A move away from daily confession

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already this was posted by a persons post on Facebook who is a good friend of mine and very faithful traditional Catholic. he said this

There is a church in (City Hidden to avoid scandal for the diocese) where confession was previously offered Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. A new pastor has taken over and now only the Saturday slot is preserved. What we need, obviously, is less devotion and access to the sacrament of reconciliation.

even though I think its obvious this sarcastic, but have you seen this happen in your area at all. Also what percentage of churches in your city, or diocese, have daily confession. What percentage of Churches has saturday only confession. Are there any churches that you feel don’t have enough confession time, and they only have it once a week, as in the priest can’t see everyone before mass?

btw where I live many parishes just have saturday confessions very few have daily confessions while some do. I can think off the top of my head 3 parishes that have daily confession even though I’m sure there are more. I can think of a handful that have confession more then once a week, and actually now that I think about it I can’t think off the top of my head parishes that only have one confession a week even though I know it is the case where I live.
 
My parish only has Saturday confession. I wish more would arise, though if you get to mass 30 minutes early, I’m pretty sure the priest can see you before Mass starts. =D

I had 2 instances where I couldn’t make it to saturday confession, and I needed the sacrament. I got to mass 30 minutes earlier, before people started talking to my priest, I hopped on him very quickly and asked, he said yes, of course.
 
Christine85 said:
Usually a Priest will make appointments for other times.
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I love that priest do this, I just personally wish priests in reason would be in the confessional as much as they can. I very much understand that priests have very busy lives, but I think if a priest in the confessional 30 minuets every day he will see a big change in his parish.

But I think one question must be asked would having daily confession be to much in a parish, and would having one confession a week meet the parishes needs.

Also do you think if it is offered more often than more people will come. Even if everyone who wants to go can go on saturday.
 
Most of the parishes that I’m aware of in my archdiocese (at least the four nearest to my own) have confession at least 6 days a week.
 
catholictiger said:
already this was posted by a persons post on Facebook who is a good friend of mine and very faithful traditional Catholic. he said this

There is a church in (City Hidden to avoid scandal for the diocese) where confession was previously offered Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. A new pastor has taken over and now only the Saturday slot is preserved. What we need, obviously, is less devotion and access to the sacrament of reconciliation.

even though I think its obvious this sarcastic, but have you seen this happen in your area at all. Also what percentage of churches in your city, or diocese, have daily confession. What percentage of Churches has saturday only confession. Are there any churches that you feel don’t have enough confession time, and they only have it once a week, as in the priest can’t see everyone before mass?

btw where I live many parishes just have saturday confessions very few have daily confessions while some do. I can think off the top of my head 3 parishes that have daily confession even though I’m sure there are more. I can think of a handful that have confession more then once a week, and actually now that I think about it I can’t think off the top of my head parishes that only have one confession a week even though I know it is the case where I live.
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Did they even bother to ask the new priest if he has commitments during the week that would prevent him from having regularly scheduled confessions? Most priests have duties within the archdiocese and they are hardly in the parish during the week. They either have certain ministries or secular duties to the Church. Maybe the previous priest have different duties to the diocese that allows him to have confession schedule during the week.
 
My parish has confessions 4 mornings a week from 6:15-6:25 AM. Rarely do you encounter another sinner, but I know others do go - we just don’t pick the same days. We also have it from 3:00-3:30 on Saturday afternoons. I will often get there around 3:15 and rarely have to wait unless it is Lent or Advent. Don’t know if there were people before I got there.

Another parish not too far away has confessions 30 minutes before every Mass, even Sundays. They have lines.

A couple of others have 30 minutes on Saturdays and 10 or so minutes before daily Mass.
 
Saturdays only here. Worse, confession is “at” 4 o’clock, not “starting at” 4 o’clock. What’s the difference? If father shows up at 4 o’clock and nobody’s there, he’s gone by about 4:15. Guess how I found that one out.
 
Well, in my part of the world, weekly Confession (for about an hour before the evening Mass, usually on Friday or Saturday) is the norm. Apart from this, there are designated days for the Sacrament during Lent and Advent.

But I think a fixed hour every day of the week is a very reasonable idea. Twice a day (morning and evening) is even better, given the kinds of work schedules we get these days!
 
ConstantineTG said:
Did they even bother to ask the new priest if he has commitments during the week that would prevent him from having regularly scheduled confessions? Most priests have duties within the archdiocese and they are hardly in the parish during the week. They either have certain ministries or secular duties to the Church. Maybe the previous priest have different duties to the diocese that allows him to have confession schedule during the week.
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not sure if he did, but I’m jus mainly bringing this up to disucss this. Even though I have only finished one year of seminary and I have but one month of parish experience. I personally believe that a priest should put the sacraments first in his priorities of things to do. Mass comes first than confession. He should put an importance of preparing people for marriage. Focus on fostering vocations to priesthood and religious life. visit the sick as often as possible. Lastly Baptize and prepare parents for baptism the best he can. While the logistic side of priest life is very important and has to be dealt with they should NEVER take priority over the sacraments.

now again I don’t know the situation of the priest, but going from 5 times a week confession to 1 time confession a week, seems like to big of a switch for a priest to make. I’m sure he says mass atleast 6 out of the 7 days for his parish, and I suspect that he doesn’t have to be rushing into the parish at the last second. While it could be necessary for this situation from glacing at it, it doesn’t seem good.
 
