How often does your parish offer confession?

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At the parish where I used to attend Sunday services, they offer confession once on Saturday. The priest is there for only about 15 minutes and then splits. This is the same priest that does Sunday mass in 30 minutes too (don’t even get me started on the liturgical abuses he does - that’s for anotehr thread). Very sad as this was the parish that I grew up in and I just love the people there.

I go to a different parish though for confession as they have it during the day by my work and just before lunch (in fact I am going today).
 
My Parish offers the Sacrament of Reconciliation twice every Saturday - 45 minutes in the morning, and 30 minutes in the evening.
 
My parish offers it Sunday mornings, 30 minutes before every service, and by appointment. We are a commuter parish, with few parishioners living in the neighborhood. We don’t have services every day. Practically speaking, this means that most confessions are heard on Sunday morning before Divine Liturgy. There is always a line and sometimes it is hard to get to church early enough, especially with kids and driving a distance. Our priest is very approachable and “appointment” usually takes the form of, “Father, do you have a few minutes for confession.”
 
It’s been reduced at our parish since our priest was moved to another one and replaced. We now have confessions available on Friday mornings for 25 mins and Saturday morning for 1 hour at one of two churches. At the other church there are confessions for 20 mins on Saturday evening. (We also no longer have daily Mass.)
 
I’m very blessed to be in a city that largely Catholic. I have 6 Catholic churches and several Catholic universities within 5 miles of my house, and many more in a larger periphery. My immediate parish, right down the street, offers Confession twice a day before morning and late afternoon Mass. The other parishes also have daily confessions, Saturday confessions, and one church even has Sunday confessions before each Mass.
 
ConstantlyConverting said:
During every Sunday Mass!

1 vigil mass, 5 Sunday masses.

Also Wed 6:30-8:00pm Sat 3:30-5:00pm

The line of wraps around the church, and we are not a “large” parish.

I think they are on to something.
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Confession during Mass was once fairly common, but nowadays “discouraged”. I don’t know if there is any written policy in the matter.

The local Jesuit parish is one of the rare ones that still has more than one priest. They have six(!) Confessionals. They also have signs around the Church that no confessions are heard during the Mass.

In my (1950) parish, and others, there were once four confessionals. Two are now just alcoves for statues. I wonder why they built churches with so many confessionals. (Back then they didn’t have Penance services, they had daily Confession. No wedding in afternoon, that was main Confession time).
 
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CilladeRoma said:
Outside of those times, he asks that appointments be set, as he always has something he could be doing, and sitting in the confessional for an hour, with no one there is not a good use of his time.
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After you’ve made your appointment and made your confession, suggest that he offer a month of sermons Hell and the necessity and glory of the Roman Catholic Sacrament of Reconciliation. Use the sermons to preach against the Protestant "Once Saved Always Saved " (OSAS) doctrine – that G_D is not waiting, just waiting, for a chance to send someone to Hell.

It’s true that you don’t know what you got 'till it’s gone. Up until eight years ago I lived in Iowa City, IA, and attended Mass at the Catholic Newman Center chapel, mostly because it’s where I had gone when I was attending graduate school there. They didn’t offer confession there, mostly because two blocks away there’s a BEAUTIFUL Gothic church (St. Mary’s) that has regular confession. At the time, they had confession at 9:00 AM on Saturdays, which was really nice if you went to the First Saturday Mass there (go to Mass, stay for confession).

What made this so extraordinary is that there was ALWAYS a line for confession. It probably helped that it was right next to the University of Iowa, and it was easy for students to fit this in before going to the football game a couple of hours later. All I know is that confession would start at 9 and would not end until everyone had been Reconciled. This was rarely before 11AM, and sometimes they had to send to the rectory for one of the other priests to come help.

And if something kept me from going to confession Saturday morning, I’d head across town to St. Wenceslaus. Confession started at 3 PM and had to end no later than 4:15 so the priest could get ready for the Mass at 4:30. I soon learned that if I didn’t get there before 2 PM there was a good chance that I wouldn’t get in to see the priest before he had to leave to get ready for Mass.

