History Main / Confessional

* A young man goes to confessional and admits that he seduced a young woman out of wedlock. The priests asks to know which one, citing the mechanic's daughter, the policeman's widow, the doctor's sister, the banker's TrophyWife, but the man remains silent, only accepting the priest's punishment of a certain amount of prayers. The man's friend waiting outside asks him how it went, and he answers "Thirty Paternosters, forty Ave Marias... and four good prospects."

* A priest hears a man stumble into a confessional, but say nothing. After a while the priest knocks on the divider, and hears the slurred response "Sorry buddy, no paper on this side either."

* {{Subverted|Trope}} in the original ''ComicBook/SinCity'', in which Marv confesses, but it turns out the priest is someone he is looking for and so he interrogates the priest and then kills him. In the movie, played by author Creator/FrankMiller. [[DeathByCameo He's in heaven with his whores now]].
* There's an independent comic out there where a gangster confesses to assaulting and disfiguring a priest a long time ago, among many other sins. Guess who was in the other side of the booth.

* ''Film/ForbiddenGames'': Michel confesses to the priest that he stole crosses from the hearse. Immediately after doing this, he sees the altar cross, and tries to steal it. But he makes a big noise doing so, causing the priest to interrupt another confession while he rushes out to investigate.

* Used rather badly in ''Film/Priest1994''. A great moral conflict is created when someone reveals to a priest in a confessional booth that he is committing and has every intention of continuing to commit, a heinous and disgusting crime. From that point on, the priest is deeply conflicted about whether to reveal this information to the police. The only problem is that the seal of the confessional does not apply in this situation. The [[ConfessInConfidence seal of the confessional]] applies to all sacramental confessions, and to sacramental confessions only, regardless of where the priest hears them. Note to future criminals: if you go into a confessional booth and tell the priest that you have perpetrated a crime, intend to perpetrate the crime again, are not sorry or remorseful at all, and are not seeking any advice or counsel, that priest ''has every canonical right to turn you in to the police''. Though the movie does make a point of how said priest is not keeping up the seal of the confessional for the ''perpetrator'', but for the ''victim'' of the crime who has told him the same thing in the confessional and repeatedly asked him to keep silence.

* In ''Film/TheRinger'', Johnny Knoxville's character is in a confessional and tells the Priest that he's entering in the Special Olympics to pay off a debt with the prize money. The Priest then punches him in the face, [[BarrierBustingBlow through the lattice.]]

* During the Omaha Beach sequence in ''Film/SavingPrivateRyan'', the camera passes a dying soldier reciting an act of contrition to a Catholic chaplain: "''Oh, my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee. I detest my sins for having offended thee, O Lord...''" This is immediately followed by a shot of a different solider reciting the Hail Mary in Latin.

* In ''Film/Daredevil2003'', Murdock goes to church and tries to confess the sins he has committed as a vigilante. The priest denies him absolution on the grounds that he isn't truly repentant, he's just going to put the suit on again and sin some more, and that what Matthew is ''really'' asking for is permission to keep beating the crap out of criminals. The priest does refrain from turning him into the cops for vigilantism, though.

* ''Film/NightOnEarth''. In the Rome story a cab driver picks up a priest for a fare and insists on confessing despite his objections. Cue a hilarious rendition of the cabbie's sexual history (everything from a [[ExtremeOmnisexual sheep to his brother's wife]]) which causes the priest to have a heart attack, which he can't remedy since a swirly maneuver from the cabbie made him drop his heart condition pills.
* ''Film/PaixSurLesChamps'': The main mystery behind events is whether or not Stanne killed his girlfriend Lodia twenty years ago--she was stabbed to death, and many people including Lodia's mom assumed he did it, but there was no evidence and he was never charged. Turns out that he did, as shown when he goes to confessional and tells to a priest. When Stanne asks if he should admit it to Johanna, which obviously would risk him going to jail, the priest tells him he has to follow his conscience.
* The fifth scene of ''Film/StationsOfTheCross'', paralleling the Station where UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}} gets help carrying his cross, has Maria confess her sins to her traditionalist parish's young priest. Instead of the atmosphere of honesty and forgiveness typical to most Confessional scenes, the Fifth Station sees the priest interrogate Maria and extrapolate sins of lust from Maria's innocent crush on a school boy, leaving Maria more uncomfortable and convinced of her own sin than before she entered the booth. The scene, like all others in the movie, is made up of a single shot, this time focusing on a sideview of Maria's face as she speaks into the screen with the priest on the other side.
* ''Film/HailCaesar'' opens with Mannix, wracked with guilt, confessing to his priest that he bums cigarettes even though his wife wants him to quit... just twenty-four hours after his last confession, in the dead of the night. He visits again near the end, seeking advice on whether or not to leave his job and confessing that he "struck a movie star in anger." The priest counsels him, and also says he should stop coming in so often because he's really not ''that'' bad. Still, Eddie learns what he needs to hear in the confessional: [[spoiler:God wants him to do what feels right, which is helping people at Capitol Pictures.]]