Gamera said:
Saturdays only here. Worse, confession is “at” 4 o’clock, not “starting at” 4 o’clock. What’s the difference? If father shows up at 4 o’clock and nobody’s there, he’s gone by about 4:15. Guess how I found that one out.
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while a priest shouldn’t expect to get time to do his own things, the confessional can be a good place to read a spiritual book if things are slow that day. But I’m sure its the case when you plan to bring something to read God sends you more than normal penitents.
 
catholictiger said:
not sure if he did, but I’m jus mainly bringing this up to disucss this. Even though I have only finished one year of seminary and I have but one month of parish experience. I personally believe that a priest should put the sacraments first in his priorities of things to do. Mass comes first than confession. He should put an importance of preparing people for marriage. Focus on fostering vocations to priesthood and religious life. visit the sick as often as possible. Lastly Baptize and prepare parents for baptism the best he can. While the logistic side of priest life is very important and has to be dealt with they should NEVER take priority over the sacraments.

now again I don’t know the situation of the priest, but going from 5 times a week confession to 1 time confession a week, seems like to big of a switch for a priest to make. I’m sure he says mass atleast 6 out of the 7 days for his parish, and I suspect that he doesn’t have to be rushing into the parish at the last second. While it could be necessary for this situation from glacing at it, it doesn’t seem good.
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I think you have much to learn yet…a parish priest’s life is VERY busy. I know we run ours ragged…poor thing. We have over 1,200 families and one priest. He has confessions twice a week. The Wed night slot is 1/2 hour…although Father is usually there far later. Sat it is 4-5 before Mass.
 
Often (OK sometimes) these decisions are made at the deanery level. Check your diocesan website (reconciliation finder) to see the schedules at other Parishes in your deanery.
 
triumphguy said:
Often (OK sometimes) these decisions are made at the deanery level. Check your diocesan website (reconciliation finder) to see the schedules at other Parishes in your deanery.
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this would make sense and is a good thing, I would have no problem if there was confession offered daily just not in every parish. That would give people a chance to go to confession everyday, this would be good.
 
Annabelle_Marie said:
I think you have much to learn yet…a parish priest’s life is VERY busy. I know we run ours ragged…poor thing. We have over 1,200 families and one priest. He has confessions twice a week. The Wed night slot is 1/2 hour…although Father is usually there far later. Sat it is 4-5 before Mass.
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I know this I have spent time with a priest in a parish, I don’t know as much as I will in a few years of course, but I just have a feeling that confession has lost its importance in to many parishes. I also don’t see what is wrong with putting an importance on the sacraments. Shouldn’t in a priests life Christ come first, and wouldn’t it in most circumstances be best for a priest to offer confession as much as his schedule allows, and also offer enough so that everyone has a chance to go if they want to come.

Plus having confession for 90 minuets every week may be enough, there is just a part of me that says moving from 5 confessions a week to 1 confession a week is a wrong move. Maybe the priest had to make it, it just seems like he could have to change things around to allow him to hear more confessions. If I were a parishioner of a Church and the priest cut confessions down by 4 days I wouldn’t be happy and I would ask why would you do this and if his answer didn’t satisfy me contact the bishop. We are in a time when we must work to save souls and confession is essential in this mission, reducing the amount of confession THIS much seems like a little much.

BTW I understand confessions will very from church to church because of the situation, again the situation I brought up was a strange one.
 
I don’t want to get into to heated of a discussion on the situation itself I just wanted to see what confession was like in other parishes and if you feel like it is not being shown enough importance. If I’m reading the state of the Church wrong then this will tell me. But I’m going to try to avoid things that will bring debate into this thread.

even though I will at-least deal with the things that personally deal with me.
 
I’m not sure offering daily confession is necessary, especially with most priests willing to schedule appointments when needed. BUT I would like to see at least one time during the week in addition to weekend confessions. One local parish here does a weds pm confession and I have gone to that. I work on the weekends and often can’t get to confession at 3pm sat. That weds night slot is great.
 
thomasf said:
I’m not sure offering daily confession is necessary, especially with most priests willing to schedule appointments when needed. BUT I would like to see at least one time during the week in addition to weekend confessions. One local parish here does a weds pm confession and I have gone to that. I work on the weekends and often can’t get to confession at 3pm sat. That weds night slot is great.
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I hope I didn’t make it look like I wanted daily confession, I don’t think its necessary but a good thing if it can be offered, but I think once a week confession is to little.
 
Our Cathedral offers daily Confession and I know of two other parishes that do as well. Most offer twice a week. The parish closest to me offers Confession Saturday from 3-4 and 7-8. A few offer it on a weekday evening. Two have Confession before every Mass on Sunday. It is really nice at the Cathedral because they have a noon daily Mass, and Confession is offered before Mass. Very convenient for those who work downtown.
 
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