For generations, American Catholics went faithfully to confession, admitting their sins to a priest and accepting through him God’s forgiveness. The sacrament served as a distinctive marker of Catholic identity. But starting in the 1970s, many abandoned confession altogether. In a new book, For I Have Sinned: The Rise and Fall of Catholic Confession in America (Harvard University Press, 2025), James M. O’Toole, Charles I. Clough Millennium Professor of History Emeritus and University Historian at Boston College, reconstructs the history of confession’s steady rise―and dramatic fall―among American Catholics, focusing on the experiences of both laypeople and priests. O’Toole’s previous publications include Militant and Triumphant: William Henry O’Connell and the Catholic Church in Boston, 1859-1944; Passing for White: Race, Religion, and the Healy Family, 1820-1920; and The Faithful: A History of Catholics in America. More from BC News.