Confession

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Pilgrimbygrace

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I have a quick question.

As I am not Catholic, I have a very limited understanding of the common practices in the current Church.

I’ve been reading a lot about the Catholic doctrine of Justification and pitting that against my Calvinistic understanding of Justification and all the versus in Holy Scripture where it says that Justification is by faith and not of works, lest we should boast.

But this is not what this post is about, I wanted to just give you the reason for my question. I do see truth behind the Catholic doctrine and practices of active justification and sanctification. But here is my question.

I might be wrong, but I was under the understanding that there are a lot of Catholic Churches now that don’t practice the act of Confession anymore. Is this true?

And if so, how does one confess their sins? Privately?

Sorry, I know there has probably been a lot written here already on this forum about this and of course in theological books as well. So I’m not looking for a long reply. Just a short concise one will be sufficient with maybe a couple of links to some good sources. 😃
 
I’ve never heard of this. I live in the Chicago area, and I know all the adjacent parishes offer confession at least once a week (as well as by appointment, if needed). I did a quick (I’m racing the clock, sorry) google search, and every catholic church I came up with had Confession or Reconciliation on their weekly calendar.

I’m pretty sure that a more extensive search would continue to bear this out. The requested link:
www.google.com 😉
 
I guess I am lucky, because at my parish its weekly or by appointment, and there are some here that have mid week set times for confession too. At my parish its on Saturday. But, a private scheduled confession is open to anyone who makes the arrangements with their priest.
 
I don’t think the issue is so much that many parishes don’t offer confession, but rather that they don’t make it as available as it used to be. Also, fewer Catholics choose to go to confession today than in the past. But that’s not the ideal, and the Pope has frequently called for a renewal of the sacrament.
 
Pilgrimbygrace said:
I might be wrong, but I was under the understanding that there are a lot of Catholic Churches now that don’t practice the act of Confession anymore. Is this true?

And if so, how does one confess their sins? Privately?
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No, this is not true. Confession is available to all Catholics-- and moreover individual confession is required based on the the precepts of the Church & the individual’s state of grace.

Only the *logistics *will vary by locality.

Logistics would be things like how often, where, and in what format Confession is offered.
 
Hello Matt, you are really going to love picking apart my posts. 😃
 
Pilgrimbygrace said:
I have a quick question.

As I am not Catholic, I have a very limited understanding of the common practices in the current Church.

I’ve been reading a lot about the Catholic doctrine of Justification and pitting that against my Calvinistic understanding of Justification and all the versus in Holy Scripture where it says that Justification is by faith and not of works, lest we should boast.

But this is not what this post is about, I wanted to just give you the reason for my question. I do see truth behind the Catholic doctrine and practices of active justification and sanctification. But here is my question.

I might be wrong, but I was under the understanding that there are a lot of Catholic Churches now that don’t practice the act of Confession anymore. Is this true?

And if so, how does one confess their sins? Privately?

Sorry, I know there has probably been a lot written here already on this forum about this and of course in theological books as well. So I’m not looking for a long reply. Just a short concise one will be sufficient with maybe a couple of links to some good sources. 😃
Click to expand...
I don’t know of any parishes that do not offer confession (Reconcilliation) any more, but over the last 40 years, due to a number of factors, there has been a loss of the sense of sin. The sacrament is not used as much as it used to be.

Part of that is that previous to Vatican 2, many people had the impression that one had to go to confession before receiving Communion (partly true). One had to go, before receiving Communion, if on had committed what we call a mortal sin; one that broke our relationship with God completely. An example would be murder, or adultery. However, many people felt that if they had committed any sin (told a fib to a friend), they could not receive.

After Vatican 2, the Church was trying to move away from a very mechanistic, legalistic, ritualistic, and minimalistic approach to Moral Theology. Part of the problem was that in trying to do so, we somewhat ended up with the impression that not much at all was a sin; the pendulum swung rapidly from one place to another. That too is slowly changing. However, many people are under the impression that they really don’t do much evil; and they are under the impression that confession (Reconcilliation) is really not all that necessary.

As usual, the truth is often somewhere between the two extremes.
 
Maybe what the OP should have asked is why are there confessions heard at most parishes with only a few,at best, in line?? What a beautiful Sacrament given to us by our Lord Himself and so few go to Him. Sad…😦 teachccd
 
Pilgrimbygrace said:
I might be wrong, but I was under the understanding that there are a lot of Catholic Churches now that don’t practice the act of Confession anymore. Is this true?
Click to expand...
I think its the Catholic people, not the Catholic Church, that have pretty much abandoned confession.

Its too bad too. Why should a priest schedule time for confession that won’t be used?
 
Pilgrimbygrace said:
I’ve been reading a lot about the Catholic doctrine of Justification and pitting that against my Calvinistic understanding of Justification and all the versus in Holy Scripture where it says that Justification is by faith and not of works, lest we should boast.
Click to expand...
Sorry, I couldn’t let this go by.

James 2:
24] You see that a man is justified by works and not byfaith alone.

So what was James’ meaning here Pilgrim?

To get to your question, you have been misinformed. Confession is alive and well in the faith…that’s not to say that all Catholics avail themselves of this sacrament. The day The Church abandons reconciliation will be on the last day, when Christ returns. Until then…“bless me Father, for I have sinned.”
 
At masstimes.org there seems to be a way to look up Confession times based on zip codes. I can never seem to get it to work, but even looking up by parish will give you the schedule of that parish, including Reconcilliation times. I find it depends on the pastor how often Reconcilliation is offered. My parish is twice on Saturday, by appointment and at various services in the year. The parish next door has daily Reconcilliation before the daily morning Mass.
 
mark_a said:
I think its the Catholic people, not the Catholic Church, that have pretty much abandoned confession.

