Confessions (and other things) longer nowadays?

[Sean]

I find that most churches that offer confession at obscure times do this like 3:30 to 3:45 on a Saturday. When I need to I go to the church up the street from me and the priest takes 10 minutes for each confession its nice and all but I just want to the point advice. Thankfully I go to school near a church that offers daily confessions with some great confessors they have me good advice and I am in and out.

 

[phil19034]

GiftofMercy:

As an aside, my Diocese Priests are restricted to 7 minutes.

I think I would feel deprived with such a short homily. I suppose it
depends on the skill of the homilist. With some priests, it might be a blessing. Do you know the reason for such an arbitrary limit?

I think Pope Francis recently said something like Homilies should be kept to 8 minutes or under 10 minutes. Something like that?

Personally, I think it really depends. When you have a great homilist, he could go on for 45 minutes and you can be captivated by every word.

But if the priest is terrible at homilies, you could be fighting to stay awake after 5 minutes.

 

[phil19034]

I find that most churches that offer confession at obscure times do this like 3:30 to 3:45 on a Saturday.

Yeap… this drives me nuts.

There is a Catholic university (which I will not name) that has 10,000 students, they have confession 5 days a week - Monday - Friday, no Saturdays or Sundays. However, they only have confession for 20 minutes (from 11:30 to 11:50 AM) and then for 1 additional hour on Wednesday nights from 10PM to 11PM.

To me, this is crazy - esp since they have tons priests who are professors on campus.

If you don’t have enough scheduled confession times, confessions are decreased because lots of people like to confess anonymously, so they don’t want to make an appointment.

 

[babochka]

I think Pope Francis recently said something like Homilies should be kept to 8 minutes or under 10 minutes. Something like that?

Something like that, and I’ve heard that recommendation before, but it is a bit much to turn a personal opinion into a diocesan-wide mandate.

If I had to guess, it is to keep Mass within one hour. Keep in mind that almost everyone goes to communion, and as I said previously, the church needs to be cleared out, including the parking lot, for Masses later in the day, if there are any. The “please be seated” time after communion also needs to be included in this hour.

I guess I’m just not sure why the need to keep Masses to a particular time on a diocesan basis. We have a local parish that has Masses every hour on the hour, so it is understandable that they need to keep them short. Practical matters vary from parish to parish. It seems to me that this would be more ideological.

I find that most churches that offer confession at obscure times do this like 3:30 to 3:45 on a Saturday.

I wish that one parish per deanery would offer confession on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday or Friday evening.

(I guess you can tell I am not too fond of “PBS time”.)

It took me a while to figure out what you meant by this. I’ve also heard it called the “Liturgy of the Bulletin”. I don’t really see this on a regular basis in my area. We do sit for the announcements in our parish, but that’s because we’ve been standing for the better part of 90 minutes and we can. Nobody announces “please be seated”.

 

[GiftofMercy]

The reason is the priests must learn to make their point and make it well , and for that they are to stick to three main points.

Its also so we can retain it. We have priests who list the three main points they will make and then discuss them.

I find it is so much easier to remember and for teaching

 

[DeniseNY]

I wish that one parish per deanery would offer confession on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday or Friday evening.

I like this idea

 

[GiftofMercy]

If I had to guess, it is to keep Mass within one hour.

no, because even with the lunchtime masses where people have to get back to work, these masses are usually half an hour, , so homilies still run by the same rule, not over 7 minutes and three main points at the max and talk to them.

Our Vicar General atm is a really good theologian. At his masses the homily is all about the way the three scripture readings tie in.

 

[HomeschoolDad]

(I guess you can tell I am not too fond of “PBS time”.)

Oh, at the parish I used to attend, the pastor did this at almost every Mass. Much of the time, it was to recognize birthdays, anniversaries, newcomers, and so on, with the requisite stand up, tell us, and then everyone was expected to applaud. Sometimes it was to talk about some diocesan or parish event or initiative. If I was pressed for time, for just cause, that is the point at which I would leave. It is sad when someone’s Sunday — Sunday! — is so burdened down with secular duties that they can’t spare an extra 10 or 15 minutes, but many of us find ourselves in those situations.

The reason is the priests must learn to make their point and make it well , and for that they are to stick to three main points.

Its also so we can retain it. We have priests who list the three main points they will make and then discuss them.

I find it is so much easier to remember and for teaching

I have heard, and have noted, that ideas are most effectively conveyed when they are in groups of three. Going beyond that challenges the attention span of many people.

 

[CRV]

I have found this to happen more often at my Cathedral. And yes, generally most people are in and out, and yes I too have had to go to confession on another day or somewhere else because Father had no more time left to hear confessions.

I’ve also known of a newly married young lady who spent almost half an hour in the confessional (iirc), and when she exited it was obvious she’d been crying. Some people return to the Church and confess many many years of sins, not knowing they it would be better to make an appt, and then yes, there are some priests who take time with the penitent sometimes to delve further and sometimes to educate.

So I am most grateful when I do get to go to confession!

 

[babochka]

The reason is the priests must learn to make their point and make it well , and for that they are to stick to three main points.

