Can a Catholic go to any church for Confession

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Blessedwithfive

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Can a Catholic go to any Catholic church for Confession? Our DRE is requiring the children to sign up on an online site for a confession time and go to a specific church. Is that allowed? In the past we have just required the kids to attend Confession (before Confirmation) but we didn’t assign them a time and date that they MUST attend. In the past we always let them go where ever they were comfortable. I think that it would be against some type of church law to require a specific date and time (where there is only one priest, so he would know who is coming…) It would loose the anonymously aspect of the sacrament.

Don’t get me wrong, I want the kids to go, I just want them to be able to go anonymously.
 
That’s really weird.

I go to two churches for confession, depending on what day of the week it is. There’s one near my work I go to on weekdays, and my actual parish has confession on Saturdays before mass.

Let the kids go where they’re comfortable. The only important things are that it’s a Catholic Church in communion with Rome.
 
A priest cannot forbid you to go to another priest for Confession, nor restrict you to any given parish. A parish can require you to make an appointment to go to Confession outside the regularly scheduled times, but priests have a duty to make Confession available at reasonable times for parishioners. A penitent has the right to conceal his/her identity from the priest, though the priest is allowed to ask questions about your state of life, provided that they are relevant to the sins you confess.
 
Is weird to be assigned a location, but nothing to get overly excited about, unless its just inconvenient. I know of many Catholic friends who do not receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation at our home parish because they feel out of sorts confessing to a priest who may know them intimately…it doesn’t bother me, but I don’t find fault with them, as long as they do seek and receive the sacrament.
 
Blessedwithfive said:
Can a Catholic go to any Catholic church for Confession? Our DRE is requiring the children to sign up on an online site for a confession time and go to a specific church. Is that allowed? In the past we have just required the kids to attend Confession (before Confirmation) but we didn’t assign them a time and date that they MUST attend. In the past we always let them go where ever they were comfortable. I think that it would be against some type of church law to require a specific date and time (where there is only one priest, so he would know who is coming…) It would loose the anonymously aspect of the sacrament.

Don’t get me wrong, I want the kids to go, I just want them to be able to go anonymously.
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Kinda sorta…

Although whether or not someone goes to Confession is between that person and God alone, when it comes to preparation for another sacrament, the teachers do have a legitimate need to know that each person actually did go to confession. The reason is that the pastor must be able to honestly present them to the bishop as having prepared for Confirmation.

They can only take this so far. If a child really does want to go to a different priest (or not to that particular priest or church) no one can force the issue.

Also, the reason behind the online signup (which I really do not like one bit) might be to know ahead of time how many priests are needed for any particular session. If it’s a large class, that might matter—and especially if these confession times are being coordinated among several parishes. The pastor would not want to schedule 10 priests, expecting 200 confessions if only 10 show up. I don’t actually know, I’m just saying that planning the number of priests could be a factor.
 
Requiring a student to go to confession before Confirmation isn’t exactly out of line. The DRE is ensuring that students are prepared.

Your child does not have to confess. Take them where they are comfortable. Make an appointment with the priest and then when your child goes have them say that they just made a good confession and are all set.

The unfortunate thing is that most students today have not been properly catechized by their parents and the church has stood by and let it happen, still willing to give sacraments even when it is pretty clear that a recipient is not properly educated.
 
Xanthippe_Voorhees said:
The unfortunate thing is that most students today have not been properly catechized by their parents and the church has stood by and let it happen, still willing to give sacraments even when it is pretty clear that a recipient is not properly educated.
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This! 1000 times!

I am a Confirmation Catechist. 26 out of 30 of my kids, who are in 9th grade have not been to Confession since their first one on 2nd grade before First Communion.

Our Pastor preached about it, made himself available for Confession 3 times a week and by appointment, created examinations of conscious for children, teens and adults, and encouraged our Family faith teachers to encourage it.

I don’t know what the answer is, but kudos to the priest for trying.
 
Blessedwithfive said:
Can a Catholic go to any Catholic church for Confession?
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Yes
Blessedwithfive said:
Our DRE is requiring the children to sign up on an online site for a confession time and go to a specific church. Is that allowed?
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No. Your DRE cannot require the penitent to confess at a specific time or to a specific priest. And face to face or behind the screen is always the penitent’s choice.

