious period of penance. There are, for example, cases of kings repenting after the slaughter of innocents. They would not receive communion; would do public penance involving ashes, hair shirts, public humbling, pilgrimages, reparation of Churches, care for the sick and the needy. 

This spirit and protocol of penance has characterized all the authentic renewal movements of the Church, but some are noteworthy for the pronounced rigor involved. The early hermits, monks and all the monastic renewal movements come right to mind. The early Church lacked the religious orders to which we are accustomed but was structured by "orders:" catechumens preparing, virgins, widows, apostles, deacons, priests and bishops. So we can imagine that the graphic, pronounced nature of the order of penitents would elicit from the entire Church a spirit of repentance, sacrifice and reparation.

The Spirit of our Age: Anti-Penance...Indulgent, Narcissistic, Therapeutic

Perhaps no generation in human history compares with us boomers and our offspring in regard to entitlement, indulgence, narcissism, triumph of the therapeutic, spiritual lethargy, bourgeois mediority and demise of the ideals of holiness and heroism. In plain English, we are spoiled brats. We contrast sharply with our parents and ancestors who were tried and tested by poverty, persecution, warfare, migration, and suffering. Morally/spiritually inferior, we in general presume a progressive superiority of enlightenment, education, science and technology as we disparage the past, tradition, authority and revelation. And so, realities of contrition, humility, reparation, sacrifice, humility, and poverty are largely incoherent to our "enlightened" age...even to many clergy and religious.

The Spirit of Penitence

The core Gospel announcement of Jesus, already anticipated in John the Baptist and the prophets was: Repent! This involves two movements which mutually inform each other: recognition of and disgust for personal sin and evil; and desperate desire to come close to the God of mercy, justice, truth and holiness. The explosion of the Gospel across the Roman world and all subsequent renewal movements and saints have manifested this same co-inherence: aversion to sin and desire for God. 

Our age is not entirely secular, irreligious or non-spiritual. But overwhelmingly it has repressed the sense of sin, contrition, evil and repentance on behalf of the Sovereign-Imperial-Self. It lacks all sense of the supernatural, of the demonic, of the dramatic conflict between the eternity of heaven and that of hell. So we are left pathetic superficialities:  the triumph of the therapeutic, Marxist theologies of liberation, new age pantheism, sexual liberation,  hysteria about global warming, the "ground of being" of Tillich, Jungian archetypes, technological/scientific illusion of faux-Darwinian "progress" a la Teilhard, Fauci and Company. Everything except the humble, contrite, adoring soul!

Types of Penitents

Let's imagine different types of penitents. The first would be, as noted above, important people (especially clergy and religious, but also celebrities, politicians, etc.) who have gravely violated public trust and caused scandal by disloyalty, unchastity (especially abuse of the young and vulnerable), and such. Others would include:

Irregular Relationships. This group would welcome Catholics who find themselves in irregular quasi-conjugal situations: those divorced-remarried-without-annulment, homosexual unions, cohabitation without marriage. Such might find themselves in accord with the Church's disapproval of their situation but unwilling or unable to change it. They might well have some sound reasons for this: imagine for example the care of children of the union. By joining the order of penitents they would be acknowledging the objective disorder entailed, but seek the support of the Church and others struggling with similar situations to bring God's grace and wisdom to bear. They would clearly be humble and deferential to Church authority, rather than judgmental and superior. They would, of course, abstain from reception of the Eucharist, practicing a spiritual communion. The reception of absolution would be a prudential decision of the confessor but for sure they would receive spiritual support, blessings and guidance within the context of an urgency to convert and amend for sin.

Addicts and Co-Dependents who are enslaved by compulsivity but unable to free themselves. Here we imagine alcoholics, drug addicts, gamblers, sexaholics, workaholics, and such. This might also include emotional disorders of depression, anxiety, anger, mania and others. Obviously, this order of penitents would be well complimented by 12-step and Recovery (of Dr. Lowe) and similar groups, as well as counseling and therapy. As with the prior groups, these would be guided in spiritual direction in regard to the reception of absolution and communion. Since the disorder here is more subjective than objective and overt, there might be greater freedom in the inner forum of confession and spiritual direction.

Converts and Reverts who come into the Church from a serious life of sin would clearly cherish this more intense path of penance along with the Catechumenal Way.

Ordinary-Temporary penitents would be those of us who are moved by the Holy Spirit to endure a period of intense penance, possibly aware of our own sin or of the evil around us. This is currently being done by many men in Exodus 90, a 90-day spiritual boot camp, a rigorous-vigorous path to virility and freedom from addictions/pornography/lethargy/passivity entailing serious fasting from  sweets, alcohol, tv, video games, soda, snacks, unnecessary purchases and use of cell phone, meatless Wednesdays and Fridays, weekly fraternity meetings, anchor-partnership,  prayer including daily holy hour, cold showers, This stuff is not for sissies! I think all of us men (I am first on list) DESPERATELY need this! It seems to me that most women I know don't need this as they live sacrifice every day in care for family, career, home, and those needy and infirm close to them.

Conclusion

In light of these thoughts, I pray first for myself and secondly for those close to me (including you, dear reader): 

May we become inflamed, in the Holy Spirit, with a fire of humility, zeal, hatred of sin,  fraternal love, chastity, interior freedom, tender reverence for women, paternal confidence and thirst for God!