"I Confess"

We recently watched again the movie I Confess. It's a 1953 Hitchcock horror story. When Steve Wiest told us we HAD to watch this movie, I wasn't going to. Hitchcock? Horror? No thanks. Not my style. I want to laugh. I want romance. I don't want scary.

But Steve insisted we had to see this movie. And finally I relented and watched it. It's great. The horror is not in gore or violence or anything that we normally think of as horror. (Although, for faithful confessors and their penitents, there is a scary aspect to the movie.)

The basic gist of the movie is that a man commits a murder. He hadn't intended to do it. He is distraught. He confesses to the priest who had helped him (a refugee) resettle in the new country. Later, to protect himself, he implicates the priest as the murderer.

How does the priest respond? [Warning. Vague spoilers following.] Like all pastors, Father Michael is charged by God "never to divulge the sins confessed to him." He is serious about it. It hurts him to cover the sin of others. And it turns out he's not covering the sin of only the murderer. In the end, it turns out that, in spite of dire temporal consequences that occurred because of Fr Michael's integrity, forgiveness is applied to sinners.

This movie should be required viewing for seminarians and for pastors who hear confession.