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2020 is still over half a decade in the future, but already the Olympic games scheduled for
that year are facing a scandal concerning poor sportsmanship. The mini-scandal centers
on remarks a representative of one potential host city made concerning another. Tokyo's
governor and head of the city's Olympic bid committee, Naoki Inose, was quoted in the
New York Times making mildly disparaging remarks about rival would-be host Istanbul.
The International Olympic Committee is investigating the comments due to rules against rival cities
commenting on one another to curry favor. Inose had said among other things: "Islamic
countries, the only thing they share in common is Allah and they are fighting with each other,
and they have classes." He had also said: "For the athletes, where will be the best
place to be? Well, compare the two countries where they have yet to build infrastructure,
very sophisticated facilities." Governor Inose has since apologized.
In the mid-60s, when the Second Vatican Council ended, a lot of confessional booths in churches
were closed or removed, replaced by "'reconciliation rooms' where the faithful could sit face-to-face
with a priest and talk about their sins in the context of self-improvement."
When the Archdiocese of Hartford, Connecticut, urged its parishes to extend the hours of
confession, Janusz Kukulka, a priest at St. Mary the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church,
wanted to hear his parishioners confessions in a confessional built for that purpose.
Kukulka got his wish; confessionals are sold on eBay. A parishioner donated the money for
the confessional and two parishioners volunteered to drive to Iow to pick it up and to install
it.
Kukulka's parishioners were eager to line up to enter the private booth and partake
in the sacrament of confession. One parishioner feels he "got celebrity status" for being
first to enter the booth and confess.
Although, "Thomas Groome, professor of theology and religious education at Boston College,
doubts that an old-school confessional will be enough to keep the momentum going," anonymous
confession is very popular in Connecticut. Monsignor Stephen DiGiovanni who reopened
the confessionals in St. John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church in Stamford in the late
1990s, hears 400 confessions a week.
However, it is difficult for Kukulka's parishioners at St. Mary the Immaculate Conception Church
to maintain anonymity because"voices inside the confessional echo through the sanctuary."