Is it just me, or is set time for confessions becoming an endangered species

[nickybr38]

But if he is effective at challenging people, then he ought to be hearing confessions regularly.

I’m not sure… I do know that his homilies are powerful and he approaches the faith in a very no-nonsense kind of way.

That said, the ‘general penance’ mass had maybe 75% of the normal congregation (from Sunday morning) and only about 40% of them stayed for Confession after (I know, I was in the back of the line).

Father is VERY open to hearing confessions at any time. Before Mass, after Mass… anytime he is willing to hear but I get the impression there is no one who wants to confess. That’s why there are no scheduled confessions, because no one was showing up so it seemed like a waste of resources and time. Now, this is just my general understanding of the situation, I’ve never dug into it too deeply. Knowing that I can approach him after Mass for confession is enough for me.

 

[Mrs_Sally]

We have set confession times three times a week during Ordinary time, and much more often during Lent and Advent.

For those in the same situation as the OP, ask your priest why he doesn’t offer scheduled confession times. If he says that no one comes, perhaps he just needs a little PR.

In the meantime, for annonymous confession, use masstimes.org to find somewhere else. Or if your need is great, hunble yourself to make an appointment.

 

[Leegal]

Hello all,

I’m just wondering whether anyone else has noticed this, but giving confession seems to be becoming something of a quest in itself. My church attendance in the past year or so has been sporadic, which naturally establishes the need for confession. Yet, my home parish (I’m a college student, so I’m not often there) offers confession only by appointment outside of the Lenten season, two of the parishes that I’ve visted near college listed confession time before mass, yet this did not take place either time I visited, a third parish offers set confession time in the middle of the day during the week (how many people can really make it? I have work/class), and a fourth makes no mentions of confession.

What gives?

I understand the Vatican has nixed the idea of providing confession over the internet or some other telecommunication channel, but I’m start to see why those exact things might make a LOT of sense.

I went last night – no priest, not one priest at all. Not enough priests is my guess.

 

[assunta123]

Agreed. Most parishes have confessions at very inconvenient times, when most people cannot attend, being the times are very limited. If the church wants more people to go to confession, wouldn’t it be beneficial to schedule confession before Sunday masses when people are already there?

 

[assunta123]

You would think so, yet I went to Mass yesterday at the only church in the area that offers the TLM, and even they weren’t offering confessions at the time listed.

Thats the one that surprised me.

The TLM in our area offers confession 1/2 hour before Sunday masses, up to the Sanctus during Mass.

 

[Luna_Lovecraft]

Check here: www.masstimes.org

Put your ZIP in and it’ll list nearby parishes and times for confessions.

Masstimes isn’t a guarantee you’ll get Confession. We used it to locate two parishes at Christmas that had Confession times listed on their websites, but when we showed up no one was there.

Thankfully our parish has regular, convenient Confession times, but our experience made me feel for people in other parishes.

Luna

 

[georgewithfaith]

Confession is only necessary if you’re in mortal sin, so its not really a big deal. Its much wiser to spend time staying OUT of mortal sin in the 1st place. Priests do their best.

Confession is a big deal. We are all sinners and there is a lot of opportunity to sin in our modern world. Sometimes we sin without even thinking about it in our fast paced world. Periodic confessions keep us honest and help us to recollect and reflect on our conscience. It is a good practice to keep us spiritually fit to attend confession. Also, venial sins can add up and even confessing venial sins is not a bad thing to do.

 

[JimG]

My own parish does not have this problem. Confessions are heard every day before afternoon Mass–that’s Monday through Friday, plus an hour on Saturday, and there is usually a line. If the lines are too long, another priest usually comes out to help.

I think it may also help if a parish has a confessional where anonymity is guaranteed.

Perhaps if a parish is having problems with no people showing up for confessions, the priest may want to give a serious homily about the matter, and end with something like “Now, I’ll be in the confessional after Mass for as long as it takes, and unless we are a parish of perfect people I expect a long line.”

 

[Faith1960]

I figure it’s supply and demand. Where there is little demand there is little supply.

I usually go to a Carmelite Chapel in my area which has confessions multiple times a day. And there, I have never not had to wait. There, for whatever reason, there is a geat demand and also an abundant supply (of avaliablity).

It is almost always a line of sweet looking elderly ladies of which I need to wait for.

Funny how it’s the sweet elderly ladies who seem to do most of the sinning isn’t it?

LOL. I often wonder what they have to confess.

 

[Faith1960]

Because I am among those who prefer to give confession anonymously.

I do, too. You really have no other choice but to find another place for confession, but it wouldn’t hurt for you to talk with your priest and suggest they make regular confession times available in the future.

 

[Faith1960]

90 minutes (for one hour) prior to Saturday Mass. Mass is at 5, Reconciliation starts at 3:30.

We have it twice on Saturday – once on Saturday morning, and later in the afternoon, for 45 minutes before the vigil Mass. They take appointments anytime.

During Lent and Advent, our parish teams up with two other nearby parishes and they have a Reconcilliation weekend, where there are a lot of times available.

 

[GwenL]

LOL. I often wonder what they have to confess.

