ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how the Society of Jesus promoted confession and why the Jesuits considered the administration of the sacrament to be a consoling experience. It focuses on one particular form of confession, the general confession, used by the Jesuits to foster, in the Formula’s words, ‘the spiritual consolation of Christ’s faithful’. Jesuits were the primary advocates of the general confession, and they themselves participated in this form of the sacrament throughout their lives. Ignatius recommended that members of the order continue to use the general confession for their own spiritual development. The great preacher and spiritual writer Paolo Segneri advocated the general confession as a means of spiritual advancement for all persons. A fundamental document of the Society of Jesus, the Formula of the Institute, identified the promotion of consolation as a key aspect of the Jesuit mission, and the hearing of confessions as an excellent means of promoting this consolation.
