Tag Archive

confessional culture

Confessional Culture and American Culture

In the middle decades of the twentieth century, American Catholics flocked to confession.  On many Saturday evenings, Catholic priests listened to dozens (and often hundreds) of their parishioners seek what is now known as the sacrament of reconciliation. During this same era, at least one Catholic magazine offered a glimpse into that confessional culture. The St. Anthony Messenger, a magazine published by Franciscan priests of the St. John the Baptist province in Cincinnati, Ohio, ran a section called “The Tertiary Den,” which was edited by the prolific Fr. Fulgence Meyer.  The Messenger had a long history, originating in the late Read more