SILVERADO, California (LifeSiteNews) — Notable Canadian philosopher and author Dr. Jordan Peterson expounded the benefits of the Sacrament of Confession during a recent event at a Norbertine Abbey in California.
Catholics have “a much more thorough explanation of the utility of humility, Confession, repentance, atonement – because that really is the process by which people come back to their better self,” Peterson commented.
His remarks came during a recently released episode of The Abbot’s Circle, which is produced by the Norbertine community of St. Michael’s Abbey and features wide-ranging, insightful conversations with high-profile guests.
Peterson, who holds a doctorate in clinical psychology, recounted that when working as a therapist his first question to patients was always, “What’s wrong with you?”
“And people don’t know,” he said. “They come because they’re suffering and maybe they’re suffering like Job (in the Bible) … or maybe they’ve done something stupid, or maybe someone has done something malevolent to them.”
He linked this discovery of ailments to the Sacrament of Confession: “The first thing you do as therapist is you listen to people’s confession. … they give an account and then there’s the possibility of figuring out where the error was.”
Peterson is not a Catholic but has frequently and increasingly expressed intellectual interest in many aspects of the Catholic faith, and the visit to St. Michael’s Abbey was his second. He was joined by wife Tammy, who converted to Catholicism this Easter.
Discussing suffering, Confession, humility and grace with Father Ambrose of the Norbertine community, Peterson opined on how secular therapy attempts to help people but how Confession is a “real act of mercy.”
For people seeking therapy, he said they first “need the desire to fix it: That’s the repentance. And then you get the revelation that determines how you will proceed. That’s all real, seriously real.”
Catholicism offers a much more impactful event, he said:
The fact that the Catholics have formalized that, that’s such potential utility to people — get it off your chest first. ‘Why?’ So you know what you did wrong, so you can stop doing it. Because it’s just hurting you, plus if you’re carrying it into the future, you’re going to make things worse.
The Sacrament of Confession is not recognized or practiced by Protestants, something that Peterson pointed to as a negative:
Sometimes your sin can be more than you can bear, more than you can atone for, and Catholics allow their participance to … there’s a merciful route out of that, because they can be absolved and that’s really helpful to people because if you’re carrying around some horrible bloody thing that you did, what are you going to do with that? Especially if you don’t know how to atone for it?
Peterson added that “in the Catholic practice, the Church in some ways takes that (guilt),” adding without clarification that “that can be used irresponsibly, but you get my point: It can be a real act of mercy.”
Confession, he stated, “gives people the opportunity to have a fresh start, and who doesn’t need a fresh start? Every one of us needs a fresh start.”
The influential commentator also decried the common argument made by non-Catholics against Confession — namely, that an individual should sin freely until his deathbed and then repent.
“It’s an easy thing to parody ‘You can sin your whole life if you’re a Catholic and then repent on your deathbed,’” he quipped. “Well, it’s not that simple, no one ever thought that, because you actually have to repent … you wouldn’t have time to clear yourself up while you were dying.”
The argument against Confession, Peterson described as “a foolish criticism” because “there’s a mercy in it that’s really useful.”
For Catholics, the Sacrament of Confession is a key part of regular life. The Council of Trent issued a canon stating, “If anyone denies that sacramental confession was instituted and is necessary for salvation by divine law … let him be anathema.”
Its origin is directly from Christ in the Scriptures when He commanded the Apostles: “Receive the Holy Ghost; whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained.”
Catholics having attained the age of reason are obliged by Canon Law to avail of the Sacrament of Confession to confess grave or mortal sins at least once a year, according to Canon 989.
Venial sins are also recommended to be listed by the penitent in Confession.
For those conscious of having committed a mortal sin, it is forbidden under the pain of sacrilege to receive Holy Communion before having confessed the mortal sins to a priest.
As noted by the timeless Baltimore Catechism, a good Confession is marked by being humble, sincere and entire. As for its efficacy, the catechism teaches that “the sacrament of Penance, worthily received, always takes away all eternal punishment; but it does not always take away all temporal punishment.” Temporal punishment is atoned for “either in this life or in purgatory,” with special use of the Church’s sacramental and prayer life in doing so.