* ''Film/WereNoAngels'': The escaped convicts posing as priests in the remake hear confessions form the locals but are unprepared for this. When one man confesses to chewing on his wife, Ned [[ComicallyMissingThePoint tells him that it's no big deal as long as she doesn't know.]]

* Creator/StephenKing's story ''Mute'' has the traveling-salesman protagonist confessing to a priest about what happened after he picked up a hitchhiker and started venting about his wife's marital and financial transgressions.

* In ''Literature/TheGreatBrain'' series the Fitzgerald family are Catholic in a small town without a priest, except for a travelling one who comes by once a year to hear confessions. Tom is used to getting a few Hail Mary's at most. Then in ''The Great Brain at the Academy'' Tom is sent away to Catholic boarding school and experiences confession with a real dedicated priest, who gives Tom a ''lot'' of penance to do.

* ''Literature/EstherDiamond'': Its speculated Father Gabriel in ''Doppelgänger'' become a priest hoping to hear more about how his mobster father died via confessions.

* ''Series/{{Casanova}}'' had a hilarious scene where the title character reels off his many sins. He starts off just confessing to wanting money so his could marry his TrueLove but he keeps [[NoodleIncident referring to many]] "adventures" until the priest has a heart attack. Yes, even that's played for laughs. Casanova saves his life, and the priest repays him by making him his heir. [[TearJerker It goes downhill from there...]]

** In an earlier episode, played for laughs, as Francesca goes to confession to confess that she is going to commit the sin of lust by seducing Fraser. The exasperated priest points out that she can't keep confessing for sins she never commits (all of her attempts to seduce Fraser fail for various reasons, not least of all Fraser's tendency to flee due to his inability to handle Francesca's forwardness. On one occasion, he seizes on an excuse to ''[[RuleOfFunny jump off of a balcony]]'' to get away from her.

* ''Series/EverybodyLovesRaymond'': troubled by [[SarcasmMode unaccountable feelings of rage and angry hostility towards his parents]], Ray Barone takes a deep breath and goes to Confession for the first time in twenty years. He is surprised his confession takes the form of a quiet face-to-face in the priest's office[[note]]this is the modern approach adopted by the Church[[/note]] and asks what happened to the booths. After discussing the tricky one about loving and honoring thy father and mother, the priest adds two and two and realizes the parents who are hard to love are Frank and Marie Barone. The priest immediately, absolutely and unconditionally absolves Ray of all sin. [[note]]The same priest later tries group family therapy on the whole Barone family. It is a complete disaster. [[/note]]
* ''Series/FatherTed'' features an episode which opens with Father Ted and Father Dougal gossiping about stuff they heard in confession.

* ''Series/ForeverKnight'': In "For I Have Sinned", the VillainOfTheWeek is a religious maniac killing churchgoers who have broken their vows. He brags to his priest in the confessional that he will kill another victim, and the priest is advised that he can't do anything which will identify the confessor. The priest does try to warn the victim but she's already been attacked by that point so all he does is get himself arrested as a RedHerring, though fortunately the police have already figured out why he's involved. It also has Nick Knight doing the Fake Priest version (see below).

* ''Series/{{MASH}}'' did it a lot without the actual physical confessional, since their Catholic chaplain was a major character and the structure would have been difficult to keep Mobile. Notable instances included the crisis of conscience over disclosing the location of stolen medical supplies. In at least one circumstance, Mulcahy had a crisis of confidence over a confession that was perhaps unwarranted -- when a soldier confessed that he had stolen a dead comrade's identity to essentially desert, Mulcahy tried to elicit remorse for the sin and a purpose of amendment from the penitent. He instead said he was going to go through with it because he felt that self-preservation was not wrong. Mulcahy was still conflicted over the confession, even though no valid confession had occurred. In an attempt to nudge his conscience and show that his actions had ripples affecting others than himself, Fr. Mulcahy gathered up the dead soldier's letters to give to the trooper. This was shown as a means of resolving the dilemma without violating the seal, but had the confession been valid, it would still have been [[ArtisticLicenseReligion an incorret choice]]. In real life, he could not even have done that, as the priest giving any indication outside of the confessional of what was confessed without the penitent first bringing it up, even to the penitent him or herself, is forbidden.

