Replies

This name “reconciliation,” is it what we now want to call the Sacrament of Penance? Let us start with a short answer: No, definitely not. And now, let us give the reasons why reconciliation should not be the name for the Sacrament of Penance.
First, the word “reconciliation” denotes only the final stage of the process of conversion. It does not express or convey the hard and humbling need for sorrow (contrition), for expiation, for atonement, for confession to a priest. Penance and Confession, conversely, do clearly express these more demanding stages of conversion.
Second, “reconciliation” is an act and a gift of God’s grace and of the Church’s favor, something outside the sinner’s action and doing. On the other hand, Penance and Confession express well the acts of the penitent. Reconciliation does not. Reconciliation is not done, but is received by the penitent.
Third, “reconciliation” is simply not applicable in a confession of devotion, that is, one without mortal sins. But the Church has always warmly encouraged confessions of devotion. In the encyclical Mystici Corporis, Pope Pius XII praised and encouraged the practice of frequent confessions:
Are we to start calling this confession a “reconciliation”? Again, I think not. The word reconciliation could seem presumptuous or insensitive to the feelings of all concerned. Remember that when the Church did use that term in the early Church of the Fathers, the reconciliation ceremony was preceded by a long and severe penance. It was a major change for the Church eventually to assign only a light penance to and to grant absolution before the penance was performed. We do well to keep the name Confession.

http://www.traditioninaction.org/HotTopics/a046htConfession_2_Somerville.htm