Is confession devalued today?

[dixieagle]

The parishes around me have penance services during Advent and Lent where 14 priests come an hear confessions for a couple of hours. Hundreds of people come. IF you miss the one in our parish, there’s generally one in every parish…the priests help each other out.
They are very well attended. Since they’ve begun offering this, I think many of our parishioners just wait and only go twice a year. I notice that at Saturday confessions, there are rarely more than 4 or 5 people in line.

This is pretty much the norm in our archdiocese, as well. In addition to the twice-yearly communal penance services, we also participated in “The Light is On For You”, which meant that for Wednesday evenings in Lent, there was at least one priest in the confessional/reconciliation room for 2 hours at designated parishes.

Sadly, terrible thunderstorms and flash floods happened during one of the biggest scheduled communal penance services here (last night) which means some scrambling for other confession times this week.

 

[maryjk]

I beg to differ. I’ve checked our entire diocese for confession times during all of Lent and have found very few parishes that have expanded confession times. ** I understand that priests are very busy during this time, but to me confession during Holy Week is a priority. **Your comment about purgatory was a might uncharitable and self-rightgeous.

And here is the problem.

Priests are very busy during this time.

This morning, our pastor drove 5 hours to reach our cathedral. He attended the Chrism Mass. And soon he will be on his way back.

Tomorrow, is a normal day.

Thursday, of course is the Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper, with adoration until midnight.

Friday, will be Stations of the Cross and the Celebration of the Lord’s Passion.

Saturday will be the Easter Vigil.

We have practices for each of these plus the normal church stuff that the pastor has to do. (Visit the sick, Mass, meet with people in crisis, sign checks)

And still our parish manages to get two times in for Confessions this week.

Now, if you had gone in the past few weeks, you would have found 3 to 4 times a week. Plus a Lenten Penance Service, when 10 other priests show up to hear individual confessions.

Sorry, but Confession *during *Holy Week may be a priority for you, but there are just way too many things on a priest’s plate to schedule lots of time for it.

 

[Brandall]

True, and I think the OP’s observation though points to part of the problem – many parishes aren’t doing much to make confession easy to go to, especially if one is shy and wants to confess through the screen. (If you have to make an appointment, you’ve lost the anonymity.)

Personally, I’ve gotten used to face-to-face and now prefer it, but I’d hate for someone who really needs to confess to become discouraged from doing so.

My parish is at least offering two confession options – Wednesday evenings and Saturday mornings, and there are always long lines at both, and they did have extra confession times during advent and lent. This seems to be an exception, though.

I’m in RCIA and all of our first confessions had to be scheduled. We were told, if you prefer a private confession, create an anonymous email address and the priest will be in the confessional at the scheduled time.

 

[Brandall]

And I thought the confession schedule was sparse where I attend, many of yours are much worse. We have Monday, Friday and Saturday mornings, and it’s my understanding they will stay as long as necessary, plus they hear confessions on Wednesday nights.

We also had a penance service that included bringing in priests from all over the area and there were probably more than a dozen priests there. Then too, they said they would stay as long as necessary. Additionally, they have scheduled 3 hours on Friday.

I’m fairly certain that the priests here would do whatever it takes to help accommodate you with this necessary sacrament. I’m betting they would there too.

 

[babochka]

Sorry, but Confession *during *Holy Week may be a priority for you, but there are just way too many things on a priest’s plate to schedule lots of time for it.

The parish nearest to me usually has confessions on Saturday from 3-4 and again from 7-8. During Holy Week this schedule increases dramatically. They had a penance service on Friday, then normal confessions on Saturday. On Monday, they had 3 hours of confessions (9-12) , today they had 3 hours of confessions( 9-12), tomorrow they are scheduled at 7pm. On Good Friday, they will have confessions from 11-12 and again from 8-9. On Holy Saturday, confessions will be heard from 3:30 - 4:30.

While not every parish can do this, as many have only one priest (this parish has two, plus one in residence), clearly this is a parish that values and prioritizes confession.

