DRAPER — For more than two hours Sunday night, the Rev. Stephen M. Tilley’s Jeep Wrangler served as a Catholic confessional.
The bearded priest from St. John the Baptist Catholic Parish wore a hat and his confessional stole as he parked in the circle driveway of Skaggs Catholic Center, listening as vehicle after vehicle pulled up to his window for confession and the sacrament.
One man pulled his car over and placed a red camping chair next to the Jeep’s door so each member of his family could take a turn in privacy.
After the last person drove away, Father Tilley felt good about the night’s efforts, although it would have been successful if only one person had come, he said.
“It was very full,” he said. “We’re a very blessed community.”
As churches suspend services and close doors to help slow the spread of COVID-19, faith leaders like Father Tilley and others are looking for creative ways to keep religious traditions going.
Father Tilley may be the first in Utah to offer drive-up confessions under these unusual circumstances. Another faith leader, the Rev. John Evans, of St. Thomas More Catholic Church in Cottonwood Heights, has said he’s also open to taking confessions in a church parking lot starting this week.
Father Tilley’s motivation for “Meet Me at the Jeep” stemmed from the way he felt people have been shaken out of their normal routines by the coronavirus and Utah’s 5.7 magnitude earthquake last week. He felt it was important to reach out and connect with people who are missing that community connection.
“Even though we didn’t gather formally (Sunday night), we practiced social distancing, I think people recognizing that the church is still operating, that the church is offering the sacrament of grace and mercy, comforts them. They’re still connected in prayer and they’re still connected in faith.”
The sacrament also gives stability to people’s spiritual lives.
“The Sacrament of Reconciliation is one of the sacraments where we really encounter God’s love and mercy,” said Father Tilley, who plans to continue offering his Jeep as a confessional on Sunday nights and possibly other days if necessary. “So I think any way you can encounter the Sacrament of Reconciliation is important for Catholics.”
Priests are already accustomed to being approached in public. It’s not uncommon for people to see Father Evans in his collar and request confession on the spot. It’s happened in airports, hospitals, cemeteries and other public areas, so a drive-up confessional is really no different, he said.
“We might be in a very public place but we just step aside,” Father Evans said.
Father Tilley agreed.
“The sacrament is just between the priest and the penitent as long as there’s a sacred space,” he said. “But it’s definitely a unique time right now.”
Starting Monday, Father Evans has invited parishioners to schedule an appointment, and weather permitting, line up vehicles in the church’s parking lot, where he will come to the window or step away from the car with a person if others are inside, he said.
“The sacrament is just between the priest and the penitent as long as there’s a sacred space. But it’s definitely a unique time right now.” — The Rev. Stephen Tilley
“If you have a priest sitting in a confessional and people coming in and out, they’re touching the doorknob, they’re touching the kneelers. You’d have to sanitize between everything. And you are breathing in air from that enclosed space. So it just makes sense to do it in an open area,” Father Evans said. “We could do it in the church but we want to open the church and allow people to come into pray as well. So to accommodate everything simultaneously, I’ll be just hearing confessions out in the parking lot.”
What’s lost in a parking lot confession is anonymity. Inside a church, the penitent can choose to sit, stand or kneel behind a screen as they speak to the priest, as if the person is confessing to God, the priest said.
“Anonymity is lost. ... It’s a small price to pay, so to speak, to be able to receive the sacraments rather than be shut off from the sacraments,” Father Evans said. “But this is a temporary measure to keep everyone safe.”
There are approximately 300,000 Catholics in Utah, Father Evans said.