{"id":4126,"date":"2010-03-02T21:10:28","date_gmt":"2010-03-02T21:10:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2010\/03\/for-advice-on-confessions-press-one.html"},"modified":"2010-03-02T21:10:28","modified_gmt":"2010-03-02T21:10:28","slug":"for-advice-on-confessions-press-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2010\/03\/for-advice-on-confessions-press-one.html","title":{"rendered":"“For advice on confessions, press one…”"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was only a matter of time until someone came up with this nutty idea<\/a> — and wouldn’t you know, it comes to us from, of all places, France: <\/p>\n

\n\"pg-32-confession-li_332146s.jpg\"<\/a><\/span>A premium rate phone line in France is offering Catholics the chance to confess their sins, for 34c (31p) a minute plus connection charge. But French bishops are attempting to disconnect Le Fil du Seigneur – or Line to the Lord – which was launched at the beginning of Lent.<\/p>\n

The softly spoken male voice on the line offers touch-tone options: “For advice on confessing, press one. To listen to some confessions, press three,” before warning, “In case of serious or mortal sins – that is, sins that have cut you off from Christ our Lord – it is indispensable to confide in a priest.”<\/p>\n

The telephone service is the brainchild of Camille Hautier, a self-declared Catholic. She said the Line to the Lord does not offer absolution for sins, which only a priest can provide. “The idea is to confess sins which are not capital sins, but minor sins, directly to God,” she said.<\/p>\n

Whether God is at the end of the line may be a matter of faith, but callers certainly don’t get the option of talking to a person. Instead they are offered an “atmosphere of piety and reflection” where they can listen to prayers and music.<\/p>\n

Some 300 people have called the hotline in its first week – although whether to confess their own sins or just to listen in to other people’s transgressions is not clear.<\/p>\n

The country’s bishops were at pains to stress that the line had “no approval from the Catholic Church in France”. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There’s more at the link.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was only a matter of time until someone came up with this nutty idea — and wouldn’t you know, it comes to us from, of all places, France: A premium rate phone line in France is offering Catholics the chance to confess their sins, for 34c (31p) a minute plus connection charge. But French…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sacraments"],"yoast_head":"\n"For advice on confessions, press one..." - The Deacon's Bench<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2010\/03\/for-advice-on-confessions-press-one.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\""For advice on confessions, press one..." - The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It was only a matter of time until someone came up with this nutty idea — and wouldn’t you know, it comes to us from, of all places, France: A premium rate phone line in France is offering Catholics the chance to confess their sins, for 34c (31p) a minute plus connection charge. But French…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2010\/03\/for-advice-on-confessions-press-one.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-03-02T21:10:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/03\/pg-32-confession-li_332146s-thumb-250x170-11935.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"jmcgee\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"\"For advice on confessions, press one...\" - The Deacon's Bench","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2010\/03\/for-advice-on-confessions-press-one.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"\"For advice on confessions, press one...\" - The Deacon's Bench","og_description":"It was only a matter of time until someone came up with this nutty idea — and wouldn’t you know, it comes to us from, of all places, France: A premium rate phone line in France is offering Catholics the chance to confess their sins, for 34c (31p) a minute plus connection charge. But French…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2010\/03\/for-advice-on-confessions-press-one.html","og_site_name":"The Deacon's Bench","article_published_time":"2010-03-02T21:10:28+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/03\/pg-32-confession-li_332146s-thumb-250x170-11935.jpg"}],"author":"jmcgee","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2010\/03\/for-advice-on-confessions-press-one.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2010\/03\/for-advice-on-confessions-press-one.html","name":"\"For advice on confessions, press one...\" - The Deacon's Bench","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2010\/03\/for-advice-on-confessions-press-one.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2010\/03\/for-advice-on-confessions-press-one.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/03\/pg-32-confession-li_332146s-thumb-250x170-11935.jpg","datePublished":"2010-03-02T21:10:28+00:00","dateModified":"2010-03-02T21:10:28+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/bdb748767d0f27ba523435391c927150"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2010\/03\/for-advice-on-confessions-press-one.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2010\/03\/for-advice-on-confessions-press-one.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2010\/03\/for-advice-on-confessions-press-one.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/03\/pg-32-confession-li_332146s-thumb-250x170-11935.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/03\/pg-32-confession-li_332146s-thumb-250x170-11935.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2010\/03\/for-advice-on-confessions-press-one.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"“For advice on confessions, press one…”"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/","name":"The Deacon's Bench","description":"Where a Roman Catholic Deacon Ponders the World","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/bdb748767d0f27ba523435391c927150","name":"jmcgee","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/b07\/b071769d942178df26e06d8859867b37x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/b07\/b071769d942178df26e06d8859867b37x96.jpg","caption":"jmcgee"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/author\/jmcgee"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4126\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}