I think the reason Reconciliation was so popular is that Iowa City has a lot of low-level anti-Catholicism. There is an abortion clinic that has been open since 1972 about three blocks away from the Newman Center; and back in grad school I was at a special service at the Newman Center at 10PM on Thursday night, when some drunk students walking back to the dorms threw food and shouted obscenities at the Center. When it’s around you all the time, you tend to either join the enemy or join in circling the wagons.
 
Now, I live in Dubuque, IA, the seat of the Archdiocese of Dubuque. The city has had a strong Catholic presence since its founding in the 1700s, and as a consequence, it has the WORST level of practice of any place I’ve ever lived. When I first moved there, the first weekend I went to the church that was close to my apartment. It took me 10 minutes of searching to find the confessional before I asked and was pointed to a room at the back that was used for bridal parties to change. A few weeks later, I waited for almost 15 minutes for the guy in there to finish up. The door was a little open, so I finally went up to it to see if there was a problem. There was a guy in there who was just passing the time with the priest, and was surprised and apologetic that he had kept someone waiting.

I wound up joining a parish on the edge of town. It advertised confessions for 15 minutes each week, between the 4PM and 6PM Saturday night masses. I cannot tell you the number of times I waited for the priest to show up for the scheduled time, only to leave disappointed. (Once I saw him chatting with some parishioners in the sanctuary. He was NOT the sort of priest where you could just interrupt him to remind him about confession.) The fact that I was often the only person waiting for the priest shows how well the parish had learned its lesson.

Things changed only after the Pope declared the Year of Mercy, emphasizing Confession, that he began observing the posted times. He retired a few years back, and I haven’t found anyone to really misses him. The current priest added another 15 minute slot to the schedule before the 4PM Mass, so that’s some improvement.

OK, Rant Off.
 
One thing I’ve noticed is that people seem to take longer and longer in the confessional. If a confession period is offered, say, between 8-8:30, I get there and start standing in line by 7:30 if I really want to get in. That’s because if there are two people in line at 8, both can monopolize the entire 1/2 hour period. I don’t understand why these confessions are so long, except that the priest is really giving them extended counseling.
 
Limoncello4021 said:
I don’t understand why these confessions are so long, except that the priest is really giving them extended counseling.
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That could be. Another reason might be the enormous moral ambiguity and ignorance nowadays, priests have to explain more.

A third possible reason is most people go to Confession far less often than they used to.
 
Our SSPX priest hears confessions 30 min before every Mass, and after Mass for as long as it takes, sometimes a couple of hours.

By contrast in the rest of the Archdiocese confession is by appointment only.
 
Maximian said:
Our SSPX priest hears confessions 30 min before every Mass, and after Mass for as long as it takes, sometimes a couple of hours.

By contrast in the rest of the Archdiocese confession is by appointment only.
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An entire archdiocese has confessions by appointment only? Every parish? Even the Cathedral? This is extraordinary. I don’t know who you would go to in order to remedy that situation.
 
The Cathedral has a regular confession slot at 08.30 on Saturday mornings.
 
I go to a traditional parish and confession is available daily. If you are really distressed you can contact a priest and he will hear your confession at a suitable location “out of hours” etc.
 
Our cathedral has confessions three times a day, Monday to Saturday… before the morning, noon, and 5. In my experience there is generally a line as well.
My local parish has confession before every Mass, 7 days a week. Just the one priest, but he’s a trooper.
 
No Im in Europe.

I think you in the US don’t realise how fast ordinary Catholicism is disappearing in Europe. Most people who say they are Catholic over here see no reason to go to confession ever, except perhaps for murder. That’s why they can’t understand the fuss about communion for second marriages - they wouldn’t bother to confess unmarried sex or even straight adultery. Gay sex ? No problem. Gay marriage? Why not? Married priests? Sure. Priests in gay marriage? Logical.

Lastly, if you don’t really believe in the need for confession, it means that at bottom you don’t really believe sacraments are anything more than psychological aids. So obviously women priests would be no problem either.

That’s the general direction of European Catholicism.
 
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We have confessions twice on Saturdays and then again on Wednesdays. Overall it is about 5-6 hours a week. Most of the time there are long lines at the confessional.
 
TLM or NO? Seems that from what I’ve seen and read about, only TLM’s offer confession every single day.
 
Glad to hear that used to be your parish. Hopefully there are many other parishes in your area that focus more on the Sacraments.
 
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