Sacreligious People Actually Repent This Time

It was one of those "Odd News" stories you hear from time to time--filler on the evening news, the butt of Leno's jokes and a "sign of the apocalypse" from conservative bloggers: a couple in Italy had...relations in a confessional...and were caught. Police were called, people were outraged, the Bishop came to sanctify the church once again.

I would have ignored it if they story ended there. Sadly, it's not too uncommon to read stories that stop at this point. But this time there's an epilogue. The couple repented, asking forgiveness from the Bishop. He granted it. Apparently they weren't Satanists, druggies, heathens, nor were they opposed to authority, Church-haters, or even selfish secularists oblivious and insensate to holy things.

They sinned. They apparently have some spiritual issues. They were overcome with lust, drunkenness and general foolishness. But in this they don't differ from any of us who are overcome by our passions and sin--always foolishly, sometimes egregiously. And they were moved to contrition, apologizing and repenting to the Bishop. And like all of us who repent, they were forgiven. It's a good Christian story, apart from the unseemliness of it.