How to confess to a priest?

[otjm]

I agree. I don’t like the different approach taken to the Sacrament post Vatican II. I can’t prove causation, but the revisions might be the reason people no longer go to Confession as often. In my parish and across my town, the lines for Confession are very small and the scheduled confession times are very short. This is a real shame because Confession is very cathartic - people don’t realize what they’re missing!

With the exception of Latin, the two forms are almost identical. The addition not mentioned is sitting in front of the priest, rather than in a separate booth with a screen between.

And with so extremely little change, there is nothing on which to hang one’s hat as to the fall-off in people going to reconciliation, It is not changes to the sacrament, but rather three (not necessarily totally unrelated) matters.

It should be noted that the high point in Mass attendance appears to be about a decade before Vatican 2. attendance at Mass started falling off in the mid to late 1950’s, and has continued in a slow decline since. Fewer people going to Mass; fewer to reconciliation,

Coupled with that was the change in catechesis, after Vatican 2. In a revolt against a memorized, largely rule based catechesis, and against the Baltimore Catechism as the means of catechizing, the baby got thrown out with the bath water and catechesis was largely dumbed down. Sin largely was 'slid over" if addressed at all, and mercy, without any real correlation to judgment, became the mantra. as a result, there are a lot of people who have a very half-baked approach to the 10 Commandments.

The third issue has been the creeping influence of secularism and the rise of mass communication. Visual communication has changed; what was not acceptable in the 50’s and 60’s in both movies and television has long gone by the wayside, which has added a sense of “no sin” to the mix. as a nation, we have become so secular, and so caught up with “political correctness” (which is clearly secular) and “hate speech” that it is entirely all too easy to slide into the “everyone does that” thought pattern.

In the parish I grew up in, in the 50’s and 60’s, the lines were not all that long either; and some of that had to do with a greater number of priests. Two hearing confessions effectively cuts the line in half and/or moves it a lot quicker. And we didn’t have 2 or 3 hour time periods then either.

 

[Gertabelle]

I agree. I don’t like the different approach taken to the Sacrament post Vatican II. I can’t prove causation, but the revisions might be the reason people no longer go to Confession as often. In my parish and across my town, the lines for Confession are very small and the scheduled confession times are very short. This is a real shame because Confession is very cathartic - people don’t realise what they’re missing!

That may very well be your experience, but it certainly isn’t the norm around here.

The Cathedral (downtown Denver) offers confessions 7 days a week, and there are always long lines (ten or more people).

I will sometimes go to confession on Sunday morning at a local parish (not mine) before one of their masses – again, line of five to ten people.

My own parish offers confession six days a week, and there are always lines of five to ten people on weekdays. On Saturday, the line will be ten to twenty people at any given moment.

The “liberal” parish near me only has confessions once a week – but there are literally dozens of people in line every Saturday afternoon!

And a couple months ago, I went to one parish that had confessions on Saturday morning at 7:00 am. I was there right at 7:00 and was number eight in line!

These are all parishes that offer the OF mass only. But the sacrament of confession is alive and well, thanks be to God!

 

[Tis_Bearself]

I can’t prove causation, but the revisions might be the reason people no longer go to Confession as often. In my parish and across my town, the lines for Confession are very small and the scheduled confession times are very short. This is a real shame because Confession is very cathartic - people don’t realise what they’re missing!

I have heard from at least one other priest in a different state that “nobody goes to Confession” but in the area where I am living now (suburban area in proximity to a large East Coast city), the vast majority of times I have gone to confession there have been long lines, ranging from 5-10 people up to 30-40 if it was First Saturday or right before a major holiday. Several times the priest had to cut the line off because he didn’t have time to do everyone’s confession prior to Mass. Only one of these dozen or so churches was a parish focusing on EF/TLM. The rest were all just ordinary OF parishes.

I really wish someone would do a study on why some churches have people beating down the doors of the confessionals and other churches seem to have nobody coming to confession. I don’t doubt that the situation exists but I cannot find the logical basis. It doesn’t seem related to EF or OF, and I doubt it relates to who the priest is because at the churches where there is a line I see lines for all the priests. The only logical explanation I saw in one case was when I went to confession at noon on Friday (work week day) to a cathedral located in a not very good neighborhood where office workers couldn’t easily get there. There were only 2 people at the confessions, me and another guy. But when cathedrals are located closer to a business district, I see them with 10 people in line all the time.

