LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
CONFESSION IN THE CHURCH IN ENGLAND.
[To THE EDITOR or THU " SPRCTATOR."]
Sin,—The myriads of quiet—mainly voiceless—Catholics in the Church in England will be grieved by your utterance in the Spectator of January 7th. For Mr. Kensit's or Sir William Harcourt's profanities they care nothing, but we are accustomed to find from the Spectator, if not approval, yet fair and sympathetic appreciation of the other side of any serious question. Now you write:—" We feel quite as strongly as he [Sir William Harcourt] can against the con- fessional as an institution. and against anything approaching to compulsory or systematised confession." Can you not see our view ? A man's conscience is troubled. He knows that pardon is promised to repentance. But he desires more than this. He needs the personal assurance to himself,—relief from his own burden. A general amnesty is one thing. Individual restoration to favour, personal con• solation and comfort, is another. In a word, he desires the ministry of reconciliation. Well, it is his right. His priest was ordained for this very purpose. This very power and commission was entrusted to him in express words at his ordination. Why should you object to it for the man who craves for it ? Why should you object to its being " systematised "P It would be a reasonable objection if it were not systematised, but haphazard. But my point is that it is the man's right. It is not just to object to it as you do, or to vilify either the man who claims it, or the priest who concedes the claim, and does the duty he is consecrated to do.
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