Confession Availability

[mystified]

After reviewing the text of the Code of Canon Law, I cannot find any reference to a requirement that the Sacrament of Reconciliation be made available to the faithful. Canon 964, Paragraphs 1,2,3 only indicate where confessions should normally be heard.
Where I live, confessions are heard at times not particularly convenient for working people, i.e. Thursday afternoon, or by appointment only. In the church near my home, confessions are listed as also “after the Saturday evening Mass,” Arriving a few minutes after the end of Mass, I found the church locked.
This parish consists of some 3,000 registered families, and nobody knows how many unregistered Catholics. There are three priests in residence, and another comes on the weekend to help.
Is there any rule or policy in the United States concerning
providing adequate time for this Sacrament?

 

[m134e5]

After reviewing the text of the Code of Canon Law, I cannot find any reference to a requirement that the Sacrament of Reconciliation be made available to the faithful. Canon 964, Paragraphs 1,2,3 only indicate where confessions should normally be heard.
Where I live, confessions are heard at times not particularly convenient for working people, i.e. Thursday afternoon, or by appointment only. In the church near my home, confessions are listed as also “after the Saturday evening Mass,” Arriving a few minutes after the end of Mass, I found the church locked.
This parish consists of some 3,000 registered families, and nobody knows how many unregistered Catholics. There are three priests in residence, and another comes on the weekend to help.
Is there any rule or policy in the United States concerning
providing adequate time for this Sacrament?

Talk to your priest about this. Every priest I know would hear a confession if you just asked him after Mass. Confession times and Mass times are usually planned with the needs of the parishioners and the needs of the priests in mind.

When confessions are heard “after the evening Mass”, don’t wait until the Mass is over to go- get there before Mass is over, and when people start coming out, go in and stand by the confessional (before the Church is empty!).

 

[kleary]

I do not know if there is any document to state the times for confession. I know however from experience that confessions used to be heard every Sunday before Holy Mass- like 30 minutes before each and every Mass. I remember it to be that way back in the early 1970’s before they re-did confession to “face to face” confession.

At my former parish they had four confessionals. Then they started “face to face” confession and created a “reconcilliation room”. They also removed all the confessionals. When they did that the lines for confession started to dwindle. I was afraid myself to face the priest or even kneel behind a screen because it seemed the priest could still see me.

Anyway after they introduced face to face confession they no longer had confessions before every Mass.

THE SACRAMENT OF PENANCE USED TO BE BEFORE EVERY MASS. And it seemed right to me- for the priest would hear your sins then take them to the altar of God and offer the Holy Sacrifice in reparation for them.

Today, at my parish the traditional practice of hearing confessions before all Masses offered is still done. materecclesiae.org Confessions are also heard at a parish close to where I work in Atlantic City every day except Sunday - stnicholasac.org/

Confession is becoming the forgotten Sacrament. You do not know how many people I hear tell me all the time they do not need to go to the priest for they can go directly to God. The Protestant heresies are still with us- alive and well.

Ken

 

[Pug]

After reviewing the text of the Code of Canon Law, I cannot find any reference to a **requirement **that the Sacrament of Reconciliation be made available to the faithful.

You are looking for CIC 986. I think, anyway.

Can. 986 §1. All to whom the care of souls has been entrusted in virtue of some function are **obliged **to make provision so that the confessions of the faithful entrusted to them are heard when they reasonably seek to be heard and that they have the opportunity to approach individual confession on days and at times established for their convenience.
§2. In urgent necessity, any confessor is obliged to hear the confessions of the Christian faithful, and in danger of death, any priest is so obliged.

 

[Br.Rich_SFO]

After reviewing the text of the Code of Canon Law, I cannot find any reference to a requirement that the Sacrament of Reconciliation be made available to the faithful. Canon 964, Paragraphs 1,2,3 only indicate where confessions should normally be heard.
Where I live, confessions are heard at times not particularly convenient for working people, i.e. Thursday afternoon, or by appointment only. In the church near my home, confessions are listed as also “after the Saturday evening Mass,” Arriving a few minutes after the end of Mass, I found the church locked.
This parish consists of some 3,000 registered families, and nobody knows how many unregistered Catholics. There are three priests in residence, and another comes on the weekend to help.
Is there any rule or policy in the United States concerning
providing adequate time for this Sacrament?

