Confessional

A confessional is a box, cabinet, booth, or stall where the priest from some Christian denominations sits to hear the confessions of a penitent's sins. It is the traditional venue for the sacrament in the Roman Catholic Church and the Lutheran Churches, but similar structures are also used in Anglican churches of an Anglo-Catholic orientation. In the Catholic Church, confessions should occur only in a confessional or oratory, except under special circumstances or just reason.

The confessional is usually a wooden structure, with a centre compartment—entered through a door or curtain—where the priest sits, and on each side there is a latticed opening for the penitents to speak through and a step on which they kneel. By this arrangement the priest is hidden, but the penitent is visible to the public. Confessionals sometimes form part of the architectural scheme of the church; many finely decorated specimens, dating from the late 16th and the 17th centuries, are found in churches on the continent of Europe. A notable example, in Renaissance style, is in the Saint Michael's church at Leuven, but more usually, confessionals are movable pieces of furniture.

In modern practice of the Catholic, Lutheran and Anglican churches, apart from receiving absolution in the confessional, many churches offer private Confession and Absolution at the chancel rails, as well as during communal penitential rites (cf. General Confession). Modern-built Catholic churches and Lutheran churches often have a reconciliation room, in which the sacrament of confession may be administered. These reonciliation rooms normatively "contain two chairs and a screen with a kneeler" in which a believer may sit facing the priest, or kneel behind a screen for anonymity.

In Eastern Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodoxy confessionals are not used: the confession often occurs in sight of other believers, e.g., those waiting in the row for the same purpose, but at some distance from them to not break the "seal of confession". Let it be understood that the "seal of confession" is technically of Roman and Lutheran usage.