 

[babochka]

I have heard from at least one other priest in a different state that “nobody goes to Confession” but in the area where I am living now (suburban area in proximity to a large East Coast city), the vast majority of times I have gone to confession there have been long lines, ranging from 5-10 people up to 30-40 if it was First Saturday or right before a major holiday. Several times the priest had to cut the line off because he didn’t have time to do everyone’s confession prior to Mass. Only one of these dozen or so churches was a parish focusing on EF/TLM. The rest were all just ordinary OF parishes.

I’ve also heard that nobody goes to confession anymore, but, like you, my personal experience hasn’t borne that out. One local parish had, until very recently, confessions from 3-4 on Saturday and again from 7-8 on Saturday. Up until a few years ago, they had 2 or 3 priests hearing confessions during each of these times, and always had lines 20-30 people deep for each line. Sadly, this parish only has one priest now and he was forced to eliminate the later confession times. I haven’t been there since the change was made, but I’m sure the lines are still long. I was recently at another local parish that has Tuesday evening Confessions. The line had at least 40 people in it throughout the entire time. The Cathedral has Confession every day for 1/2 hour before the noon Mass. There are always 5 or 6 people in line. The FSSP (Traditional) parish has Confessions every day, at various times. There are always at least a few people in line and usually 2, sometimes 3, priests hearing Confessions. My own parish always has a few people in line and our sole priest sometimes has to cut it off so that he can start the Divine Liturgy on time. Yes, this is anecdotal and I’m sure there are just as many places where the faithful can’t even find scheduled confession times or the priests wait at the confessional in vain.

I really wish someone would do a study on why some churches have people beating down the doors of the confessionals and other churches seem to have nobody coming to confession. I don’t doubt that the situation exists but I cannot find the logical basis. It doesn’t seem related to EF or OF, and I doubt it relates to who the priest is because at the churches where there is a line I see lines for all the priests. The only logical explanation I saw in one case was when I went to confession at noon on Friday (work week day) to a cathedral located in a not very good neighborhood where office workers couldn’t easily get there. There were only 2 people at the confessions, me and another guy. But when cathedrals are located closer to a business district, I see them with 10 people in line all the time.

That would make for an interesting study. My personal experience, which is quite limited, is that confession is “popular” in parishes where the priests preach about confession, or at least mention it from time to time. I wonder if Confessions have gone up since Pope Francis became pope? He talks about it all the time.

I just don’t see how the blame can be placed on the changes in the rite post Vatican II. Confession is still the same.

Here are some interesting statistics I came across from a pew research poll conducted in 2015. The full results can be found here: pewforum.org/2015/09/02/chapter-2-participation-in-catholic-rites-and-observances/

Among those who self-identify as Catholics (excluding cultural Catholics and ex-Catholics), only 43% receive Communion every time they attend Mass. An additional 13% receive most of the time. I would have thought the numbers were higher. 43% of all Catholics (based on self-identity and not separated by frequency of Mass attendance) go to Confession at least once a year. (7% at least monthly, 14% several times a year, 21% once a year). To put this in perspective, only 29% of Catholics report Mass attendance weekly or more. It would be interesting to see the percentage of weekly-Mass-attending Catholics who go to Confession at least several times a year. I think the result might surprise those who point out that “Communion lines are long, but Confession lines are short.”

Of course, it isn’t all rosy. The poll shows an astonishingly high number of Catholics who disagree with Church teaching on major issues, even among those who attend regularly. But I don’t think the picture of participation in the sacraments is as bleak as some believe.

Edit: I found the data: 68% of Catholics who attend Mass weekly go to confession at least annually. It would be interesting to see similar statistics decade by decade since the early 1900s. I’d be would imagine it peaks in the late 40s, early 50s. It would be fascinating to be able to compare these numbers to other centuries, particularly the middle ages.