22. Penances.

We promised to conclude with a few words about penances. According to the

Nomocanon,xlvi three-quarters of our contemporaries coming to confession are liable not

just to strict penances, but to complete deprivation of communion for ten or twenty years,

or even till the hour of death. But in this same Canon Law it is explained under what

conditions this excommunication can be shortened as much as two or three times.

However, it does not mention the most important condition, which did not exist when the

Nomocanon was compiled. By this we mean the general sinfulness of the last two

centuries and the consequence of this — that it is incomparably more difficult to struggle

with sin than it was in the times of the ancient piety. This piety was universal and all the

moral principles and customs of family and social life were subject to it; an example of

this was the custom of adolescents marrying at the very onset of sexual maturity, or even

earlier than this, at the age of fifteen: exceptions were made only for those youths and

maidens who had given a vow of virginity. And so, under contemporary conditions of

life, which are so far removed from God’s commandments, the strictness of penances has

to be reduced many times. But it is regrettable that spiritual fathers no longer give

penances at all, either because of their own neglect of confession or else out of false

delicacy and timidity. This non-application of penances causes scandal and no little

distress to former Uniates, descendants of Polish Uniates, and also of the firmly Orthodox

parishioners of those Great Russian dioceses which have retained to some extent the Old

Believer way of life or, to be more precise, a strictly Church-centered way of life).xlvii But

it is not just a question of causing distress; we must fulfill the laws of our religion, even if

we soften them in accordance with the lowered spiritual strength of our contemporaries.

And so, first of all, people must not be admitted to communion if they do not

declare their resolve to abandon mortal sin — people carrying on an illicit liaison, for

example, or the keepers of brothels or illicit gambling dens. Parishioners who have

sinned by fornication, embezzlement, insulting their parents or blasphemy, but have

offered repentance, can be admitted to communion; but they should be given some rule of

prayer (canona) and must without fail make amends for the wrong they have done and

make peace with those whom they have offended. But if they have only recently been

converted from unbelief or heresy, or are now in the process of converting, then they

should be admitted to communion without penance, but it must be explained to them

what penalty they would have to undergo according to the canons. However, murderers,

robbers, rapists, abortionists as well as doctors or other people who help them, sodomists,

committers of bestiality, adulterers, seducers and conscious defilers of sacred objects

must unfailingly be deprived of communion for several years, and certainly no less than

one year if their repentance is fervent and sincere. Some of them can be admitted to

communion immediately only if they committed such sins long ago, and have lamented

over them ever since but could not resolve to come to confession. Concerning the

imposition of prayers and prostrations, we have to reckon with the weakness and laziness

of contemporary Christians: it is better to carry out a small rule than to be given a long

one and not carry it out. With this we will bring our brotherly advice to spiritual fathers to

an end.