When Confession Takes Place Online

To be sure, PostSecret's emulators, religious and secular, do not claim to replace the act of confession to God or sharing secrets with someone you know. In the case of the Catholic Church, which has seen dwindling numbers of members visiting confessionals over the past few decades, leaders have specifically rejected online confession, stressing that the rite, one of seven Catholic sacraments, demands a priest as an avenue to God and to absolution. Still, the sites flourish. In August, after Jack had worked things out with his wife, she was worried about her ill grandfather and took a trip out of state, something she had done numerous times in the past. "Before it was like, yeah, I missed her, but it was also nice to have a guys' week," Jack says. "This time, it was drastically different. It hurt. It was really bad." Which, he knows, is really good.