Yes, but I don’t think Confession would be the proper place. Imagine someone coming to Confession, maybe who hadn’t been in a very long time, or had a sin of which he was intensely ashamed, is immediately rebuked by the priest! The penitent might be tempted to conceal his sin or to flee out of fear or embarrassment. Either way, he is deprived of the opportunity to confess and in one case, departs with even more sins to his charge. It would be imprudent for the confessor to speak sharply.
In public, with gross ignorance, or if deliberate disrespect were intended, a superior must correct an inferior. For example, I once heard a young man address a bishop and a priest as, “you guys.” It was clearly improper, a case of ignorance. The bishop made the correction graciously and allowed the man to correct himself. He didn’t get upset or show anger.
Both my parents had a particular priest of whom they were terrified as grade school aged children. These were two different priests from distant parishes. Mom wouldn’t confess to Fr. Roux and Dad wouldn’t confess to Fr. Sullivan. Fr. Roux was a big-boned Belgian Jesuit who would pace up and down behind the schoolchildren’s pew when they prayed the Rosary before 9:00 Mass. Mom said he walked heavily, muttered under his breath, and clicked the beads on his Rosary. She was afraid of his looks and mannerisms. Dad served Mass for Fr. Sullivan, but was afraid of him because he was very stern with altar boys who made mistakes. He’d lay into them in front of the others and give them long penances to be performed after Mass. Apparently, Fr. Sullivan had the Irish temper. He sometimes turned around and corrected adults who came in late or were improperly dressed. Dad said that once, some man came to Mass wearing a sweater instead of a suit jacket. Fr. Sullivan asked him if he’d left his jacket in the train! There was another man in the parish who was a known drinker. If he came late to Mass, Fr. would scold him aloud, “Too late at the gin mill, again? Come forward and kneel up here,” while pointing to a pew. Then he’d wait until Mr. B. moved before starting Mass. Fr. Roux didn’t really do anything amiss. Mom was just scared of his imposing appearance and the fact that he spoke with a heavy accent. I think old time priests were trained to keep their parishioners at strict social distance. When V2 came along, they went too far in the opposite direction, hence the appearances of Fr. Hank and Bishop Bill.
Topic: Confession question (Read 1773 times)