"How about dinner, movie and ... confession?"

Today's news of the strange features Fr. John Dietzen answering a question posed by a Catholic Times reader (the official newspaper of the diocese of Springfield, Illinois) with a response I found surprising:

Q. Is it permissible for a husband and wife to receive the sacrament of penance together? We have experienced this in a retreat, and the ceremony was very meaningful and spiritually helpful for us. Recently, however, a priest told us this is never permitted, that each person must go to confession alone. How can it be allowed in one place and not another? (Wisconsin)

A. The practice you experienced is not uncommon in retreats or other spiritual occasions for married couples, provided, of course, that they both approve and consider it helpful for their marriage. As far as I can determine, there is no liturgical or canonical rule that prohibits a couple from receiving this sacrament in one another's presence.

But as Canon Lawyer Ed Peters points out, you can't expect every possible action to be explicitly condemned in Canon Law (or any realistic legal system, for that matter):

Deitzen's basic argument runs thus: there is no express canonical or liturgical prohibition against spouses confessing sacramentally in each other's presence, so "couple's confession" is licit. But even if, pro arguendo, no norm expressly prohibits joint confession, one may still ask, So what? There is no canon against the faithful attending Mass drunk or naked, but surely we cannot read the law's "silence" as approval, qualified or otherwise, for such practices. The Church could not possibly identify in advance and prohibit every illicit practice that the faithful might think of. Inclined though I am to give wide play in canon law to the legal maxim Libertas praesumitur (Freedom is presumed), joint confession is an instance where that worthy principle must yield to weightier considerations.

Indeed, I suggest that it is clearly discernible from several canonical norms that joint confession should be avoided. Ironically, Deitzen identifies these norms but seems to miss their obvious (to me, anyway) implications.

Read his treatment of the canonical arguments, which is followed by more objections from common sense.