Followup On My Recent Penance Q&a

[Anastasia13]

What does this mean?

 

"22. He must not impose a public penance for sins that are secret, no matter what their enormity."

Edited October 26, 2013 by Light and Truth

[cappie]

It means what it says. Our sins are by and large not public, that's why we go to confession privately and receive a sacramental penance. It is not correct to impose a public penance that would identify the person and the sin of the person. E.G. if someone was to come to me and confess the sin of adultery as a penance I could not require that the person for a penance wear a sign saying "I committed adultery" or to use another example, if someone came to me saying they has stolen something from the supermarket, there is a need to make restitution but I could not compel the person to stand outside the supermarket with a sign saying they stole from that supermarket.

 

Where public penance may come in is in the area of child abuse. The whole Church needs to do penance publicly. Bishops and deacons and priests who never committed any of those horrid crimes need to do penance as well.  We need to do this as a body. This is obviously different from sacramental penance imposed.

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