Oh yeah.
Weekly the nuns would march us naive little toddlers to the confessional.

During year 1 of the “Sacrament of Confession” (cough cough), I didn’t go into the confessional.
The nun asked me “Why not”?
I said it was because I hadn’t committed any sins since my last confession.

To which she replied: “Well, why don’t you go in and confess the sins you confessed last week?”

In other words - I had to lie to the priest in order to achieve the sacrament.

That was my first revelation that I was in a control system.

I actually attended Catholic school but was not permitted to do confession because I wasn't Catholic. 14 year old me was happy for this but I will admit I also sporadically felt left out. Hey, at least my ass was free..........Get it.

My favourite Catholic confessional story was told to me by my late writing partner who along with his brothers was raised in the faith.
Apparently at their primary school they were given lessons in taking the Eucharist for the first time and then made to attend a confessional straight after for the first time.
My partner was a very intellegent person as was his older brother and sister, the middle brother however was another story and had been last in the line when god was handing out the the brains.
On being told the bread actually turned in to the body of Christ during the ceremony, he began to balk and refused to swallow, nor would he drink the blood of Christ.
The officiating priest in fury ordered him to go straight to the confessional set up in the classroom for the lesson and confess to the priest inside what he had done.
This lead to the whole class hearing the following loud exchange
"Fu guff mu faffer fu I huff sinned"
"What did you say boy?"
"Fuvivmufaffer uUhuvsinned"
"I cannot understand a word you are saying?"
Huawwwk spit, pluh "Aw for Christ sake father I just spat god out me gob and now he's all over the floor!"

Apparently this is why my Dad had us raised with Mom's religion, Methodist.

I don't know why long Dad was in Catholic school, he was kicked out or left, he did not talk about it and was atheist or agnostic depending on his mood.

I blew off the whole church, religious thing by the time I was 12.

Fortunately not. Not catholic. My mother was 'Church of England' protestant - but not an active church-goer.

It's a shame, really. Would have enjoyed going into a confession booth and saying, 'Forgive me Father, for I have sinned. Three times this week I daydreamed of firebombing this church, stripping naked, and chanting "I do the devil's work" while watching it burn. Unfortunately I had no petrol for the Molotov cocktails.'

Oh, yeah. What do you do when you are a kid and you have to go to confession? Did you really do awful things when you were a nine year old? You HAVE to go to confession. What are you going to confess? Make shit up! That's what we all did. We just have to say three Hail Marys no matter what it is.

I am so glad I am no longer a Catholic.

Hate is a very strong word, I was an altar boy who was always looking for the occasion when certain priest was doing the confession. He would always fall asleep at the booth, so I would get in there just to hear him snore, would come out after 30 minutes more or less slamming the door, invariably he would wake up, and I would always say "thank you father so and so, now I will do my penitence" trying to contain my laughter.

I hated going to confession, as a child. Never really had anything to confess, so I would make stuff up, but nothing wild and crazy. Never made much sense that the priest would be "hidden" so we couldn't see him, but we always had the feeling the priest could see out to the line, if not right into the confessional. Creepy.

First ten years of my life I did. I had to do it for 1st communion and confirmation. After that I refused to go to confession and to church and was taken out of Catholic school.

I honestly don't think I would have had anything to confess. I was never in any way interested in lying or stealing or cheating.

I am so glad to say that Jews don't do that, and no, Yom Kippur, coming up in a few days, does isn't the Jewish version of confession (I found out to my surprise that some people think it is!) I can't even imagine such a thing except to say I am just crazy enough that had I been raised Catholic I might just have done what your dad did and spin some wild tales.

g

Be sure to read the very last line.

Reminds me of a student in an undergrad Human Sexuality class who submitted a paper about a bachelor party he attended at a bar. He claimed he banged the stripper in front of all the guests, including his cousin (groom to be) and his own father, who was cheering him on. I told him he would fail the course for submitting a plagiarized or fabricated story unless he turned in a new paper, complete with academic citations, on why it would be emotionally unhealthy to have had that experience in real life. He turned on the paper and got a D.

LMAO funny

I would like to hear some of those stories too.

Yes, I had had 3 standard sins as a child that I would recite to the priest. They were not bad sins so I always go off easy. LOL I rejected that system and religion by the time I was 12 but liked confession again in college because the catholic girls were more fun to date because they knew they could go confess and be forgiven. LOL

I was raised Greek Orthodox and we didn’t have to do confessionals. But, one day the priest thought it would be a good idea to have all the kids come in one by one and confess their sins. I’m sure I made something up. WTH does a kid know about sin?! That was the one and only time he had a confessional.

I did my time in the confessional.
To this day, I can't remember anything I confessed to (I'm sure I made up
stuff to say), but I do remember never doing my "penance".
I remember being told to say Hail Marys, Acts of Contrition, and even being
told to say a couple of rosaries. Never did any of it.

I never have and I never would.

Never participated, but your dad sounds cool.