Is it inconsiderate to ask a priest to hear confession after mass?

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Ask your priest. Mine would say something like, “You can always ask. If I don’t have other appointments, great, and if I have something, I’ll say so. I do know how to say ‘no’ when I need to.”

You won’t know what yours thinks until you ask.
 
EasterJoy said:
Ask your priest. Mine would say something like, “You can always ask. If I don’t have other appointments, great, and if I have something, I’ll say so. I do know how to say ‘no’ when I need to.”

You won’t know what yours thinks until you ask.
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That’s a good point.
 
Karl_M said:
I wouldn’t advise that. You never know what could happen. Fr. Serpa has in fact directly advised against this. In one of his “ask the apologist” threads, he said not to wait for next Saturday.
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My assumption was that there was no mortal sin involved since the OP asked about going to confession AFTER Mass. Otherwise, if it were me, I’d want to go to confession BEFORE Mass so that I could receive communion.
ProVobis said:
Seems like most of the posters here think that the priest doesn’t want to be bothered.
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I think it’s more a case of respecting priests’ time. It’s one thing if you make an appointment so it’s at a mutually convenient time. It’s something else if you want the priest to drop whatever other plans he has at the moment because “right now” is a convenient time for you. In particular, Sundays are pretty busy for priests.
 
SuscipeMeDomine said:
In particular, Sundays are pretty busy for priests.
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Of the few priests I know, every day is a busy day. I was once lucky enough to have a priest ask me to lunch. (I guess he liked what I was saying on chat boards.😃 ) We did have a good lunch, but, of course I took advantage of the situation by asking him to hear my confession. 🙂
 
Binary said:
Ha. I didn’t expect to catch so much **** for being forgetful. I’ve been forgetful all my life, and my various ways of dealing with it still don’t help me remember everything.
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There was no **** here. People assessed your question and responded appropriately. When forgetfulness is not due to brain damage, it can be managed, even if only by establishing a habit (if you can REMEMBER – lol) of looking at a calendar or date book a couple of times a day. I’ve improved enormously in remembering to take care of routine business since signing up with FlyLady.net, who sends me a bunch of e-mails every day reminding me to clean out my car, pay my bills, etc.
That said, I appreciate the (name removed by moderator)ut I’ve received. I think I will take the first suggestion given and create an alarm in my cell phone.
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Brilliant! I enter things on my computer calendar at work, so during the day, I get the “bong” and take care of whatever it is. I have the Angeluls set for every day at noon.
To address some specific statements: I am not intentionally avoiding confession. As much as I forget to go, I *still *go to confession more often than I do to mass. So basically every time I go, I’m in a state of mortal sin.
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Um. Do you consider this to be a problem? For me it is a great big red flag. God love ya.
 
Binary said:
I’ve never had a priest say no to this request, but I hope it’s not a great inconvenience. My church has a scheduled time for hearing confessions every saturday, but many times I’ll mean to go and then forget about it until it’s too late.
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You present a few points here: The priest and whether he’s inconvenienced; the schedule of confession and your daily distractions.

Your priest is human and I’m sure that at times he feels like saying “no, I’m busy”. I’m also sure that out of love and service to the Lord and His people, he doesn’t say no.
Everytime the priest doesn’t say no, he is sanctified by doing the work he is called to do.

Schedules are good and are in place as a fixed convenience to the congregation that can be planned on by them and by the priest - which probably visits the hospital once a week or is on call; goes to funerals, house blessings, car blessings, boat blessings and the endless litany of priestly duties which can be public or private.

I work, full time, Monday thru Friday…but, I have certain days in the week (which I look forward to) that deal with church matters. Sunday mass is number one, choir rehearsal is another, family Rosary is another. That’s 3 out of 7 days of which I have no distraction.

I (personally) taper off or eliminate from my life (or at least my mind) any distractions which will cause me to detract from those three days and from my daily life of prayer.

This is just a suggestion.

Is it an inconvenience to your priest…perhaps, but, God gives him the grace and is sanctified for taking the time to hear your confession… Are you too distracted to the point of missing the confession schedule???..perhaps.

6 of one 1/2 a dozen of the other. You get the picture. 🙂

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum.
 