* On ''Series/OneLifeToLive'', Marty enters the booth to confess to her love for a married man, and is mortified to see that the minister is Andrew Carpenter, the very married man in question (a bit of ArtisticLicense here, as confession in Protestant churches isn't typically done in a booth).

* On one episode of ''Series/QuantumLeap'', a small time mafia hood finds out that the local priest was a Vietnam war veteran... and he wants to kill him because the priest was to be a witness against the hood in the trial. He attempts to shoot the priest in the confessional, but Sam took the priest's place and escapes with a minor wound.

* One second-season episode of ''Series/VeronicaMars'' has Logan and Weevil trying to convince Veronica to bug a confessional, as they're convinced that the priest is involved with a drug ring. She refuses, but agrees -- with reservations -- to plant a camera with no mic, so they can see if any drugs are being handed off. [[note]]Interestingly, she showed no compunctions about bugging therapy sessions a season earlier, nor any prior indication of being particularly religious, so it's a little surprising that she'd have qualms here...[[/note]]

* ''Series/{{Wiseguy}}''. Undercover cop Vinnie Terranova has a brother, Pete, who is a Catholic priest, so naturally the 'confession to an impending murder plot' is used. Pete loses his temper when Vinnie accuses him of leading a sheltered life and partly reveals the confession, then clams up. Vinnie has to avert the murder, and later save his brother from an assassin who tries to shoot him during confession.

* Brian from ''Webcomic/{{Rhapsodies}}'' frequently gets dragged to confession by his mother, much to the [[http://rhapsodies.wpmorse.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=80&action=edit horror of the priests.]] He's the main reasons the neighborhood church has a [[http://rhapsodies.wpmorse.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=2097&action=edit fully stocked wet bar.]]
* ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'': The Corbettites are a monastic order that operate the railways across Europe. They offer [[SeekingSanctuary sanctuary]] and [[BadassPreacher safe passage]] provided the passenger tells them under the seal of the confessional an honest explanation of who they are, where they're going, and why. When Agatha Heterodyne takes the train and [[PreviouslyOn fills Brother Ulm in on these details]], his [[OhCrap reaction]] is to press the BigRedButton that puts the train on RedAlert.

** ''[[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureDiamondIsUnbreakable Diamond is Unbreakable]]'': In the spin-off; ''Manga/ThusSpokeKishibeRohan'', Rohan visits Italy and goes inside the priest's compartment to examine it from the inside, until another man walks into the other side, mistakes him for a priest, and narrates his tragic history of mistreating a hungry beggar who turned out to be a spirit who would make him suffer greatly at his highest point of his life.
** ''[[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureStoneOcean Stone Ocean]]'': In a flashback, Enrico Pucci (prior to becoming an actual priest) took a woman's confession and learns that years ago she switched out her own stillborn son for another baby born the same day. The child she took was none other than [[spoiler:Enrico's twin brother, Weather Report. [[SurpriseIncest And then later, he found out said brother is the guy who's been dating his sister]]]].

* Series/StudioC in one skit, 'Crisis at the Confessional' a man unfamilar with the confessional set up accidently goes into the wrong side of the booth. He thinks that the person who walks in is the priest, she is not. She thinks he is the priest. It all goes downhill from there.

* ''ComicBook/LePetitSpirou'': One page has l'abbé Langelusse come across his parishioners doing pushups as penance, like the new priest told them. He finds Spirou and Vertignasse in the confessional giving out other penances like three weeks without drinking to the town wino (and gym teacher) or writing down their prayers with the vowels in red and the consonants in green.

-->'''Bond:''' Forgive me father, for I have sinned...\\

* ''Series/FatherTed'' did a gag where a woman went into confession to clarify a medical matter. She'd used the morning after pill and since the Catholic Church considered that an abortion, she had to pay a pretty steep penance. However, the Irish Medical Council had recently ruled that the morning after pill was actually a form of contraception, and so she presumably had a lot of surplus penance. The priest angrily waved her away, chiding her for her suggestion that the Catholic Church and Irish Medical Council were in cahoots. Then we got a shot of the priest, who was wearing a stethoscope.

* A storyline on ''Series/OneLifeToLive'' had a character working for a notorious gangster, in reality working for the police to obtain information for them. He goes to confession to admit to his duplicity and his fear of reprisal. After the man leaves the confessional, the other door opens... and the gangster steps out, having heard everything and knowing that his trusted right-hand man is betraying him.

