Pope Francis Urges Group of Roman Priests to be Generous in Offering Confession

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It’s a wonderful thing that the Holy Father cares not only for the material needs of the poor and impoverished, but also for their spritual needs. After all, the poor should also have access to the churches, in order to pray and seek solace and advice from the priests, and they also should have access to confession, just as those who live in the not-so-poor areas do. God bless the Pope!
 
Amen!!! People are longing to be right with God, have His forgiveness, and do their best to do better. More Confessions! More!!
 
Denise1957 said:
It’s a wonderful thing that the Holy Father cares not only for the material needs of the poor and impoverished, but also for their spritual needs. After all, the poor should also have access to the churches, in order to pray and seek solace and advice from the priests, and they also should have access to confession, just as those who live in the not-so-poor areas do. God bless the Pope!
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Viva il Papa!!!
 
Denise1957 said:
A very nice little news story from Vatican Radio:

"He (Pope Francis) said, “Open the doors of the church, and then the people will come in… if you keep the light on in the confessional and are available, then you will see what kind of line there is for confession.”

news.va/en/news/pope-francis-has-lunch-with-rome-priests
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“open the doors, and they will come…”
My diocese learned this first-hand last week.

Over the years I have often heard priests lament about having to spend time in confessionals when no one comes. My question always was, “Well, do they even know it’s an option anymore, I haven’t heard anyone preach on the sacrament in years, so…”

Last week, we had a Day of Penance, where the attendance completely blew every one out of the water- one Church heard 180 confessions in the 8 hours!

You can read more about it here.

All I can think about is that movie “Field of Dreams”
If you build it, they will come…! "😛
 
Oneofthewomen said:
“open the doors, and they will come…”
My diocese learned this first-hand last week.

Over the years I have often heard priests lament about haivng to spend time in confessionals when no one comes. My question always was, “Well, do they even know it’s an option anymore, I haven’t heard anyone preach on the sacrament in years, so…”

Last week, we had a Day of Penance, where the attendance completely blew every one out of the water- one Church heard 180 confessions in the 8 hours!
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Fantastic!

Some priests feel that they are wasting their time waiting in the confessional if no one comes. But why not do things that they need to do anyway while waiting, such as the Divine Office, etc. They can meditate on the Office of Readings, or make mental drafts of sermons for the week, pray the rosary, pray that people will decide to come to confession… and so on.
 
opus101 said:
Fantastic!

Some priests feel that they are wasting their time waiting in the confessional if no one comes. But why not do things that they need to do anyway while waiting, such as the Divine Office, etc. They can meditate on the Office of Readings, or make mental drafts of sermons for the week, pray the rosary, pray that people will decide to come to confession… and so on.
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Love this article, amen to the comment above!
 
After all, the poor should also have access to the churches, in order to pray and seek solace and advice from the priests, and they also should have access to confession, just as those who live in the not-so-poor areas do.
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I’m very confused by your remark, Denise. You make it sound as if the poor are turned away. I have never seen anyone turned away from Mass or the Sacrament of Reconciliation. My church is in a poor neighborhood, and I have seen many a homeless person at daily Mass, and a few at Confession.

Please explain!
 
Denise1957 said:
It’s a wonderful thing that the Holy Father cares not only for the material needs of the poor and impoverished, but also for their spritual needs. After all, the poor should also have access to the churches, in order to pray and seek solace and advice from the priests, and they also should have access to confession, just as those who live in the not-so-poor areas do. God bless the Pope!
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We live in upper-middle class suburbia, and confession is offered for 45 minutes a week at a parish with over 5,000 registered members. So, that’s 52 opportunities for confession per year. If every parishioner only cofesses once per year, we’d have about 100 people in line for confession every Saturday. Instead, we tend to have fewer than 10. Not only is there limited access to the sacrament, no one is taking advantage of it when it IS available. Chicken or egg, I don’t know.
 
Ruthie_again said:
I’m very confused by your remark, Denise. You make it sound as if the poor are turned away. I have never seen anyone turned away from Mass or the Sacrament of Reconciliation. My church is in a poor neighborhood, and I have seen many a homeless person at daily Mass, and a few at Confession.

Please explain!
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It was the Pope himself who stated that the doors of the churches need to be kept open, and that the light in the confessional needs to be kept on. I could be wrong, but I made the assumption that the focus in that part of Italy (suburbs of Rome, where the poor are), that the focus isn’t so much on spiritual needs as physical or material needs. I would think that in working with the poor, the emphasis could be on meeting material needs, which may seem most pressing and urgent. But spiritual needs are also important. Those of us who have experienced living in poverty know that we need more than just the material support. Also,the pope is not stressing attendance at Mass, but rather seems to be stressing that the churches need to be kept open for other reasons. I’m sure that there are many churches in the world where the poor have access to the local church during the day. But not everywhere.
 
I’d also like to mention that at the parish which I attend, the priest increased times for confession about five months ago. Only recently have I seen an increase in confessions. Sometimes it takes time for folks to catch on. The priest has also mentioned, in homilies, about why confession is important. He’s had complaints from some parishioners about placing, at times, an emphasis on sin and the need for reconciliation. He’s quite patient, though, and his patience seems to be bearing fruit now.
 
I’ve never understood why confession is not held even more often during Holy Week in particular, than it seems to be now. Our parish only had one half hour session, in the afternnon when many were working and could not attend, on the Monday of Holy Week and no other time was available. Holy Week is the time when so many lapsed Catholics WANT to come home to the Church. It seems to me that if the Church wants regular participation in the sacrament of penance, they need to make sure it is available for more than 1/2 hr every week. Thank you, Pope Francis.
 
Arebella said:
I’ve never understood why confession is not held even more often during Holy Week in particular, than it seems to be now. Our parish only had one half hour session, in the afternnon when many were working and could not attend, on the Monday of Holy Week and no other time was available. Holy Week is the time when so many lapsed Catholics WANT to come home to the Church. It seems to me that if the Church wants regular participation in the sacrament of penance, they need to make sure it is available for more than 1/2 hr every week. Thank you, Pope Francis.
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We had confession Mon-Wed of Holy Week. The priests hear the confessions of those entering full communion on Good Friday and Holy Saturday.

During Lent we had an additional confession time each week (The Light is On campaign) aside from our regular 3 times. We also had two weeks of parish mission when confessions were heard continuously on Sunday mornings from 7am to 1pm (yes, during Mass).
 
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