 

[SuperLuigi]

True, and I think the OP’s observation though points to part of the problem – many parishes aren’t doing much to make confession easy to go to, especially if one is shy and wants to confess through the screen. (If you have to make an appointment, you’ve lost the anonymity.)

Personally, I’ve gotten used to face-to-face and now prefer it, but I’d hate for someone who really needs to confess to become discouraged from doing so.

My parish is at least offering two confession options – Wednesday evenings and Saturday mornings, and there are always long lines at both, and they did have extra confession times during advent and lent. This seems to be an exception, though.

I LOVE the middle of the week Confession! It enables a person to regroup and go to daily mass T, F and Sat. morning.

 

[jeannetherese]

The Seattle archdiocese is working to make confession more broadly available during Lent and the Triduum with churches holding extra confession hours at times that are more workable for commuters each week. The Archdiocese is doing a great job publicizing this through bulletins and the Archdiocesan website, as well as through announcements at some of the Masses at which i have assisted.
My FSSP parish is very committed to making the sacraments available with confession First Fridays and Saturdays and before all Masses and right up to communion Sundays and after mass as well-there’s a definite desire, evidenced by our lines.
In addition to making sure that confession is available daily during Holy Week, there will be three priests available on Good Friday for two hours and Father is encouraging us to get to confession if possible early in the week .
We are really blessed and I hope that confession becomes more easily available in your area.
May God bless you!

 

[TK421]

Contemporary Western society has greatly lost its sense of sin. This means Confessions are down. If you want to Confess and you can’t make the scheduled window, just call for an appointment.

You can’t ultimately blame a lack of scheduled times as the reason for the decline. This is cart before horse. That cannot possibly be true. If you believe that Confession is your sacramental channel to receive forgiveness to save you from the fires of Hell, then you will not be stopped by that.

On a somewhat more optimistic end, if you have a wider breadth of Church history at your disposal, you would know that Reconciliation was more frequently used in the decades just prior to Vatican II than any other point in the 2,000 year history of the Church. By many people it was used as weekly “tune up” prior to receiving Eucharist. Unless you’ve got some serious vices you’re struggling with, this isn’t really how the sacrament was intended to be celebrated, so at least somewhat of a decrease of its use ought to be expected.

 

[Marie5890]

It would seem it would depend where you live Im guessing?

In my archdiocese during Lent, times for Confession are increased. Every Monday evening in all of the parishes, confession is held from 6-7pm.

Then in my parish, there was a communial prayer service tonight with 4 more priests coming to help with individual confessions at the end.

Then tomorrow confessions will be heard from 3-5 pm…

This is all in addition to the normal hour held on Saturdays.

 

[RedFox0456]

True, and I think the OP’s observation though points to part of the problem – many parishes aren’t doing much to make confession easy to go to, especially if one is shy and wants to confess through the screen. (If you have to make an appointment, you’ve lost the anonymity.)

Personally, I’ve gotten used to face-to-face and now prefer it, but I’d hate for someone who really needs to confess to become discouraged from doing so.

My parish is at least offering two confession options – Wednesday evenings and Saturday mornings, and there are always long lines at both, and they did have extra confession times during advent and lent. This seems to be an exception, though.

When I returned to the faith and confession, I preferred the screen. Once I became more comfortable, I felt as though the face-to-face was able to help counsel me to grow in faith in addition to obtaining healing through absolution.

And yes, I felt incredibly intimidated before I made it back to confession. So I think your statements hit the nail on the head.

 

[Arebella]

The Seattle archdiocese is working to make confession more broadly available during Lent and the Triduum with churches holding extra confession hours at times that are more workable for commuters each week. The Archdiocese is doing a great job publicizing this through bulletins and the Archdiocesan website, as well as through announcements at some of the Masses at which i have assisted.
My FSSP parish is very committed to making the sacraments available with confession First Fridays and Saturdays and before all Masses and right up to communion Sundays and after mass as well-there’s a definite desire, evidenced by our lines.
In addition to making sure that confession is available daily during Holy Week, there will be three priests available on Good Friday for two hours and Father is encouraging us to get to confession if possible early in the week .
We are really blessed and I hope that confession becomes more easily available in your area.
May God bless you!

