MERGED: Confession: Why long Lines/Hard to get to?

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Just as a casual observation, I wonder how many people have experienced the observation that “people just don’t go to confession anymore” to be false.

Often claims of that type are behind the times, but I’ve noted that in the 80s and 90s, outside of Lent, I used to go into a Church during the scheduled time for Confession and there were often just a few people in line, and frequently nobody at all.

Not anymore.

And that’s a good thing.

In all three of our Parishes there’s a line every time. Last Saturday I went to Confession at our smallest parish and the line stretched all the way down the side of the church. It was literally just like Lent used to be. And just a regular hot July. Quite a few of those in line were teenagers at that.
 
Yeoman said:
I know that you can do it face to face, but I don’t. I stay behind the screen.
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I’ve heard that Italian priests—when hearing the confessions of Italian men, but not those of women or foreigners—will refuse to allow them to stay behind the screen. “Come here and face me like a man,” is apparently their rational for this.

I’m not saying this is right, but it’s very amusing nonetheless. 🙂
 
Yeoman said:
I frankly feel that the “face to face” movement that came about in the 70s was one of those poorly thought out things that was going on during that era.
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May I ask why? I’m a new Catholic, just baptized and confirmed at Easter 2015. From the start I chose to do face-to-face confession, kneeling in front of the Priest. I felt that since it was a bit more embarrassing to confess my sins face-to-face that it was probably a good thing and would help me to let go of my pride and accept humility. I’m just curious why you think that the face-to-face movement was a bad idea?
 
Yeoman said:
Just as a casual observation, I wonder how many people have experienced the observation that “people just don’t go to confession anymore” to be false.

Often claims of that type are behind the times, but I’ve noted that in the 80s and 90s, outside of Lent, I used to go into a Church during the scheduled time for Confession and there were often just a few people in line, and frequently nobody at all.

Not anymore.

And that’s a good thing.

In all three of our Parishes there’s a line every time. Last Saturday I went to Confession at our smallest parish and the line stretched all the way down the side of the church. It was literally just like Lent used to be. And just a regular hot July. Quite a few of those in line were teenagers at that.
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I think that you’re really on to something here. In my area, at least, the sacrament is alive and well. All parishes have scheduled Confession times. The parish closest to me (but not my parish) has confessions from 3-4 and 7-8 on Saturdays. There are usually 3 priests hearing confessions, and there is always a line. Often there are 30-40 people in line. I’ve also experienced this in other parishes. My own parish is super tiny, but there are always 2 or 3 people in line for Confession.
 
George_Stegmeir said:
On a number of occasions, I have entered the Sacristy from the Altar area about 15-20 minutes before Mass, and caught the priest before he vested up. I asked if he would hear my Confession.
I have never been turned down!
In several cases, where there were others present, the priest asked them to leave for a few minutes.
In all of my life, I have found that Confession is always available. You just have to sincerely search for it. FWIW, I was a professional sailor for many years and have found a priest in almost every port I was in…from super large ports to some really primitive places.
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It’s not always available. When I returned to the Church, I had to try three cities, two dioceses to get a priest willing to hear my confession. I eventually found an FSSP priest in another city will to give me 15 minutes to make my confession after being away for 10 years.
 
AKDee said:
May I ask why? I’m a new Catholic, just baptized and confirmed at Easter 2015. From the start I chose to do face-to-face confession, kneeling in front of the Priest. I felt that since it was a bit more embarrassing to confess my sins face-to-face that it was probably a good thing and would help me to let go of my pride and accept humility. I’m just curious why you think that the face-to-face movement was a bad idea?
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First of all, the faithful have a right to confess behind a fixed grille. This right is enshrined in Canon Law. Don’t let anyone take it away against your will.

Second, the grille serves at least two purposes. It protects anonymity and it prevents physical contact. Everyine knows the former use, it’s obvious that I’m a little more anonymous behind a grille. But in such an era as this, you would think more priests and faithful would be sensitive to situations where physical or sexual abuse could occur, or even simply be alleged. The confessional is a prime target for this, and a fixed grille is the solution. There is no chance a priest or penitent can resort to improprietous touches or gestures from behind a semi-opaque grille.

I always use the grille, even though I am well-known to my confessors, and would never suspect them of anything unbecoming a cleric. The grill keeps me safe and makes me comfortable. It is part of our uniquely Catholic identity. It is our right and our patrimony!
 
Elizium23 said:
First of all, the faithful have a right to confess behind a fixed grille. This right is enshrined in Canon Law. Don’t let anyone take it away against your will.

