Confessions during Mass?

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Back in my pre-Vatican II youth, I recall that confessions were often heard before and during Sunday Mass. I didn’t like going to confession during Mass; our family always went on Saturday afternoons together anyway. But it seems that in some places the practice is making a comeback, and this opinion piece considers that to be a good thing. After thinking it over, maybe it is a good thing, just because more opportunities for confession are a good thing. It would be easy at my parish because we actually do have confessionals.

Green Light on the Confessional
 
My parish has two priests, but there is usually a priest sitting in the Confessional on Sunday, about 30 minutes prior to the mass, and continues until whenever there is nobody left. For the last couple weeks I’ve noticed that he’s returned back to the sacristy about 5-10 minutes into the mass. This either tells me that the people who want to come to Confession come to Church early or that there isn’t a lot of people seeking confession. We also have First Friday Confessions every month, before the evening mass. And then of course we have what I like to call the “Holiday Confessions” before Christmas and Easter, were there are two-three days of long Confession hours in our Church, for which priests from other parishes are invited to hear the multitude of confessions.

Either way, after reading the article, I think that there should be more occasions for faithful to go to Confession. The Saturday evenings don’t cut it for a lot of people and I hope more Churches extend it to Sundays. Weekday confessions might be a good idea but not everyone lives relatively close to their parish. So while a Sunday drive isn’t bad because the roads have less traffic and relatively few people work, a weekday drive may not always be possible for those who may need to confess their sins the most.
 
That would seem to be rare these days because there are not enough priests.

ICXC NIKA
 
In our parish, we don’t need more confession time, we need the people to desire the sacrament. Only the children in formation seem to understand the necessity and benefit of going.
 
My parish is blessed to have a priest folks will line up to go to confession to. But as in most places, the priests are overbooked and so confession during Mass isn’t the norm.

ICXC NIKA
 
GEddie said:
My parish is blessed to have a priest folks will line up to go to confession to. But as in most places, the priests are overbooked and so confession during Mass isn’t the norm.

ICXC NIKA
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Well, nearly every parish here only has one priest, so it would be impossible anyway.
Plus, if he does do a confession before Mass, it is rushed since he says he needs more time to prepare himself for Mass. He does hear confessions in his office all the time, all week though in addition to the scheduled Saturday timeframe. Still low numbers given the size of our parish.
 
My Parish has multiple priests, and often get’s many guest priest’s that come in. There are a lot of confessionals, saturday’s at the vigil mass, sundays, a couple times during the week, and they allow parishoner’s to book an appointment for a confession lol. 5 minute drive away there is another parish ran by two different priests who have their own schedule for confessions and do them during sunday mass as well. I think it’s really common here because I noticed most of them do it. There is always one priest doing confessions during mass here, unless it’s the weekday short masses or the weekly latin masses.
 
It doesn’t seem right to me to have confessions during Sunday Mass, because that’s deliberately missing part of Mass (as opposed to having to miss part because of taking a child to the bathroom etc.).
Weekday Masses I wouldn’t see any problem, although imo it’s not optimal.
 
There are a couple parishes within 30 minutes of me that offer confession 30 minutes before every mass and the priest leaves the confessional when no one is left. Those parishes always have lines and often have confessions going on at least 10-15 minutes into mass.

The pastor at one parish said he would never tell someone in line to comeback later because it is hard enough for people to have the courage to get in line in the first place. Sending them away would be like a doctor at the ER telling someone who cut off their hand that you are closed and comeback next week. That parish has confession everyday for atleast an hour (2 hours on Sat and 2-3 hrs on Sun) and there are alway people there.

