For at least a century, church attendance rates have been declining. This phenomenon has been more pronounced in Europe than in the United States. Scholars have wrestled for decades trying to explain why this is so. The most obvious reason, the one that jumps immediately to mind, is that modern science has made it very difficult to believe a lot of what it says in the Bible. But there could be several other explanations.
What if Christianity is in decline in many places because it is no longer adequate as a moral system in modern democratic states? In the past, communities were more closely knit together. But Jesus offered each individual personal salvation and immortality. In modern times and in modern countries, there is a more individualistic culture. But at the same time, public morality, if we can speak of such a thing, is more egalitarian. It may well be that despite the individualism of modern societies, there is a stronger sense of duty towards others and groups of others. That sense of duty is also bound up with the fact that more and more people view this mundane life as the only one. Fewer and fewer believe that their real eternal lives begin only after death.
In the film, Confession, written, directed by and starring Chris Sullivan, we face these sorts of questions head on. The film is gripping, disturbing and thought-provoking. It has the look of a 1970s era British police procedural. It’s very simple, having essentially one setting and one scene. We watch a priest coming home after a long day, only to be interrupted by a phone call from someone named Sibyl (voiced very convincingly by Lynn Verrall). The fact that this is set in the not too distant past allowed Sullivan to avoid the obvious inconvenience posed by the invention of smart phones. Instead, we’re faced with an old rotary phone. And luckily, it’s a phone that the priest is able to connect to a small speaker so we don’t have to watch him with an earpiece against his head for the entire film. But more importantly, the reliance on this old technology allows the director to convey a real sense of frustration at the priest’s inability to communicate.
And this inability to communicate is essentially the theme of the film. Sibyl calls Father Ryan demanding that he perform an emergency confession. He doesn’t want to, since, of course, confessions are meant to be done in church at certain times. But she eventually convinces him and she relates her sins: she’s had impure thoughts and overall hasn’t been a very nice person. Father Ryan tells her to say a few Hail Marys and calls it a day. Why is this the stuff of an emergency confession? It turns out that Sibyl has more to say.
Without going into any more detail, I’ll just say that the rest of the film revolves around the question of whether a priest has a duty to report a crime that he’s learned about in the confessional. Psychologists, we know, are bound by strict rules of confidentiality. That is, unless they hear about something criminal or about a dangerous situation. Then the psychologist is bound to contact the authorities.
But with a priest, this is not the case. Confessors are, in theory and very often in practice, anonymous. But they are also not bound to report any crime that they learn about to the police, and are in fact bound to complete secrecy. This is because their only responsibility when giving confession, is to absolve confessors of their sins. And sins, of course, are very often also crimes. Say a confessor steals a loaf of bread. That’s a sin. He feels guilt. He goes to confessional and confesses. The priest tells him what to do to be forgiven and he does it. He wipes the slate clean and is no longer, so far as he knows, in danger of eternal damnation. What about the victim of the crime? That’s not the priest’s concern.
So can we blame a priest for not reporting an ongoing crime? Should he do something about it if he happens to know why the perpetrator is? According to his vows, the answer is very simple: No. He’s not a police officer and his only concern is the salvation of his flock. He looks to eternity, not to this vale of tears. This, though, seems to be a repugnant position in modern societies. Since we tend to believe this world is all there is, we tend to view those who have a different view, as in the case of Father Ryan, as cowards at best, and at worst as accomplices who will be damned to hell themselves for their seeming indifference. But in order to take this view, that the priest is responsible, we must also believe that the priest doesn’t really believe what he’s staked his entire life on believing. So while watching Confession, keep asking yourself: to what extent is Father Ryan responsible? It’s not an easy question. But the film is absolutely worth watching.
© 2021. UniversalCinema Mag.