Today, there are three rites of reconciliation available to Christians. An overview of these rites reveals that the emphasis has been taken off the penitent's confession of sins and is now focused on the warm, human, and divine reconciliation the sacrament brings about.

The first Rite of Reconciliation is for individual penitents. The person can choose to go to confession either anonymously behind a screen or face-to-face in a room designed for that purpose. The four parts of the rite are same for all three: (1) Introductory Rite; (2) Liturgy of the Word, (3) Sacramental Celebration, and (4) Proclamation of Praise and Dismissal.

To bring out even more clearly that penance is not merely the action of one individual seeking personal forgiveness the Church has drawn up a second Rite of Reconciliation that involves communal penance. This rite follows the same order as the Rite of Individual Confession. except that most of the ceremony is performed together with others. Only the actual confession and absolution of each  penitent is individual.

A third Rite of Reconciliation involves general confession and absolution. It does not replace individual confession but maybe used in cases involving danger of death or in places where confessions would be overheard. It may also be used if there are large numbers of penitents and an insufficient number of confessors or if people would otherwise be deprived of reconciliation or reception of the Eucharist for a long time. The common absolution does not relieve the penitent of the obligation to observe the precept of the Church that requires individual confession to a priest of all grave sins at least once a year.

Excerpted from Worship and Sacraments: We Celebrate, We Praise by Mary Kathleen Glavich, S.N.D. and Loretta Pastva, S.N.D. Copyright © 1992 by Beniziger Publishing Company, P.O. Box 544, Blacklick, OH, 43004-0544. Used with permission of the publisher.