Second, the grille serves at least two purposes. It protects anonymity and it prevents physical contact. Everyine knows the former use, it’s obvious that I’m a little more anonymous behind a grille. But in such an era as this, you would think more priests and faithful would be sensitive to situations where physical or sexual abuse could occur, or even simply be alleged. The confessional is a prime target for this, and a fixed grille is the solution. There is no chance a priest or penitent can resort to improprietous touches or gestures from behind a semi-opaque grille.

I always use the grille, even though I am well-known to my confessors, and would never suspect them of anything unbecoming a cleric. The grill keeps me safe and makes me comfortable. It is part of our uniquely Catholic identity. It is our right and our patrimony!
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That all makes sense. Our confessional is a room that has a screen available for those who prefer it, or a chair for those who want face-to-face. You have to walk around the screen to get face-to-face, the priest cannot see you when you enter the room unless you choose to walk around the screen. I chose to kneel when doing face-to-face confession rather than sit in the chair because my understanding is the priest is “in the person of Christ” for the Confession so I kneel for our Lord, not for the priest.

I do see your point about perhaps priests preferring the screen so they can’t be accused of anything. I guess part of why I do face-to-face is I saw a photo of the Pope doing it that way and it just seemed like if the Pope did it that way that it might be a good way to do it.
 
Deo_Gratias42 said:
In Italy, it is customary for men to go to confession face-to-face. That is why Italian confessionals have a curtain where the priest sits. They tolerate foreigners to use the screen, but if an Italian man tried to use the screen, the priest will make him go face-to-face.
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As I explained, that is a violation of Canon Law rights.
 
Elizium23 said:
As I explained, that is a violation of Canon Law rights.
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Only the recent Code of Canon Law and it’s an old custom. Actually, reconciliation rooms are also a violation of Canon law, as the grille is required to be “fixed” (ie: a confessional).
 
Elizium23 said:
The Holy Father may prefer f2f as a penitent, but check him out as confessor at WYD:

http://www.ccsfxhv.org/content/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/confessions.jpg
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I suspect that Pope Francis couldn’t care less whether he hears confessions face-to-face or behind the screen. He’s just happy to have people come to confession.
http://www.olmparish.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/banners_24-horas-en2-327x200.jpg

(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)
 
babochka said:
How is this a violation of canon law?

http://stlukes-parish.org/images/tour/reconciliation_room.jpg
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That is quite similar to how our reconciliation room is set up. A screen blocks the view of the priest of the door and anyone entering. The person entering has the option of kneeling behind the screen, of sitting in the chair opposite the priest and doing confession face to face, or of kneeling before the priest face to face.

It seems fine to me.
 
AKDee said:
That all makes sense. Our confessional is a room that has a screen available for those who prefer it, or a chair for those who want face-to-face. You have to walk around the screen to get face-to-face, the priest cannot see you when you enter the room unless you choose to walk around the screen. I chose to kneel when doing face-to-face confession rather than sit in the chair because my understanding is the priest is “in the person of Christ” for the Confession so I kneel for our Lord, not for the priest.

I do see your point about perhaps priests preferring the screen so they can’t be accused of anything. I guess part of why I do face-to-face is I saw a photo of the Pope doing it that way and it just seemed like if the Pope did it that way that it might be a good way to do it.
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Go to confession however you feel most comfortable and don’t worry about what others think. 🙂 I think most people simply prefer what they grew up with, or first experienced. In the Byzantine Rite, confession is always face-to-face (sort of - it is facing an icon of Christ, with the priest standing to the side) and for many years, that was all I knew. I am most comfortable with a face-to-face confession to a priest who knows me, but if I happen to go to a Latin Rite church, to a priest who chooses to exercise his right to only hear confessions behind the screen, I’m fine with that. I don’t prefer it for a number of reasons, but if I need confession, I’m not going to quibble about details. (This is not to say that I don’t understand that confession behind a screen is a right of both the penitent and priest in the Latin Rite.)

The screen in confession was introduced to ensure propriety, not anonymity. Apparently, some priests weren’t behaving well during confession, and putting a physical barrier up seemed like a good solution to St. Charles Borromeo. Seems like some things never change, and sin is still sin, these 400 years later. In this day and age, I can certainly understand why a priest might prefer to have some protection against false accusation , particularly if confessions are done in a private place. We (Byzantines) solve that problem by having confession out in the open, for anybody to see.