That is absolutely wonderful! I commend your diocese for working so hard to open up more opportunity to go to confession during this very special time in the Church’s year.

 

[ccmcmg]

I think Confession can be devalued, as the ‘sense of sin’ is argued to be less than in previous years. But I think that society as a whole has devalued many things, including people. It’s no surprise that it’s leaked into the church as well. Perhaps we don’t values ourselves as much, as children of God, as we should.

As for Confessions, every parish in our diocese has held Confession every Wednesday during Lent, at the same time in each parish. However, I don’t recall that being on either the diocese’s webpage, nor was it listed on the Mass Times website. Fortunately, phone numbers are available to contact the parish, as well as email addresses. I will sometimes call ahead if I know I want/need to go to Confession and I’m going to be in a certain area, and the websites aren’t helpful to me.

 

[grasscutter]

True, and I think the OP’s observation though points to part of the problem – many parishes aren’t doing much to make confession easy to go to, especially if one is shy and wants to confess through the screen. (If you have to make an appointment, you’ve lost the anonymity.)

Personally, I’ve gotten used to face-to-face and now prefer it, but I’d hate for someone who really needs to confess to become discouraged from doing so.

I believe this is a part of why people don’t go to confession as often as they used to. Many people, like me, will travel to another Church where I can be reassured of confessing behind a screen. So… bring back the traditional confessionals!!!

Another reason is that some people have been mistakenly led to believe that once a year is the new normal.

I don’t think our sense of sin has lessened at all, nor our need for confession. Just witness all the talk shows where people disclose all manner of distasteful things that they’ve done. We all still have consciences.

 

[jeannetherese]

I believe this is a part of why people don’t go to confession as often as they used to. Many people, like me, will travel to another Church where I can be reassured of confessing behind a screen. So… bring back the traditional confessionals!!!

My parents travel to a church which still uses confessionals, and I put a few miles on my car for the same purpose.
Using our local confessionals as storage space has not been the best idea…but one of these days, maybe they’ll be put back into better use.
Meanwhile, our archdiocese is working hard on outreach and that’s a great start!

 

[Eduard_Khil]

Your comment about purgatory was a might uncharitable and self-rightgeous.

Is there much need for purgatory? You can barely ever find a proper requiem Mass but instead are constantly confronted with resurrection Masses, a type of minor canonization for your relative.

As to the op, I think yes, confession is devalued because the reality of sin is diminished, and everybody goes to heaven (except maybe terrorists). If all of your dead relatives are in heaven, then there’s no need to pray for them. Etc etc etc.

 

[babochka]

I believe this is a part of why people don’t go to confession as often as they used to. Many people, like me, will travel to another Church where I can be reassured of confessing behind a screen. So… bring back the traditional confessionals!!!

Maybe it plays a small part, but I think other things are more important. In the Byzantine church, confessions are face-to-face (sort of) and out in the open, where everyone can see you. In my parish, there is no shortage of people going to confession. I know, because I can see them. We have people from other rites and parishes coming to confession on Sunday morning, then on to their own churches for Mass.

It hasn’t always been this way in my parish, so what’s the difference? Our priest preaches about confession. A lot. When he first came a few years ago, we used to joke that he couldn’t preach a homily without mentioning confession. He makes it a priority. He is also a very good confessor and I believe that it is because he has learned how to be a good confessor. He goes to confession himself and talks about it. He reads books on the subject of how to be a good confessor and follows the advice of the saints who have gone before him. He makes himself available and everyone in the parish knows that he will hear confessions at any reasonable time.

If our priests value confession and let that show through their actions, their preaching and availability, people will come - with or without “traditional confessionals”, which date back to the 16th century. We simply need to have our desire for the grace received in this sacrament rekindled. We need to know that we are sinners in need of a savior, and that Christ himself awaits is in the sacrament.

Thank God for Pope Francis, who talks about confession more than any Pope in recent times!