Do the parishes in your area tend to "stagger" confession times?

[anp1215]

Just something I was wondering. I don’t think I will make this a poll because of the many different possible answers. I made myself a list of the local parishes and their scheduled confession times in case I am ever out and find myself needing to go to confession. It’s also easier to have on my computer instead of having to find the parish website.

There’s about six parishes in a 30 minute radius, and I noticed something when making my chart. Almost all the parishes have the same confession times. Out of the six, four have confession on Saturday afternoon and two on Saturday morning (this I think is great because Sunday Mass follows). But as for the other days, four have confession on Wednesday nights, one on Tuesday nights, and one on no scheduled nights during the week.

I thought it was kind of unusual because it seems as though local parishes might want to stagger their times to accommodate a greater number of people. If someone works on Wednesday nights, the Confession times could be problematic. Please understand I am not bashing the parishes. These are all great parishes and I love them. And yes I know confession is available by appointment.

How are the parishes in your area?

 

[Sirach2]

It is unlikely that they will be widely varied in assigning confession times on Saturday. Some reasons I can think of are the normal Saturday morning mass, the possibility of a funeral following, and perhaps a wedding in the afternoon followed by the Sunday vigil mass. You are blessed if you have them during the week! We are not so fortunate here.

 

[marleelynn]

around me (Arch of Balt), most parishes have Saturday afternoon before vigil mass. the Basilica in Balt I think has Sun afternoon confession before their Sun afternoon mass

 

[Spirithound]

All of the parishes around here have confessions before Saturday evening Mass, but the Mass times are slightly staggered. There is 4:30, 5:00, 5:15, 5:30, and 6:00.

 

[SwizzleStick]

My guess is that parishes do not stagger, but set confession times according to their own Mass schedules. We have a 5:00 p.m. vigil Mass on Saturdays, so confession runs from 4:00-4:40 (and one may also set an appointment as needed). A nearby parish where I have also gone to confession also has 5:00 p.m. Mass, so confession time is 4:00-4:45 there. I think the times are set according to the vigil Mass time on Saturday and around Masses on Sunday if confession is offered then, but that is just a guess.

 

[Deo_Gratias42]

I don’t think they are around here, but it’s not really an issue as our priest from the FSSP at the parish hears confessions daily before and after Mass, and again on Saturday evenings. That being said, it’s not advertised that confessions are heard after Mass (which is probably a good thing), but those who attend Mass knows father comes back to hear confessions until everyone is through (which is why it’s good not to advertise, as he would probably be there for a long long time).

 

[fastenatingguy]

My friend who is a Priest gave me great advice.

If you need to go to confession and it’s not a Saturday (which as indicated above, seems to be the standard), find one of the following;

1. A Latin Mass (TLM) predominant parish
2. A Mexican parish
3. A Polish Parish
4. A Retirement home for Priests

Perhaps others can share similar ideas.

Living in Chicago makes ALL of the above quite practical.

 

[Mrs_Sally]

It is unlikely that they will be widely varied in assigning confession times on Saturday. Some reasons I can think of are the normal Saturday morning mass, the possibility of a funeral following, and perhaps a wedding in the afternoon followed by the Sunday vigil mass. You are blessed if you have them during the week! We are not so fortunate here.

This is very true. My parish has a regular Saturday morning Mass, today it was followed by baptisms. Then the weddings start. We have arrived for the Saturday afternoon confession time more than once when the wedding party was still in the church taking endless pictures. We then have an anticipated Mass for Sunday. Whew!

That said, I agree with the OP that it would be nice is nearby parishes could coordinate weeknight confession times, but most of them have Wednesday night as the traditional choice.

 

[anp1215]

It is unlikely that they will be widely varied in assigning confession times on Saturday. Some reasons I can think of are the normal Saturday morning mass, the possibility of a funeral following, and perhaps a wedding in the afternoon followed by the Sunday vigil mass. You are blessed if you have them during the week! We are not so fortunate here.

Yes, I expect most of them to have Confession immediately before the Saturday vigil Mass. I think that’s very good.

My guess is that parishes do not stagger, but set confession times according to their own Mass schedules. We have a 5:00 p.m. vigil Mass on Saturdays, so confession runs from 4:00-4:40 (and one may also set an appointment as needed). A nearby parish where I have also gone to confession also has 5:00 p.m. Mass, so confession time is 4:00-4:45 there. I think the times are set according to the vigil Mass time on Saturday and around Masses on Sunday if confession is offered then, but that is just a guess.

You are probably right about the Saturday confession times.

My friend who is a Priest gave me great advice.

If you need to go to confession and it’s not a Saturday (which as indicated above, seems to be the standard), find one of the following;

1. A Latin Mass (TLM) predominant parish
2. A Mexican parish
3. A Polish Parish
4. A Retirement home for Priests

Perhaps others can share similar ideas.

Living in Chicago makes ALL of the above quite practical.

Good advice for big cities, but we have none in the immediate area here. I live in the suburbs. We have a pretty sizable Hispanic population, but they are spread throughout the parishes, not at one particular parish. I was interested in this though so I did a little research. Of course TLM parishes have wider availability of Confession. There is one Polish parish in Houston, and it does have more confession times, on Friday, Saturday, and before Masses on Sunday. But I did not notice greater availability of Confession in the Hispanic parishes vs. the English. It just varied. Some had a lot of times, some had only one per week, just like the English predominant parishes.

 

[fastenatingguy]

Yes, I expect most of them to have Confession immediately before the Saturday vigil Mass. I think that’s very good.

You are probably right about the Saturday confession times.

Good advice for big cities, but we have none in the immediate area here. I live in the suburbs. We have a pretty sizable Hispanic population, but they are spread throughout the parishes, not at one particular parish. I was interested in this though so I did a little research. Of course TLM parishes have wider availability of Confession. There is one Polish parish in Houston, and it does have more confession times, on Friday, Saturday, and before Masses on Sunday. But I did not notice greater availability of Confession in the Hispanic parishes vs. the English. It just varied. Some had a lot of times, some had only one per week, just like the English predominant parishes.

I just went to a Jesuit retirement home for the Feast of the Assumption. I knew that there would be a few scheduled and many non-scheduled masses there. It was beautiful, and the confessor priests were almost fighting over those of us that were there for confession (plenty to go around!).

My friend who is a priest and has spent summers in Mexico always says that in the USA the communion lines are long and hardly anyone goes to confession, but in Mexico it is just the opposite.

 

[Aggies08]

Ours do, purposely, and it’s lovely . They always make an announcement about it around Lent for those who don’t realize it, and cannot (or don’t want to, lol) go to their parish!

 

[anp1215]

I just went to a Jesuit retirement home for the Feast of the Assumption. I knew that there would be a few scheduled and many non-scheduled masses there. It was beautiful, and the confessor priests were almost fighting over those of us that were there for confession (plenty to go around!).

My friend who is a priest and has spent summers in Mexico always says that in the USA the communion lines are long and hardly anyone goes to confession, but in Mexico it is just the opposite.

I’m not sure…maybe there is a difference between actual Mexican parishes in Mexico and American parishes with a lot of Hispanics? There were some parishes with a lot of Confession times, but there were a lot with only one per week. I will look some more and see. This is interesting to me.