Now both parishes are staffed by priestly societies and have 2 or 3 priests so they can offer reconciliation during Mass. I get that it is not possible when there is only one priest, but I will say that every parish I know of that offers scheduled confession multiple times a week seems to have lines. The places that only offer it 30 minutes on Saturday seems to have few takers. I suspect that is because it sucks standing in line for 30 minutes to have the priest come out and say he needs to leave; come back next week. Now imagine those places that only offer it once a month or longer.:eek:

The point being that if the parish makes it a priority it seems to foster more people to go. If confession is only for 30 minutes you might only get 3-8 people in each week, but extending it to an hour seems to draw more people. The same with offering it multiple times per week. Most people also don’t want to schedule a meeting with a priest for confession and will either find somewhere else to go or will forgo reconciliation completely. Open times for confession tells people that Christ is there to heal them. When confession is allowed to continue even into mass it says, your healing is paramount.

Priests that I know with a devotion to hearing confession would say missing 10 minutes of mass to be reconciled with God is infinitely preferable to people thinking that confession simply doesn’t matter.
 
It is definitely a good thing. Why should one not be able to show up at a Catholic Church and have their confession heard? Sorry but that 15 minutes or half hour a week of confession ain’t cuttin’ it. Of course the lack of priests may be to blame to an extent but even parishes with more than one priest still don’t do it. A letter from 10 or 15 years ago from the CDWDS I’ve read suggest a priest should at least be on standby during Mass to hear confessions.
 
The lines are so long for confession at my parish (sometimes overlapping) that sometimes the priests (there are four) stay during mass. This is usually the daily mass though.
 
In the case of our chapel, a good number of folks travel an hour each way to get to Mass. For them, it is a blessing to have Confessions 45 minutes before each Mass. Those frequently continue after the beginning of Mass, pause during the sermon, and then resume after the sermon until Communion. Our priests encourage the Sacrament of Confession at least every 2 weeks so there is usually quite a line before every Mass.
 
Well, obviously everyone around here is all for it.
But then we decry the movement of Holy Days of Obligation to Sundays…for the convenience of the people.
:confused:
Mass is Mass, then we should not be offering anything else during the Holy Sacrifice.
In fact, our Pastor has forbidden there to be ANYTHING going on in the building at large if Mass is going on. No one can meet, no classes at the same time, nothing. Mass takes first priority.
I guess I’m thinking why is Confession any different than anything else? People have to make it a priority. I think we should focus on that bit of catechesis, rather than making it simply convenient.
Given all the suggestions for not missing this, that, or another by late arrivals, I’m not sure how we can square this.

But again, I’m the lone person out. 🤷
I sure wouldn’t get in line for Confession when I had an opportunity to assist Mass. I would make sure I was in a state of grace beforehand.
 
pianistclare said:
Well, obviously everyone around here is all for it.
But then we decry the movement of Holy Days of Obligation to Sundays…for the convenience of the people.
:confused:
Mass is Mass, then we should not be offering anything else during the Holy Sacrifice.
In fact, our Pastor has forbidden there to be ANYTHING going on in the building at large if Mass is going on. No one can meet, no classes at the same time, nothing. Mass takes first priority.
I guess I’m thinking why is Confession any different than anything else? People have to make it a priority. I think we should focus on that bit of catechesis, rather than making it simply convenient.
Given all the suggestions for not missing this, that, or another by late arrivals, I’m not sure how we can square this.

But again, I’m the lone person out. 🤷
I sure wouldn’t get in line for Confession when I had an opportunity to assist Mass. I would make sure I was in a state of grace beforehand.
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I didn’t say I was for it, just how it is at my parish. If I had confession during mass I wouldn’t count it as going to mass. If I was late to daily mass and missed the readings/gospel I wouldn’t receive. But that’s just me.

Heck, I hate it when “civilians” access the tabernacle even if they are Eucharistic ministers. But that’s another thread altogether. Let’s not derail this one, posters, tempting as it may be. :rolleyes: 😃
 
Confession during Mass does n,t happen in a Catholic Church,usually it a have hr before Mass or the Church tell,s you in the Church bulletin,what day,s they have it, but I,ve never seen when Mass is going on,and I,ve been to many Parishes .
 
In the Vatican, aren’t there always Masses and Confessions going on at the same time?🙂

ICXC NIKA
 
They only do it Friday mornings and only if there are a few left in line at my parish.
 
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