Its also so we can retain it. We have priests who list the three main points they will make and then discuss them.

I find it is so much easier to remember and for teaching

I get it. They want the priests to gain better preaching skills and I’m all for that, but it seem very formulaic to me.

 

[thistle]

Has anyone else noticed that many people seem to take longer in confession than they used to — of those who actually go to confession, that is?

Forgive me for being blunt but its none of your business how long a Confession takes for anyone other than yourself.

 

[John10]

Overall my experience has been that, if the priest sees that the confession line is not too long, they might extend a bit more during confession.

However I have also attended confessions where a long line was formed, and the priests do tell us not to go into detail and to kept it short (they say it is not a therapy session). I guess priests also take into account how long the queue is.

 

[theotokus1911]

For the most part confession times seem normal to me. I have missed confession before because of someone taking to long. It is kinda a bummer when it happens. But it’s a good lesson in patience and trust in God. The person that is in there might really need that time, or it may be an older person who is lonely who needs someone to talk too. Sometimes it is also the priest’s fault. I usually try to be quick but sometimes the priest wants to give a lot of advice and I find myself being in there for 10-15 mins

 

[HomeschoolDad]

Has anyone else noticed that many people seem to take longer in confession than they used to — of those who actually go to confession, that is?

There are other people who are waiting to go, and the priest normally quits hearing confessions when the allotted time (e.g., 4:00 to 5:00 pm on Saturdays) is up. As other people have noted here, and as I recognize myself, there are some people who, for one reason or another, have to spend more time. The priest also may choose to spend an extended length of time counseling them, even if the penitent doesn’t request this.

Scheduled times for confessions are usually 60 to 90 minutes in the United States. We need to have more priests, hearing more confessions, on more days. Keep in mind, though, that in this country at least, relatively few people go to confession, as a percentage of the total number of Catholics, even practicing Catholics who attend Mass weekly.

 

[Horton]

We are blessed in our parish. Our two priests will hear confessions one weeknight and on Saturday before Mass, starting at 3:30 with Mass at 5. Generally the priest not saying Mass will be in the confessional for the Liturgy of the Word hearing confessions for all the Sunday Masses.

 

[jack63]

This is an interesting thread. As for confession, I haven’t had problems. Perhaps confessions where I’ve gone are on average 5-6 minutes. I’ve always found a place where I can confess behind a screen with anonymity though. I’d think that would make things go quicker (i.e. a screen). I’d think a screen would make the possibility of the confession turning into a counseling session far less likely. This has worked for me and I have received good and meaningful advice in this type of setting. It would be interesting to know what others think though.

As for homilies, generally priests are very respectful of people’s time in many different places I’ve attended mass. Homilies are usually 10-15 minutes. I even once went to mass in Dublin Ireland and heard a meaningful ~4 minute homily.

My only concern at one place I attend mass is that for the announcements they can regularly take over 10 minutes. They basically read the entire bulletin and give extensive commentary. I find this to be pretty unfortunate. This really is a outlier though. Most places take about 1 minute for announcements.

 

[thistle]

There are other people who are waiting to go, and the priest normally quits hearing confessions when the allotted time (e.g., 4:00 to 5:00 pm on Saturdays) is up. As other people have noted here, and as I recognize myself, there are some people who, for one reason or another, have to spend more time. The priest also may choose to spend an extended length of time counseling them, even if the penitent doesn’t request this.

Scheduled times for confessions are usually 60 to 90 minutes in the United States. We need to have more priests, hearing more confessions, on more days. Keep in mind, though, that in this country at least, relatively few people go to confession, as a percentage of the total number of Catholics, even practicing Catholics who attend Mass weekly.

If you don’t like waiting then call the office and make an appointment for Confession with the priest outside normal Confession times.

 

[JimG]

Yes, I’ve noticed that in some places confessions seem to take longer. Although in my most recent parishes, the average confession time was just over 2 minutes. And that was a blessing because although there were confessions six days a week, the lines were long, and the priest had to say Mass immediatIely following confessions.
Heck, if I had 15 minutes for confession, I could do a general confession of my whole life. The way it worked at one parish was pretty straightforward: Go in the confessional, kneel, when the priest opens the slide, say how long since your last confession, state your sins. He gives a few words of advice, assigns a penance, gives absolution, and you’re out of there. Two, maybe 2 and a half minutes.

 

[HomeschoolDad]

If you don’t like waiting then call the office and make an appointment for Confession with the priest outside normal Confession times.

I have in mind more the people in line (and I have been one of these people before) who are not able to go to confession before the priest quits hearing them for the day. In many cases the priest does not keep hearing confessions until the very last person in line has had the opportunity to confess — he has to begin Mass or has to leave for some other good reason. Priests in the United States are very pressed for time in many parishes.

Getting to the church early enough to make sure you’re the first in line is another option. So is, as you note, making an appointment.

 

[JimG]

It’s always good to be considerate of those waiting, both on the part of penitent and priest. Also, the actual practice of confession has declined. If everyone who ought to go to confession actually went, the lines would be ten times longer. So to encourage people to go to confession it’s good to try to keep the lines moving.