In One Church, Confession Makes a Comeback

[didymus]

from the NY Times:

In One Church, Confession Makes a Comeback

By SAMUEL G. FREEDMAN
STAMFORD, Conn. — The day after Msgr. Stephen DiGiovanni was installed in June 1998 as the pastor of St. John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church here, he walked through the quiet sanctuary, appreciating the English Gothic grandeur and tallying all the repairs it required.
One particular sight seized him. The confessional at the rear of the pews had been nailed shut. The confessional in the front, nearer the altar, was filled with air-conditioning equipment. And these conditions, Monsignor DiGiovanni realized, reflected theology as much as finance.

In the wake of the Second Vatican Council in the mid-1960s, the Catholic Church began offering confession in “reconciliation rooms,” rather than the traditional booths. Even before the setting changed, habits had. The norm for American Catholics was to make confession once a year, generally in the penitential period of Lent leading up to Easter.

Monsignor DiGiovanni, though, soon noticed that there were lines for the St. John’s reconciliation room the only time it was open each week, for two hours on Saturday afternoon. So within his first month as pastor, he pried open the door to the rear confessional, wiped off the dust of decades and arranged for replacing the lights, drapes and tiles.

Then, in the fall of 1998, Monsignor DiGiovanni rolled back the clock of Catholic practice, having St. John’s priests hear confession in the booths before virtually every Mass. By now, as another Lent commences next week with Ash Wednesday, upwards of 450 people engage in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, as confession is formally known, during 15 time slots spread over all seven days of the week. Confessions are heard in English, Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese.

“As humans, we’re always deciding that we are God and breaking his commandments,” said Monsignor DiGiovanni, 58, during an interview this week in his rectory. “But God is savvy enough to know that. And God wants us to come back to Him if there’s a contrite heart. Salvation is not just a one-time deal.”

His message has stirred scores of consciences at St. John’s. And while the frequency of confession, and the return to booths from the reconciliation room, puts the pastor and the parish on the conservative end of the Catholic spectrum, St. John’s is a standard diocesan church with a varied congregation — corporate executives, Haitian and Hispanic immigrants, Stamford’s longtime Irish and Italian middle class.

I found this on Fr. Z’s blog, you can read the article w/his comments there.

 

[AveSantaMaria]

I wonder why Confession makes a comeback. Isn’t it beautiful that we may all be very different people - different races, cultures, economic situations - but we can come together for mass?

 

[Lepanto]

Ahh, Richhy McBrien. Must you always be so bitter?

 

[Scoobyshme]

Americans have fallen away from Confession because it’s no longer as available as it once was. I consider myself SO lucky to work 5 miles from Our Lady of the Angels Monastery (EWTN) where they have Confession EVERY day at 11am. I just take an early lunch hour and go! Our priests are spending too much of their time with “committies” for this and that, rather than doing what only they can do, administering the Sacraments. We need to refocus on what’s important…souls! As Bishoh Sheen used to say, “If souls are not saved, nothing is saved!”

Pope John Paul II and Mother Theresa of Calcutta used to go to Confession at least weekly. And if THEY need to go weekly, we should, also! Frequent Confession is like frequent house cleaning. The more you clean, the more “dirty corners” you find that need cleaning. Sooner or later, you’ll defeat your “pet sins” and begin to discover sins of omission, or other sins of which you weren’t as aware.

 

[Lepanto]

Americans have fallen away from Confession because it’s no longer as available as it once was.

Although this is true, I think the bigger issue is that many Americans have lost the sense of sin.

They see no need for confession, because they tacitly think of themselves as saints, and/or because they think that they don’t need sacramental confession to a priest, and/or because they presume on God’s mercy.

 

[Scoobyshme]

Although this is true, I think the bigger issue is that many Americans have lost the sense of sin.

They see no need for confession, because they tacitly think of themselves as saints, and/or because they think that they don’t need sacramental confession to a priest, and/or because they presume on God’s mercy.

I think the two are related. As the old Latin saying goes, “Lex orandi, lex credendi.” (As we pray, so shall we believe.) Our actions are tied to our beliefs. On the other hand, we don’t hear much about sin from the pulpit like we used to. There is something lacking from many of our priests who attended seminaries where they received exceedingly poor spiritual formation and education.

On a good note, however, many of the young priests going through our seminaries today really have their spiritual heads screwed on right! It’s very encouraging. I wish all the young ones were that way, but they’re not. A good many are, though. And many of the ones that are orthodox were that way going in, and had to “get through the system” in order to be ordained. Our seminaries still aren’t all straight in this country, although many are marginally better.

 

[manualman]

I found another parish like this some years back in Holy Trinity, Westmont Illinois. The pastor at the time decided to implement a Sunday evening (8:00pm) mass to help out travelers out of town earlier on weekends. He then added confession beforehand. It became so popular that he had to go BACK into the confessional after mass and was often there past 10:00 at night.

The article nails it when it notes the condition of the confessional being a metaphor for the place it has in the gospel proclaimed to us today. When a parish dedicates 2 reconcilliation services per year and a single one hour time slot per week for confession, they are SAYING something about the importance of that sacrament. When the parish makes changes that emphasizes its importance, people respond.

The fact that Father McBrien thinks it of no importance doesn’t surprise me, but reassures me that I’m on the right track!

 

[bellesjoy]

Both Scoobyshme and Lepanto are correct. Our parish is a good example.
For years we had priests from an order that didn’t talk of sin or a need to confess and we had 30 min of confession time on Sat. afternoon.
When the order left the area and our good Bishop was able to choose more orthodox priests for us it all changed.
Pro-life messages from the pulpit and moral teaching, recognizing sin and the need for confession began right away.
Now confession is available every day, usually before and after morning mass, but also Wed. evening and most of the morning on Sat. One of our priests just commented the lines are getting longer and he stayed an hour and a half longer last Sat.
We are thankful for our Bishop and the wonderful priests he has brought to us.