Since hearing non-emergency Confessions is a privilege granted to a priest by the Bishop. It is up to the Bishop to establish what the required minimum times are for his diocese.
I would direct the exact thing you posted here to the diocese. It very well could be that after Saturday Mass no one hung around, so the priest figured no one was going to want to go to Confession. It’s possible that a quick anonymous note to the pastor describing the experience you had might cause him to ask all the priests to just wait around in the confessional for 15 minutes after Mass. For safety reasons they may also have to ask some others to hang around while the priest is in the confessional.

 

[Br.Rich_SFO]

Talk to your priest about this. Every priest I know would hear a confession if you just asked him after Mass. Confession times and Mass times are usually planned with the needs of the parishioners and the needs of the priests in mind.

When confessions are heard “after the evening Mass”, don’t wait until the Mass is over to go- get there before Mass is over, and when people start coming out, go in and stand by the confessional (before the Church is empty!).

That sort of defeats the anonymous portion.

 

[OutinChgoburbs]

Since hearing non-emergency Confessions is a privilege granted to a priest by the Bishop. It is up to the Bishop to establish what the required minimum times are for his diocese.
I would direct the exact thing you posted here to the diocese. It very well could be that after Saturday Mass no one hung around, so the priest figured no one was going to want to go to Confession. It’s possible that a quick anonymous note to the pastor describing the experience you had might cause him to ask all the priests to just wait around in the confessional for 15 minutes after Mass. For safety reasons they may also have to ask some others to hang around while the priest is in the confessional.

This was my thought as well- the rest of it, but not the note and the safety factor.

Our bishop has mandated that parishes have a priest in the confessional for at least 40 minutes per week, in addition to scheduling appointments and hearing confessions as soon as possible when asked. That is certainly not a lot of time to expect from anybody.

Some priests do more than their fair share, mine among them. Others ignore the bishop, or use a “write your name on the sheet so I know to be here” system, which defeats the anonymity of confession. The bishop is sending his closest priest managers around to “check up” on this, as he himself is recuperating from lung cancer suregery. He is really serious about this.

 

[Br.Rich_SFO]

This was my thought as well- the rest of it, but not the note and the safety factor.

Our bishop has mandated that parishes have a priest in the confessional for at least 40 minutes per week, in addition to scheduling appointments and hearing confessions as soon as possible when asked. That is certainly not a lot of time to expect from anybody.

Some priests do more than their fair share, mine among them. Others ignore the bishop, or use a “write your name on the sheet so I know to be here” system, which defeats the anonymity of confession. The bishop is sending his closest priest managers around to “check up” on this, as he himself is recuperating from lung cancer suregery. He is really serious about this.

I suppose you could always put “John Doe 3pm Saturday”

 

[OutinChgoburbs]

I suppose you could always put “John Doe 3pm Saturday”

There’s always “Guess Who” or some of the names we used to use when a substitute teacher passed an attendance list around the class in high school.

To be really clear: This does NOT happen at our parish. It’s happened at a couple parishes in the area.

In fact, our pastor sits in there even when nobody shows up, God be good to him.

I took my granddaughter for “the tour” of the reconcilation room prior to her first confession, during a scheduled confession time. She asked him what he did in there while he waited for people to come. He told her that he read religious books and Scripture, prayed, but was sometimes so bored he almost fell asleep. She told him, “Well if you stick a little TV in the corner on that table, you’ll be OK.”

 

[LilyM]

There’s always “Guess Who” or some of the names we used to use when a substitute teacher passed an attendance list around the class in high school.

To be really clear: This does NOT happen at our parish. It’s happened at a couple parishes in the area.

In fact, our pastor sits in there even when nobody shows up, God be good to him.

I took my granddaughter for “the tour” of the reconcilation room prior to her first confession, during a scheduled confession time. She asked him what he did in there while he waited for people to come. He told her that he read religious books and Scripture, prayed, but was sometimes so bored he almost fell asleep. She told him, “Well if you stick a little TV in the corner on that table, you’ll be OK.”

Occasionally I do wonder whether some of my confessors have been peacefully asleep when I’ve come into the confessional, they sometimes sound like I’ve just woken them up.

 

[m134e5]

That sort of defeats the anonymous portion.

So would going to confession as part of the last rites. Priests have heard it all- and if you go to confession regularly, they probably know who you are anyway. They could also ask a friend to ask the priest for them. Also, sometimes necessity is more important than anonymity.