Untitled - Rore Sanctifica

164 Defects and their Remedy in Re-union.
But on the other hand a rule, not en
forced by penalties, becomes practically only a
recommendation, and to this, in wise hands,
confession in the Roman Church, like com
munion in our own, really comes. The absence
of discipline
in this case is an advantage. Every
is ordered to communicate three
parishioner
times a year, and if he cannot do so with a quiet
conscience, to come to his priest for confession.
This is our rule. Every
Roman is ordered to
confess and communicate at least once a year,
but as we all know, great numbers of Roman
laymen never do confess, just as great numbers
of English Churchmen never communicate.
cT
Yet a discipline which would either compel
Communion or formally excommunicate would
do far more harm than good. Sacrilegious
communions or confessions would be and are
the results of compulsion. But a rule which
perpetually reminds people of what they ought
to be and to do, and shames them into endeavour
and if
ing to act up to it, is a great blessing,
that is what is meant by compulsion, it is
an excellent thing. The immense advantage
a priest has in guiding the souls of a flock who
are in the habit of coming to confession is in
calculable.
What does an English non-confess
ing priest know of his people s soul ? He may
live for years in the same parish with them,
and be 110 more assistance to them in their