Do even the dioceses care about confession anymore?

[YoungTradCath]

Yeah, I find it a bit sad. My parish has five priests, yet has confession for one hour a week on Saturdays.

 

[Brendan]

True. And you’ll also find that many dioceses will have at least one or two parishes that have a real charism of confession, offering it daily or multiple times a day.

Yes, at our parish, confessions are heard for a half hour before every Mass, every day, plus for 2 hours on Sat afternoon. Since we have two daily Masses, plus an extra evening Mass on Tues and Fridays, and 6 on Sat, Eve\Sunday, that makes for quite a lot of time.

I once calculated that my pastor spends about 10-`12 hours a week in the confessional.

And yes, there are generally lines.
Johannm:

As someone who works in a parish I can tell you that Ash Wednesday is a crazy day. Between our four masses, and services of the word for both our schools, plus dealing with what we call “drive in” ashes, and bringing ashes to the homebound (with the help of EMHCs), the priests really don’t have time for confessions on Ash Wednesday. It’s a good idea but impractical.

I can pretty much guarantee that my pastor will be in the Confessional for a half hour before each of the Ash Wed Masses ( and yes, we are having four Masses as well). There is an 89 year old retired priest who often comes to assist our pastor in hear confessions.One of the ushers will usually pick him up at his retirement home and bring him back later in the day. He has difficulty standing, so he doesn’t say Mass publically very often, and this is how he likes to help out. (God Bless him).

There are probably hundreds of elderly priests in the US like him, and sitting in a confessional is one thing they can do easily. They like it because it involves them in a parish again, instead of playing one more hand of euchre with the same folks at the retirement home.

But it does require a parish that does more than keep it’s priests waiting in a confessional alone for hours at a time.

 

[dixieagle]

Our archdiocese is putting a strong emphasis on Reconciliation this Lent. Numerous parishes will have one or more priests in the confessionals/Reconciliation rooms and available several hours each Wednesday evening throughout Lent. The archbishop has had a letter read, and priests in all parishes have really put an emphasis on bringing this program to parishioners’ attention.

 

[Annabelle_Marie]

Yeah, I find it a bit sad. My parish has five priests, yet has confession for one hour a week on Saturdays.

Gosh…we have one priest and he hears confessions for 1/2 on Wed and an hour on Saturday. But he is just one priest trying to tend to us all…