The Surging of the Penitential Spirit

Catholic neglect of the practice of confession is largely due to widespread disparagement of the sacrament by our priests since the Council: they fail to preach or teach about it, they trivialize it, or they misuse it as a "teaching opportunity" or an exercise in therapeutic counseling. Nevertheless, the Spirit of God is irrepressible, is not restricted to ecclesiastical channels and blows where he/she wishes. And so, we see, again since the Council, a dynamic and vital bursting forth of the penitential or confessional attitude in lay, quasi-ecclesial, non-professional and non-clerical environments. Three examples are: 12-step groups, the scrutinies of the NeoCatechumenal Way, and the charismatic deliverance ministry of Neal Lozano. These quite distinctive practices share many qualities: 1. They invoke the power and presence of God in an explicit, expectant, hopeful manner. 2. They entail transparency and humility in the candid unveiling of weakness and sin. 3. They occur in small communities of trust and confidentiality. 4. They include accountability. 5. They assume as normal human weakness, powerlessness and evil. 6. They proscribe a detailed, comprehensive itinerary of reform as received from a charismatic founder. The real actionof the Holy Spirit comes in the strangest places: the Egyptian desert, the monasteries, the mendicants, and so forth. Today, the Holy Spirit is active in well in small, largely anonymous, humble communities of contrition and amendment...largely beyond Church boundaries.