First-Ever “Confessional-on-Wheels” Takes the Sacrament to the Streets

It sounds like something from The Onion, but it’s  not:  The Diocese of Lafayette has just unveiled its own flashy Forgiveness Ambulance–making it ever easier for sinners to confess their sins to a priest.

The idea is that busy Catholics will have no excuse to stay away from the Sacrament. If they can’t get to confession, well, the confessional on wheels will come to them.

Lafayette Bishop Michael Jarrell told television station KLFY that the mobile confessional will be formally launched on December 8, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, as part of the Year of Mercy declared by Pope Francis. “The Holy Father asked us to concentrate on the sacrament of reconciliation,” Bishop Jarrell said,

“…and that’s the purpose of this spiritual care unit, to bring people into deeper communion with Christ.”

The recommissioned ambulance was donated to the diocese, and is now outfitted with a prie dieu (kneeler). Also on hand are plastic bins containing holy cards, rosaries, and holy water.

Father Michael Champagne, who will hear confessions in the roving confessional, envisioned hearing confessions at gatherings like the popular Downtown Alive, or possibly tailgating during football games.