St.Peter's Basilica offers absolution in Chinese, 13 other languages

(April, 15, 2010) Confessors in Vatican’s St. Peter's Basilica, can offer absolution in 14 languages, including Chinese, Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, said on Wednesday. There are 14 Conventual Franciscans from 10 different nations, who live in the Vatican and hear confessions full time in the basilica. It said each Franciscan hears confession for up to five hours a day, but for no longer than three hours at a time, for a total of 24 hours a week. The members of the college of confessors at St. Peter's come from Italy, Malta, Poland, Germany, Spain, Romania, Croatia, Brazil, the United States and Taiwan. The priests can offer confession in Italian, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Romanian, Polish, Croatian, Slovenian, Ukrainian, Hungarian, Maltese, and Chinese. The sacrament of reconciliation is available to visitors every day during the basilica's normal opening hours. Thirteen of the confessionals are from the 17th century and are carved and sculpted from walnut; a modern confessional was added in 2008, the paper said. Pope Clement XIV, who had been a member of the Conventual Franciscans, entrusted the ministry of reconciliation in St. Peter's Basilica to the order in 1774.
In an interview with the Vatican newspaper last year, Italian Franciscan Father Rocco Rizzo, rector of the college of confessors at St. Peter's, said each of the priests hears confessions from about 8,500 to 9,000 faithful a year, with the majority of penitents coming from Italy, then from English-speaking countries and Spanish,and Portuguese-speaking countries.