Its too bad too. Why should a priest schedule time for confession that won’t be used?
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He should schedule it b/c many people may be too embarassed to call for an appointment. It is probably the single most important sacrament. If there is no Sunday mass offered, you incur no sin by not attending. If you are in mortal sin, and there is no confession offered…

I think they should go back to offering confession immediately before and during mass. One TLM I attended had the celebrant and another priest hearing confession before mass, and the second priest continued hearing confessions during the mass until everyone was done.

God bless
 
StCsDavid said:
Sorry, I couldn’t let this go by.

James 2:
24] You see that a man is justified by works and not byfaith alone.

So what was James’ meaning here Pilgrim?"
Click to expand...
Hey StCsDavid,

Thank you for your reply and your question.

I’ll give you a simple answer and then if you want we can take a closer look at Scripture.

Simple Answer.

It is my own personal belief that the “Works” that God through James or James inspired by the Holy Spirit is talking about here is different then Works of the Law.

In other words, I believe that the word Works or Ergon in Greek means simply to work at something.

So we also find this same word “Ergon” in Galatians.

16nevertheless knowing that (A)a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by (B)faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since (C)by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified. Galatians 2:16 NASB.

We see here in Galatians that it is the Works of the Law that won’t justify us. In other words, we can not just simply obey God moral Law for our own justification. We are fallen and we will transgress Gods holy law and thereby place ourselves out of His covenant promise of eternal salvation. That is why we need to be cloaked in Jesus’ righteousness.

Anyway, I see the same word “Ergon” in James being not “Works of the Law” but simply “Good Works of the Spirit” If we have been born again, renewed, having the Spirit of Christ residing in us, then we will be guided and goaded to preform “Good Works.”

What is the difference? We are not talking about obeying the Law. i.e., not stealing, not cussing, not lusting, not fornicating, not idolatering, not murdering, not coveting etc… we are talking about Works of the Spirit; i.e., being kind, patient, loving, caring, generous, giving, forgiving, understanding, evangelistic, sharing, etc…

Anyway, this is kinda how I see the difference between James and the other Epistles in regards to Works. But of course, I am a fallible sinner and I don’t know Holy Scripture very well. So I could very much be wrong. 😦

I hope this is well received and I won’t everyone to understand that I’m not being argumentative, I’m just searching for the truth is all. 🙂
 
Pilgrimbygrace said:
I might be wrong, but I was under the understanding that there are a lot of Catholic Churches now that don’t practice the act of Confession anymore. Is this true?
Click to expand...
I’m under the impression that Confession to a priest is being encouraged as much or more than ever.
 
At my parish it is very busy during confession… we only have 1 priest and apparently we are not lacking in sinners in need of confessing. We have in the past given our pastor a heads-up when we will be bringing the whole family just so he knows it will busier than normal. Most folks I know go to confession about once every month or two. We have even resorted to going up to our local university for confession since they have usually 2-4 priests everyday at 4:30. There are always lines there too, even in the summer. Anyway, I think we are actually seeing a resurgence of people who want and/or need the grace we get from confession.

When I went to Washington DC for the March for life, the one thing that surprised me was at every event there were priests available for confession and the teens were waiting in lines to confess!!! As one of the girls I was chaperoning came out she confided to me how much she likes how she feels after confession… I think it is awesome to see so many teens that WANT to go to confession.

This is just my experience, but I think there is a definite increase in people going to confession!
 
I’ve spent time in North Mississippi, South Louisiana, Minnesota, and Montana in the last couple years. Every Catholic Parish I became a member in over those years offered Private Confession for atleast a half an hour per week and by appointment.

But each parish can have a very different charism in how faithful people are to the confessional. My parish in Louisiana very rarely had people show up for the confession hour. While in Minnesota I usually had to wait in line and I was glad to so that it was usually a different face waiting infront of me each time.

To me the sad thing was growing up and finding out that many if not most of the “Catholic examples” I’d followed over the years hadn’t been to confession in 5 or 6 years. Once people get out the habit they can stay away for a while. I’m not the best evangalist, but I have gotten a few friends and even my mom and a brother to come to confession with me…I’m always so thankful for the opportunity to share God’s grace in this when it appears.
 
bilop said:
He should schedule it b/c many people may be too embarassed to call for an appointment. It is probably the single most important sacrament. If there is no Sunday mass offered, you incur no sin by not attending. If you are in mortal sin, and there is no confession offered…

I think they should go back to offering confession immediately before and during mass. One TLM I attended had the celebrant and another priest hearing confession before mass, and the second priest continued hearing confessions during the mass until everyone was done.

God bless
Click to expand...
I agree tht confession should be scheduled before Sunday mass.
 
Our pastor frequently encourages us to go to confession in his homilies. There is also a notice in every bulletin reminding people they must confess mortal sins before receiving communion.

We have confession for an hour on Weds. evenings and an hour on Sat. afternoons, plus additional time on First Saturday.

There is always a long line and he will stay as long as he can to hear confessions.
 
Pilgrimbygrace said:
I might be wrong, but I was under the understanding that there are a lot of Catholic Churches now that don’t practice the act of Confession anymore. Is this true?
Click to expand...
Heaven forbid!
No pilgrim, you are mis-informed. Saturday afternoon usually.

But lets put this in the context of justification. As you might well know we are justified at baptism. Baptism is the remission of sins, and then we are truly righteous. I destroy my justification by mortal sin. I am renegade from the cross. The only resort for me is to repent and receive absolution, and restore my hope of justification. God is merciful, and I am given the “declaration of innocence”.(Justification).

Hence, in faith, we follow Christ through the waters of baptism, and so to the cross. (now read Romans Chapter 6 for homework)
 
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