At my parish, we have Confession AFTER the Saturday morning Mass only. There are three priests there and all they can offer is once a week for 20 minutes (although officially they say it’s for an hour). I say 20 minutes because once I tried to go to Confession at that point and the church was locked. Being a musician there, I had a key so I let myself in. There was one person still in the confessional so I breathed a sigh of relief, thinking I wasn’t too late. When I got in the confessional (face to face, which I do NOT like), the priest got all upset, saying he had things he had to do and he thought he’d locked the door. I told him I had a key and it was important to me to confess. He got into the spirit of it and heard my confession. However, it left a very bad taste in my mouth. This same priest presides over communal penance services twice a year. (I have heard that the archbishop has outlawed these services but he persists.) I played the piano for one recently. I didn’t see any opportunity for private confessions. There was absolution (for what, I do not know) and there was nothing said about how, if one is in a state of mortal sin, one needs to go to private Confession. I assume the entire congregation left, thinking they’d done their once a year duty, when in reality, there was no sacrament there, just a feel good prayer service. (The priest even stated if anyone wanted sacramental absolution, we could kneel and receive it.) When I took it up with the pastor, he yelled at me. He said they were being pastoral. When I asked the priest about it, he said he realized it was illicit form, but that was on his conscience, not mine. Since there are THREE priests, why could they not have had private confessions within the service? Needless to say, I have sought out other parishes where they have Confession every single day BEFORE the morning Mass. Thank goodness, I live in a large city where I have that opportunity! To me, the way some priests think they are above God and the Church takes my breath away.