* The Wrestling/{{WWE}} actually subverted this at least once. The storyline was that Booker T was dodging "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, and wouldn't give him a match, so Austin would follow Booker around through his everyday life and beat him up wherever he caught up to him since he couldn't do it in the ring. So, we get to see Booker T hiding in the priests confession booth, being mistaken for the priest and taking confession...until Stone Cold shows up as one of the confessors, saying he hasn't sinned yet, [[PreAsskickingOneLiner but he's about to, and it's gonna be real bad]]. Cue one of the most sacrilegious brawls in WWE history, as Stone Cold and Booker T fight all around the church, breaking various holy objects over each other's head and shoulders.

* In ''VideoGame/Persona5'', once you unlock the church in Kanda, you can invite your fellow Phantom Thieves to confess in the confessional. This has a practical purpose, since it enables them to relearn skills that you've had them forget to make way for new ones. Also, in ''[[UpdatedRerelease Persona 5 Royal]]'', one of Caroline and Justine's night excersions involves going to the church and trying out the confessional, leading to Justine discovering that Caroline has been dumpin extra work on her.

* ''Series/ForeverKnight''. In "For I Have Sinned", the VillainOfTheWeek is a religious maniac killing churchgoers who have broken their vows. He brags to his priest in the confessional that he will kill another victim, and the priest is advised that he can't do anything which will identify the confessor. The priest does try to warn the victim but she's already been attacked by that point so all he does is get himself arrested as a RedHerring, though fortunately the police have already figured out why he's involved. It also has Nick Knight doing the Fake Priest version (see below).

* ''Series/ForeverKnight''. In "For I Have Sinned", the VillainOfTheWeek is a religious maniac killing churchgoers who have broken their vows. He brags to his priest in the confessional that he will kill another victim, and the priest is advised that he can't do anything which will identify the confessor. The priest does try to warn the victim but she's already been attacked by that point so all he does is get himself arrested as a RedHerring, though fortunately the police have already figured out why he's involved. It also has Nick Knight doing the Fake Priest version (see below).

'''Matthias''': Calm down, son. Catch your breath.\\

'''Matthias''': Sign of the cross, son.\\

-->'''Penitent (a [[NaughtyNuns nun]]):''' Bless me father, for I have sinned. I have had impure thoughts.
-->'''[[SexyPriest Priest]]:''' So have I.
-->''[they emerge from the booth and make out]''

* In ''VideoGame/Persona5'', once you unlock the church in Kanda, you can invite your fellow Phantom Thieves to confess in the confessional. This has a practical purpose, since it enables them to relearn skills that you've had them forget to make way for new ones. Also, in ''[[UpdatedRerelease Persona 5 Royal]]'', one of Caroline and Justine's night excersions involves going to the church and trying out the confessional, leading to Caroline discovering that Justine has been dumpin extra work on her.

* In ''VideoGame/Persona5'', once you unlock the church in Kanda, you can invite your fellow Phantom Thieves to confess in the confessional. This has a practical purpose, since it enables them to relearn skills that you've had them forget to make way for new ones.

* On ''Series/OneLifeToLive'', Marty enters the booth to confess to her love for a married man, and is mortified to see that the minister is Andrew Carpenter, the very married man in question. (a bit of ArtisticLicense here, as confession in Protestant churches isn't typically done in a booth)

* The ''Literature/{{Confessions}}'' is framed as a confession by Augustine of all his past sins to God.

* In the manga ''Fist of the Blue Sky'', which is a prequel to ''Manga/FistOfTheNorthStar'', the priest at the local CorruptChurch is only too happy to dole out forgiveness in his confessional in exchange for fat stacks of cash. Unfortunately for him, [[AntiHero Kenshiro Kasumi]] considers his behavior to negate the protection of clergy.

* ''Film/NightOnEarth''. In the Rome story a cab driver picks up a priest for a fare and insists on confessing despite his objections. Cue a hilarious rendition of the cabbie's sexual history (everything from a [[AnythingThatMoves sheep to his brother's wife]]) which causes the priest to have a heart attack, which he can't remedy since a swirly maneuver from the cabbie made him drop his heart condition pills.

* In the Creator/MercedesLackey novel ''Tiger Burning Bright'', the high temple of a recently conquered city uses certain confessionals as intelligence drop points for the resistance, as they are private, soundproof, and the fact that people go to church to make confession at all hours anyways makes it perfectly inconspicuous. Such a thing would not be ecclesiastically sound practice in real life, as even though the people taking the intel are real priests (after all, some of the people in line for the confessional might really be there to confess, and some of the spies might want to confess their sins while they are there), they aren't using it for the appropriate purpose.