Father HORRIGAN: I don't think in most cases there would have been much spiritual counsel or spiritual direction given.

VALENTE: The sacrament was closely tied to Communion. The Church taught that confessing sins made a person spiritually ready to receive the Eucharist.

After the second Vatican Council in the 1960s, the Church began de-emphasizing guilt and eternal damnation. The new emphasis was on God as a loving and forgiving deity. In 1973, the Church gave the sacrament a new title: "reconciliation." Some confessionals were reconfigured to give penitents an alternative way to confess.

Father JASON MALAVI (St. Benedict's Church): They can come on in and kneel down and use the screen as a form of anonymity. The second option they have is to move around the back of the room and come on back and continue with a face to face reconciliation with the priest.

VALENTE: As private confessions have declined, some parishes have begun holding communal confession services, usually before Christmas and Easter.

Father HEIDENREICH: It's only when we look into our hearts and see the pain and sorrow we have caused, it's only then that God's grace can come and heal us.

VALENTE: The priest stands at the altar. One by one, the penitents approach and confess their sins.

Father HORRIGAN: Just being able to say out loud, 'This is my brokenness, this is my humanity, this is what I've done, this is my sin' -- being able to say that out loud is tremendously healing. Being able to speak (of myself) with that kind of humility is really important. People who don't come to confession sometimes can't feel that sense of being free of the past.

VALENTE: Although the number of penitents is way down, those who do go to confession seem to be going because they want to, not because they're required to.

JAMIE BASSO: Just standing there at the front of the church, with everyone behind me, just kind of acknowledging that I'm a sinner made it a lot more powerful experience.

JEANETTE HEINER: There's someone you can talk to. You can also ask for advice and suggestions. It's a very positive reinforcement. I just feel it's like talking to God's representative.

Father HORRIGAN: Sin is a fracture. It's a fracture in the relationship that we have with ourself, the relationship we have with others and in the relationship we have with God and God has with us.

VALENTE: At the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, Father Horrigan is lecturing these seminarians on how to hear confession, for those who still come to confession.

Father HORRIGAN (in classroom): Then the person begins to confess his or her sins, in whatever way that they choose to do that. The larger sin, if you like, the more serious sin is not the first thing that comes up. You have to lead up to these things sometimes, then you invite the person to express sorrow. Often you will detect at the point, it says, the kind of sincerity of sorrow, that maybe you suspected was in there. But when any of us have to come to that, to actually say those words, "I am sorry" that can call up an emotion you never knew was there in yourself. Or it can call up the emotion from the person. That's very real. That can be a time of tears. Don't be surprised.

VALENTE: Catholics in the U.S. may never again go to confession as frequently as they used to. But no one expects the sacrament to disappear altogether. Not as long as people have what is called "their sense of sin" -- and their "desire for mercy."

Father HORRIGAN: I think we are aware in ourselves when we're not whole. When we say something, do something, fail to do something -- and we say, "I wish that hadn't happened. That's not me."

For RELIGION & ETHICS NEWSWEEKLY, this is Judy Valente in Chicago.