They confess for the same reason that they dominate the crowd at daily Mass.

They are getting ready for a big final exam, and need to prepare.

 

[DihydrogenOxide]

Masstimes isn’t a guarantee you’ll get Confession. We used it to locate two parishes at Christmas that had Confession times listed on their websites, but when we showed up no one was there.

Thankfully our parish has regular, convenient Confession times, but our experience made me feel for people in other parishes.

Christmas is the worst time to look on Masstimes for a schedule. Surely you should know that Masstimes is really only helpful during ordinary times. Big holy days such as Christmas and Easter generally always have there own special penance services.

 

[gh4]

Our priest has only been here for about 7 months and he’s working things out. He was having Holy Hour every Friday with mass afterwards and there was about 40 minutes where he heard confessions. That was good! Now Friday goes back to morning mass and we are having 4pm mass on Tuesdays, but not sure what’s happening about Holy Hour and confessions. Supposedly he will hear confessions 1 hour before mass, but honestly, he only gets to the church about 10 minutes before mass, hardly enough time for anything but the very briefest of confessions. And our confessional is not 100% sound proof, so I’d really rather not confess with people milling around right outside the door!!
I think many people just don’t do confession anymore and a lot of people only do confession at Christmas and Lent/Easter.

 

[Luna_Lovecraft]

Christmas is the worst time to look on Masstimes for a schedule. Surely you should know that Masstimes is really only helpful during ordinary times. Big holy days such as Christmas and Easter generally always have there own special penance services.

Surely we should know no such thing. Sheesh. We used the site to put us in touch with parish websites. We could have just as easily used our Google-fu, I suppose.

What we should expect is for parishes to keep their sites current and accurate. If they can’t do that, they should take their sites down, no? I mean seriously… I can get Confession being cancelled because of an emergency, but if it hasn’t been held on Saturdays since Fr. David was transfered to Los Angeles in 2007 and no one’s bothered to update their website (was told that at one parish office), they need to get on that. And if they don’t know how, recruit some of their high school parishioners; kids can get stuff like that squared away in no time.

Luna

 

[George_Stegmeir]

For all of you who need to go to Confession, and find that it is not offered on a scheduled basis, Why not go into the sacristy right after one Mass has ended and before the next one is scheduled. As the priest if he will hear your Confession. Very few will deny you, unless it is apparant that yours will be a lengthy one and will cut into the scheduled Mass time. If you are at a University, call the priest at the Newman Society on campus. You will find they are always available… Don’t cop out by making excuses that I am too busy, or the priest isn’t available. If you can’t find it at one Parish, go to another. There are very few towns in the US with only one Catholic Church-even in the Deep South!

 

[babochka]

Our parish is very small, but Confession is offered 1 hour before Sunday Mass and 30 minutes before every other scheduled service. I actually have difficulty getting to church early on Sunday morning, as I have 5 young children. Our priest is more than happy to hear Confessions after church or any other time that you ask him.

As for the priests who say that spending an hour in the Confessional is “wasting time” if nobody comes - they could use that unexpected time for prayer or spiritual reading.

 

[MissRose73]

I prefer to go when there are set times for Confession compared to making an appointment. I just wished more priests would preach on the necessity of the sacrament, and that going more than 1 time a year is not a bad thing no matter if its to your parish priest or another priest. Also, it would be nice to perhaps have once a month or perhaps twice, confessions available on times other than Saturday mornings to accommodate working people with unusual work schedules as an example who may not be able to go on a Saturday morning.

 

[DihydrogenOxide]

Surely we should know no such thing. Sheesh. We used the site to put us in touch with parish websites. We could have just as easily used our Google-fu, I suppose.

Yeah, I know what you mean. I did something a little more old-fashioned around Christmas. I’d go on to masstimes, find the parish phone number and give 'em a ring. Needless to say, even the recordings for holy day confession schedules were pretty bad. I couldn’t find one for the saturday before. I was in the state of grace, so I just shrugged and decided to go the next time I could.

As an aside, I have at least 15-20 catholic churches nearby that I could go to relatively easily, so that’s why Masstimes is useful to me. I forget the names sometimes and sometimes it’s nice to see which is closer to where I am at the moment.

I mean seriously… I can get Confession being cancelled because of an emergency, but if it hasn’t been held on Saturdays since Fr. David was transfered to Los Angeles in 2007 and no one’s bothered to update their website (was told that at one parish office), they need to get on that.

lol. Some kids can. Hey, most anyone can put that stuff in the website. They make them kind of cookie-cutter now, for the technologically illiterate. You don’t need to know anything about coding, just put “this and this” here and “so-and-so” there. It’s very, very easy.

Sounds like they have a fear of the computer or they just don’t care.

 

[Mrs_Sally]

Masstimes isn’t a guarantee you’ll get Confession. We used it to locate two parishes at Christmas that had Confession times listed on their websites, but when we showed up no one was there.

Thankfully our parish has regular, convenient Confession times, but our experience made me feel for people in other parishes.

Luna

I always call after I locate a parish in masstimes even if I’m just looking for Mass. Catholic parishes are not the best at updating their websites.