Manners are about respect and thus are rooted in the Christian ethic modeled by Christ - my life for your life. Self-sacrifice, therefore, is at the heart of manners… Manners do not make the man or woman. The radical reorientation that says “my life for your life” can only come from the regenerating work of Christ, who instills His life and ethic in us. Nevertheless, manners teach the need for and complement of the character that Christ’s life gives. Lives that say “my life for yours” are channels of God’s grace to a needy world (Kent and Barbara Hughes).
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Right Of Reconciliation

Right Of Reconciliation

RECONCILIATION, RITE OF

POST VATICAN II The name given, after Vatican II, to the Sacrament of Penance. Although is has been streamlined, Protestantized and made less formal, the new Rite has the same function as the Old Sacrament. It requires full confession, firm resolve not to sin, priestly absolution and the intention to satisfy the penance. This Rite is conducted in a Room of Reconciliation. Roman Catholic churches are gradually doing away with the Confession boxes they have had for just over 400 years.

SECULAR JOURNALS From TIME, 2/18/74. (Reasons given for adopting the Rite of Reconciliation). “The Sacrament of Penance, more familiarly known to Catholics as `confession,’ has fallen on lean years. The reason for the sacrament’s neglect are probably many: a severe drop in church attendance, a new theology of sin that does not stress damning `mortal’ sins of preVatican II days, an avoidance of confession by some who practice contraception, or an increasing reluctance to enter dark, closed quarters to recite one’s sins to an unseen judge.

“Despite church disapproval, some Catholics have chosen to think of the new penitential prayers in the Mass as their `confession.’ Others have taken part in unauthorized communal rites of penance, acknowledging their sins while the priest gives `general absolution’ – a sort of blanket forgiveness – to the entire group.”