Simulated Confessions
There has been much discussion about a story a reporter wrote about the sacrament of confession. He went to 24 priests and gave a fake confession of some made up sin. He was trying to show that contradictory advice was being given out and that some of it was not orthodox. There was much shock and discust in the reactions to the reporter and some disappointment at what the priest said. Some were pleasantly surprised that the guy was not able to find one priest who would say abortions was OK.
Many people pointed out that the sacrament would be invalid in these cases. In fact, I would think it would be a simulated sacrament. I beleive that carries an penalty of automatic excommunication. Still they miss the deeper point. The fact that the sacrament is simulated means it tells you nothing about what would occur in an actual sacrament. Sure the priest would be the same and, assuming the reporter was a good actor, the confession would be similar. Still God would be present in a real sacrament in a way that He just wasn’t in this charade. The reporter is assuming that confession is a purely human activity. That we can study it by simply testing the human elements and seeing how good it is. That didn’t surprise me. What surprised me is how many of the Catholics commenting on the story seemed to buy that assumption. They seemed to accept that what was said in the fake confessions accurately reflects what happens in real confessions. It is surprising because if you would ask these folks if the grace of the sacrament effects the amount of wisdom, courage, and love the priest is able to show in his response I am sure they would all say ‘yes’. They believe God is real and He does act powerfully in the confessional. But under this scenario where the priest is fooled and God is not fooled nobody seems to point out that you have tested our priests but you have not tested our God. In fact, you have deliberately angered God and expected Him not to notice.
When you try and test God you always run into this Heisenberg problem. That is the fact that you are observing and testing something can effect what you are testing. You test God because you lack faith. You assume that does not make a difference. But faith is exactly what you are testing. God will not be fooled. He has chosen to require us to have faith. We will never arrive at God by reason alone. Sure there is a ton of evidence that can lead you to believe but there will never be anything that forces you to believe.
