Confession away from one's parish

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Our pastor is giving homilies on confession. He is trying to encourage one to have a steady confessor which is good. And went as far as to say the priests at the Basilica in the next town over don’t want to hear our confessions,that they are there primarily there for pilgrims visiting. It is true someone went from our RCIA group last year and the priest “yelled” at them “go to confession at your own parish we are busy!” Most priest I have met our happy our usually happy to offer God’s mercy and forgiveness no matter what the circumstances. Any thoughts on this?
 
I think it abusive for a Priest to not only refuse to administer a Sacrament to a person in need, but to yell while doing so. The Sacrament of Reconciliation does not have borders which shouldn’t be crossed. Having a regular confessor certainly is a great idea; but it is not imperative and any Catholic is free to confess his/her sins to any available Priest, anywhere and anytime the Sacrament is offered.
 
I’m sure they are busy there and at places like it.

There are many churches where confession can be heard, personally I wouldn’t choose a tourist attraction to have confession.
 
I agree with everything you said, except for saying he’s abusive. I think that him yelling was probably hyperbole.
 
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That seems strange. I haven’t been to the Sacrament of Reconciliation at my parish for more years than I can count. It is only offered before weekday masses or by appointment, which doesn’t encourage families or the employed. I tend to go where it is offered on a Saturday morning and have never been turned away. If I was, then I would be writing a letter of disappointment because the queues are very short.
 
I like this from the article

“This is how the Lord calls us: ‘Come on, let’s have a coffee together. Let’s talk this over, let’s discuss it. Don’t be afraid.’”

That’s a wonderful idea!
 
Priests are called to serve, not to turn away. If they are “too busy” to hear confessions, then they need to take that to the ecclesial authority over them, not take it out on laypersons who go in good faith to reconcile with the Lord and have no idea (nor should they) of the ins and outs of why some priests are “only for ______________” . Just my opinion.
 
iI might say he sternly rebuked our person from RCIA (they said yelled) needless to say we had to do damage control and tell them that is not typical. Our parish has reconconcilliation on Saturdays for an hour and a half and on Thursdays for 45 minutes. The basilica offers reconciliation daily for an hour and a half in the afternoon and morning. Sometimes no one is hardly there it just depends. So as a matter of necessity some go outside th parish.
 
Well, I certainly agree with being able to go outside one’s parish to confess for several reasons.
 
I’ve never come across a priest who discourages confession (and I go every month, often to different churches). Don’t worry about the rogue angry priest. Most are not similar to him.
 
My thoughts are “just go to confession” and leave the what-ifs to God.
 
Canon law is pretty clear that the penitent can choose any confessor:
  1. Every member of the Christian faithful is free to confess sins to a legitimately approved confessor of his or her choice, even to one of another rite.
I don’t see any exception there saying “unless the priest thinks he’s too busy or self-important.”
 
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That’s what our priest says, too. We’re got a tiny parish and know each other very well. Understandably, some might find that an awkward situation for confession. He’s a fantastic confessor, though.
 
jinedo58 said:
Our pastor is giving homilies on confession. He is trying to encourage one to have a steady confessor which is good. And went as far as to say the priests at the Basilica in the next town over don’t want to hear our confessions,that they are there primarily there for pilgrims visiting. It is true someone went from our RCIA group last year and the priest “yelled” at them “go to confession at your own parish we are busy!” Most priest I have met our happy our usually happy to offer God’s mercy and forgiveness no matter what the circumstances. Any thoughts on this?
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That’s very strange.

Aren’t all who visit the Basilica pilgrims?
 
jinedo58 said:
It is true someone went from our RCIA group last year and the priest “yelled” at them “go to confession at your own parish we are busy!”
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I’m curious as to how exactly the priest at a Basilica that gets people from all over the place knew somebody was from an RCIA group in the next parish over, unless perhaps the person went into confession and said they were from an RCIA group and proceeded to ask a bunch of questions that the priest perhaps thought should be best addressed by their parish priest. Because I am all over the place, I have been to confession in the last 2 years to probably three dozen different priests at two dozen different churches, and not one of them has ever asked me what parish I’m from or anything else about me.

It is highly unusual for a priest to yell at someone to go to confession someplace else. I strongly suspect there is more to that story.

The only time I have ever heard of a priest telling someone to go to a different confessor was when a shrine had a confessional for Spanish speakers only, and some lady with not very good Spanish tried to muddle through and was stopped and told to go confess in one of the English language confessionals.
 
That’s unfortunate. The priest at my church told us recently that priests are “never too busy to hear a confession,” and that we should never be afraid to ask.
 
I don’t understand. If the basilica has daily confessions and is used to receiving large crowds, how the heck did this priest even manage to single out this one individual and know what parish they were from? I find it hard to believe this story is even true… not accusing you of lying, but there is a lot left out here.

We are free to confess anywhere…
 
I’ve been attending Catholic schools since 1954 grade school. I never recalled anyone telling me that I had to have a dedicated confessor, otherwise my habits today would tell me something was wrong. I am certain we were never taught to find an exclusive confessor. We were told to be comfortable with telling priests our sins and such, but never to try to go to the same priest. I don’t recall the title confessor was used either. He was always a “priest” to our teachers.
 
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