So, I posted this question in the pre-1900 forum as well because I wasn't sure where it'd fit.

I was having a conversation with my friend and the question came up of whether a nun (not a postulant or novice, but someone who is higher up the hierarchy) can hear a confession? I'm aware that a Mother Superior/Abbess probably can't grant absolution (that being sole privilege of an ordained priest), but I was wondering about simply hearing the confession? I suppose the whole not-being-allowed-to-grant-absolution nullifies the whole point of going to confession in the first place.

Is there a way that we can change things up a bit in church history that a Mother Superior/Abbess (at least) is allowed to hear confession (and perhaps even grant absolution)? Or would this be seen as radical as allowing a woman to be ordained a priest?
 

Ramontxo

Donor
Any baptized Catholic can hear confession in extreme circumstances (Articulo Mortis) if there is no priest available.
 
As noted, any Catholic can hear a confession (and repeat it to a priest). This is a minor plot element in The Ox-Bow Incident - one of the men to be lynched is a Mexican Catholic, who asks that a fellow Mexican in the mob hear his confession and take it to a priest.

However, absolution is a power of a priest. It is the power of a priest - the Grace of God, passed down from Christ Himself via the Apostolic Succession, and reserved to only those persons who have been consecrated in that succession - i.e. priests.
 
Perhaps, this could be reserved, initially ( perhaps 9th or 10th Century)to hearing confessions from female parishioners , then later, during the Renaissance or early industrial age opened to male parishioners also.
 
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