I don’t really understand why some people seem to have animosity toward face-to-face confessions, though, as if they were some hippy thing that came out of the blue in the 1970s. Face-to-face confessions certainly happened before then, even if they were less common. Granted, these images are a far cry from what you see in some Reconciliation “Lounges”, but that is the fault of the implementation, not the idea itself. Face-to-face confessions have merits and some of us are the beneficiaries of the strong points of that method of confession.
http://caccioppoli.com/Padre Pio ad...nt/uploads/2013/09/padre-pio-confessional.jpg
 
Yeoman said:
Indeed, Confessionals are one of the great things that the Irish church gave to the rest of the church. I prefer the anonymity even if I don’t know the Priest and I frankly feel that the “face to face” movement that came about in the 70s was one of those poorly thought out things that was going on during that era.\QUOTE]

I think part of the idea of “face to face” was to make the whole experience less austere and detached from emotion - priest I know once observed that the great advantage of fact to face is that it enables him to read people’s facial expressions and body language. There’s also a risk that arises from people not being able to see into a confessional (unless it has a glass door) - grated there’s a wall between the two sides but that doesn’t stop things happening “behind closed doors”. For this reason, a lot of parishes have opted for glass fronted reconciliation rooms both to allow people the option of face to face as well as for the protection and safety of both priest and penitent.
Anyhow, I don’t know anywhere where you have to go face to face, and I notice that in churches that I go to for Confession have separate doors for face to face as opposed to a screen, more people opt for the screen.
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babochka said:
Go to confession however you feel most comfortable and don’t worry about what others think. 🙂 I think most people simply prefer what they grew up with, or first experienced. In the Byzantine Rite, confession is always face-to-face (sort of - it is facing an icon of Christ, with the priest standing to the side) and for many years, that was all I knew. I am most comfortable with a face-to-face confession to a priest who knows me, but if I happen to go to a Latin Rite church, to a priest who chooses to exercise his right to only hear confessions behind the screen, I’m fine with that. I don’t prefer it for a number of reasons, but if I need confession, I’m not going to quibble about details. (This is not to say that I don’t understand that confession behind a screen is a right of both the penitent and priest in the Latin Rite.)

The screen in confession was introduced to ensure propriety, not anonymity. Apparently, some priests weren’t behaving well during confession, and putting a physical barrier up seemed like a good solution to St. Charles Borromeo. Seems like some things never change, and sin is still sin, these 400 years later. In this day and age, I can certainly understand why a priest might prefer to have some protection against false accusation , particularly if confessions are done in a private place. We (Byzantines) solve that problem by having confession out in the open, for anybody to see.

I don’t really understand why some people seem to have animosity toward face-to-face confessions, though, as if they were some hippy thing that came out of the blue in the 1970s. Face-to-face confessions certainly happened before then, even if they were less common. Granted, these images are a far cry from what you see in some Reconciliation “Lounges”, but that is the fault of the implementation, not the idea itself. Face-to-face confessions have merits and some of us are the beneficiaries of the strong points of that method of confession.
http://caccioppoli.com/Padre Pio ad...nt/uploads/2013/09/padre-pio-confessional.jpg
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Prior to the 1983 Codeof Canon Law, it was strictly prohibited for priests to hear the confession of women face-to-face/outside of a confessional except when grave necessity required it (ie: bedridden, dying, etc). It wasn’t what the priests were doing that made it a requirement, but for the sake of propriety between men and women, especially given the nature of confession. My priest will not do face-to-face confession. He doesn’t like it, and that is his canonical right. With the seal under attack, it would be best to get rid of reconciliation rooms and face-to-face confession altogether to protect priests.
 
AKDee said:
May I ask why? I’m a new Catholic, just baptized and confirmed at Easter 2015. From the start I chose to do face-to-face confession, kneeling in front of the Priest. I felt that since it was a bit more embarrassing to confess my sins face-to-face that it was probably a good thing and would help me to let go of my pride and accept humility. I’m just curious why you think that the face-to-face movement was a bad idea?
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I’m not faulting your logic, but I’d note that I think face to face is a problem for some people for the very reason you note. People fear to be recognized and will feel that every time the Priest sees them, they’ll be thinking of their embarrassing sins. This would likely be particularly a problem with some sins of a social type that would be quite embarrassing for people to confess. I’m not saying that we should think that way, but that we often probably do.

We have thee Catholic churches here, and I’ll go to any one of the three depending upon schedule convenience. However, I note that I’ll frequently see a few (not a majority) who regularly confess at a church for which they are not parishioners, and often amongst people who are very active in their parish. I’m sure that they are weekly confessors, but they have the practice of confessing to a Priest that they don’t work with during the week, and I can understand that. Similar logic, I suppose.
 
babochka said:
I think most people simply prefer what they grew up with, or first experienced.
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I’ll admit that there’s definitely an element of that.

I’ve gone both ways, but I will note I definitely prefer a screen. But I did grow up with that.

Indeed, I prefer the old style confessionals where you enter a completely different and separate part of the confessional and the Priest is in a different compartment.
 
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