NCR readers respond to articles about the state of the sacrament of reconciliation, the appointment of Archbishop Hicks and ...

In “The Guilty Vicarage,” an essay on detective fiction, W.H. Auden argues that the most successful detective novels take ...

In October 2025, Washington state agreed to withdraw a controversial mandate compelling priests to report allegations of sexual abuse specifically revealed during the sacrament of confession. The bill ...

(The Conversation) — The Catholic Church treats information shared during confession as absolutely confidential – but that requirement can create legal dilemmas. (The Conversation) — The 1953 Alfred ...

Despite the Catholic Church’s requirement that Catholics go to confession at least once a year — with more frequent confession highly encouraged, and required if a Catholic is conscious of mortal sin ...