For I Have Sinned: The Rise and Fall of Catholic Confession in America - James M. O'toole

The history of US Catholicism is the history of confession. For I Have Sinned charts the rise of confession as the defining ritual of American Catholic piety and identity—and its fall, as clergy sex-abuse scandals and the cultural shifts of the 1970s decimated interest in a practice that, today, is alien even to most faithful believers.