That said, first reconciliation is typically done with the pastor and usually a time is set aside for the first reconciliation kids to go as a group. But even then, you as a parent can bring them separately.
Blessedwithfive said:
I think that it would be against some type of church law to require a specific date and time (where there is only one priest, so he would know who is coming…) It would loose the anonymously aspect of the sacrament.
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You are correct.
 
Ahhhh, the overreaching Rel Ed leader.

They need to be reminded that even teenagers have a right to anonymous confession. If they will not budge, escalate this.
 
This is very unfair. I don’t do anything without the permission of or at the direction of my Pastor, and neither do any of my fellow Catechists.
 
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I’d be willing to give the DRE the benefit of doubt and guess that in years past, the confirmation students did not make it to confession before the big day, because they are kids and are typically unreliable. So she’s trying to do the right thing. A better route would be for the DRE to say “you really need to go to confession before confirmation, here’s a great opportunity. If you are interested let me know so we can get enough priests here.”
 
Thank you for your reply. Just to be clear, I understand the requirement to attend Confession as part of Confirmation prep. I agree with the importance of Confession. I use the sacrament often myself. In the past the children had at the option to attend Confession during a time when their Catechist would be available to assist with any questions they might have before or after Confession. Often times as their Catechist I would pray their penance with them if they asked and didn’t know the words to the prayers…it happens more than you think. But they children had the option to just attend Confession on their own and just give me a date for the form.

I have a BIG problem with the DRE REQUIRING the children to sign up on an online site for a specific time and date. There would be no problem for the priest to know who he was hearing. We only have one priest. And the DRE has announced to the group before just who should be going to Confession and who she has seen there. It is embarrassing and does cause kids to not want to go. The DRE has a very bad relationship with the children and this will not help.

There is no “huge line” for Confession at my church. I have never experienced more than three people EVER unless I bring in my family…

Part of my job as a Catechist is to teach the children what rights they have in the church and the children should know that they can go to any priest for Confession and they have the right for it to be anonymous. Am I right? Is this protected by Canon Law?
 
Xanthippe_Voorhees said:
Requiring a student to go to confession before Confirmation isn’t exactly out of line. The DRE is ensuring that students are prepared.
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I agree that the requirement is good. I believe it is the Catechists job to prepare the students for Confession if the parents haven’t . Assigning the children a date and time is where I have the problem. They should be able to go where they are comfortable.
 
CilladeRoma said:
This is very unfair. I don’t do anything without the permission of or at the direction of my Pastor, and neither do any of my fellow Catechists.
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Excellent. I do not believe my priest knows about this. I can’t believe he would be ok with it.
 
Why would you think he doesn’t know?
DRE’s work for the Pastor, they do not make decisions on their own. I think your best bet would be to bring your concerns to the Pastor and see what he has to say.
 
Long ago, in the last century, when I was seven years old and took first holy communion, my recall is that our entire class of perhaps 30-40 seven year olds did our first confession at the same Church at the same gathering on the day before we all took first Holy Communion at the same Church and same Mass.
 
You may go to Confession anywhere you choose. If you have children in the program, just take the children to any parish and inform the DRE afterwards you have done so. That should settle the matter without having to “register online” for the Sacrament.

Your feelings about not using the Internet should be respected without you needing to defend your choice via canon law. Rather, if they give you any grief, place the burden on them to cite where canon law requires anyone to use the Internet before recieving a Sacrament.

Also, it’s good to know, in case the DRE tries to make the issue about documentation or recording of the Sacrament, that First Reconciliation is not a Sacrament that is canonically required by the Church to be recorded in a registry. Therefore Reconciliation before Confirmation certainly does not need to be documented. It should be quite sufficient that the DRE merely knows it was done somewhere.
 
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I don’t understand this?
A DRE does not work in a vacuum, just doing any old thing to make other people’s lives miserable. They are part of a team, lead by the Pastor, who is ultimately responsible for the spiritual well-being of his flock.

If he does not know what is going on in his own parish, he should be reported to the Bishop.
 
And someday down the road, one of those kids will be posting “I was raised Catholic but I left the Church because during Confirmation class the Church announced who was going to Confession and who had not gone. I was not able to go to Confession and I was so embarrassed that I just stopped going…”
 
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