Let's not lose general absolution. .

WHILE I AGREE WITH THE JANUARY SOUNDING BOARD ("It would be a sin to lose general absolution") by Father William Stenzel, I am troubled that church authority figures are so out of touch with the lives and spirituality of the Catholic faithful. In the early church the sacrament was always communal, and the individual form of Confession was created by Irish monks centuries later.

Many Catholics have moved away from the sacrament because the individual form did not nourish their lives and they have no experience or understanding of the richness of the communal form of the sacrament.

The last three parishes where I ministered had filled churches for the communal reconciliation services. This was not an easy way out for the parishioners but the result of a deeper spiritual life and clearer understanding of the challenge and freeing power of reconciliation.

Unfortunately, we have had poor catechesis on this precious sacrament. Do we realize that it is God who forgives sin and reaches out to embrace the sinner? The priest as representative of the church enables the penitent to celebrate God's forgiveness.

Yes, there will be times when an individual will need to experience the personal form of the sacrament of Reconciliation. Both forms have an important place in the church. But we can never go back to the meaningless forms of the past. It took many years to deprogram from the "Confession" of the past and come to appreciate the power and richness of the sacrament of Reconciliation.

Sister Theresa Byrne, O.P.
Altamonte Springs, Fla.

It was great to read the January Sounding Board. So many people want and need to experience God's mercy in this communal way. It will be more than a shame if the church continues to embrace a format of the sacrament that, for many, actually discourages the reception of the sacrament.

Maybe the church should emulate John the Baptist with regards to the attitude and method of dispensing the sacrament of Reconciliation. With Baptism, John stood on the banks of the river and called out to the people to repent and "come on down." And the people came because they wanted it so badly. He then baptized the people in the free-flowing waters of the river. He did this at a time when religious practices had strict controls and conditions on the method and on who could receive the Holy Spirit in the temple.

Perhaps the church and all of us should view the pool of graces from the sacrament of Reconciliation as a vast, bottomless reservoir into which Jesus is eager, willing, and ready to throw each of us head first again and again and again. If we do that, it shouldn't be so hard to accept general absolution.

Fred R. Tewell
Fairfax, Va.

The church leadership presumes that the members of the Body of Christ are children, and that they are the parents. I think it is time that the whole church got over that mind-set.

The bishops, under the leadership of the pope, are afraid to allow the laity to ever assume that they might have a voice. How often we hear the words: "We are not a democracy" and "The truth never comes from the bottom." What nonsense. When the bishops are so afraid to truly listen to the whole Body, they are incapable of teaching. The Spirit works throughout all of creation--a creation that is constantly unfolding.

When the bishops can't listen, we are saddled with the recent sexual-abuse scandal that permeates the entire church. I congratulate the Claretians and Stenzel for continuing to bring these issues out in the open for honest debate and development.

Father Charles G. Bolser, CS. V.
Bourbonnais, Ill.