Manifestation of conscience is a practice, in
religious order
A religious order is a lineage of communities and organizations of people who live in some way set apart from society in accordance with their specific religious devotion, usually characterized by the principles of its founder's religious practi ...
s, of making one's superior, such as an
abbot
Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the male head of a monastery in various Western religious traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not the head of a monastery. The fem ...
or
prior
Prior (or prioress) is an ecclesiastical title for a superior in some religious orders. The word is derived from the Latin for "earlier" or "first". Its earlier generic usage referred to any monastic superior. In abbeys, a prior would be l ...
, aware of the state of one's conscience. This is so the superior may know them intimately, and thus further their spiritual progress.
Overview
Manifestation of conscience is not a form of
Confession
A confession is a statement – made by a person or by a group of persons – acknowledging some personal fact that the person (or the group) would ostensibly prefer to keep hidden. The term presumes that the speaker is providing information th ...
and therefore the superior need not be a priest. As in Confession, however, the secret must, however, be kept inviolably, and hence a subject may object to any external use whatever of the revelations he has made to the superior.
The knowledge of the state of soul acquired by manifestation of conscience enables the superior to determine the expediency of the frequency of communion, what spiritual reading is to be selected, what penances to be practised, what counsel to be given concerning doubts, difficulties, and temptations.
By the decree "Quemadmodum", of 17 December 1890, Pope Leo XIII forbade both mandatory manifestation of conscience and the practice of superiors inducing their subjects to make such manifestations.
External links
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Religious (Catholicism)
Catholic canon law of religious
Catholic liturgy
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