Something else to consider. Let me give the situation of my priest. He says 5 Masses each weekend. There is usually insufficient time between Masses to hear confessions and still attend to the needs of the other 1000+ people. How would the OP respond if he was told “yes”, but not at this time? For example, instead of squeezing in between Masses, then to come back at the end of the last Mass, or better yet, meet any hour later so the priest could get a bite after a busy day. Would this not seem reasonable?
 
I was taught as a child that you can ask a priest anytime to hear your confession- that’s his job. My husband and I have asked various priests in all kinds of places to hear confession- never had one turn us down or say he was too busy-most seemed rather pleased. If a person wants to repent of any sin a priest should be willing to listen.I can’t see Jesus saying" sorry, I can’t do it now,I gotta run" Doesn’t matter what kind of sin- if it weighs on a person’s soul-it’s a priest’s duty to hear the penitent no matter if hours are over or not:)
 
pnewton said:
Something else to consider. Let me give the situation of my priest. He says 5 Masses each weekend. There is usually insufficient time between Masses to hear confessions and still attend to the needs of the other 1000+ people. How would the OP respond if he was told “yes”, but not at this time? For example, instead of squeezing in between Masses, then to come back at the end of the last Mass, or better yet, meet any hour later so the priest could get a bite after a busy day. Would this not seem reasonable?
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That would be very reasonable.
 
I had a priest blow me off and said “he didnt have the time right now”. Thankfully another priest came out to hear confession.
Binary said:
I’ve never had a priest say no to this request, but I hope it’s not a great inconvenience. My church has a scheduled time for hearing confessions every saturday, but many times I’ll mean to go and then forget about it until it’s too late.
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Binary said:
That would be very reasonable.
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Reasonableness is a standard that all priest should attempt to obtain. If it was the individual who was neglectful, then meeting the priest half way would be the right thing. I think most of the posts here are off target. They address the issue from the priest’s point of view. Should he hear the confession? Your question was more practical. Is it inconsiderate?

For those who think there no times that a priest should not hear a confession, I can only say that you are not thinking through everything. Of course there are times when a priest will not hear a confession.
  1. He is saying Mass
  2. He is teaching a class
  3. He is hearing a confession from someone else
  4. He is in the bathroom
  5. He is ill
  6. He needs to get in route to another, more urgent situation
  7. The Celtics are in overtime.
There are other situations where an individual priest may have special needs. A diabetic needs to eat on time. Othere illnesses may require a certain amount of rest. Our priest has a cut off time during Holy Week (midnight) because of his need to tend to other sacramental duties.
Eric Olsen:
I had a priest blow me off and said “he didnt have the time right now”.
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Perhaps he was telling the truth and not blowing you off.
 
Binary said:
I’ve never had a priest say no to this request, but I hope it’s not a great inconvenience. My church has a scheduled time for hearing confessions every saturday, but many times I’ll mean to go and then forget about it until it’s too late.
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I’ve never been turned down for confession after Mass or at any other time.

In one case, he had to go somewhere and he was late, but he asked me to walk with him to his car and that worked.
 
pnewton said:
Just curious, but did you have to find another priest or did the first priest find someone for you?
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I have definitely heard a priest “blow off” a request for confession.

I was attending a meeting in the nave, when a man walked in. The priest asked him what he wanted, and the man said, “Confession?” The priest said: “Come back at one o’clock!” (regular Saturday time for confession).

Looking on, I think, had I been the priest, I would have excused myself from the little class I was teaching, walked up to the man and quietly asked if he could wait half an hour until I was finished teaching or whether he could return at one p.m.

But I’m perfect and have 20/20 hindsight.😛
 
Perhaps another way to view the question is from the vantage of presumption. If one has a priest that always breaks off to hear a confession, even at personal sacrifice, is it not presumptious on his good grace if another option exists? After all, confessions are scheduled to make the most efficient use of the priests’ time during an age when the numbers of priests are declining and the ration of priests to parishioners is decreasing.

Obviously, when one deals with such a subjective issue as presumption, that is something only the individual making the request can answer. I know that this would never apply to a returning Catholic, but I am thinking more in terms of those who routinely ask for unscheduled, on the spot, confession.
 
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