The Case for Sunday Confessions

[JimG]

I have not lived in a parish with Sunday confessions during Mass for a very long time. But I do recall that the practice was not that uncommon in my old parish in pre-Vatican II days. One priest would be in the confessional hearing confessions before Mass. When Mass began, he would continue hearing confessions, usually for about the first third of the Mass. If it was a short line, some people would get up and get in the confession line. Usually everyone was finished before the Canon of the Mass began.

 

[OraLabora]

Ah for the days when each parish had 2 or 3 priests, rather than each priest having 2 or 3 parishes (and often even fewer priests per parish). Our rural parish priest has 2-3 Masses to say every Sunday, usually with a substantial drive between them.

Perhaps the title should read “The Case for More Vocations” and then talk about how we can get them.

 

[JimG]

I agree. Parishes can’t have more masses and more confessions without more priests. And priests are drawn from the families of the parish. Catholics have no inherited priestly class. Each generation draws its seminarians from existing families.

My own parish is blessed to have three priests including the pastor. All are not so blessed. If sacraments are valued, so must priests and seminarians be valued. Those men don’t appear out of thin air; they are provided by Catholic families.

 

[phil19034]

phil19034:

No… the suggestions is to reevaluate priorities and make sure making time for confession is near the top.

Fair enough.

But, when there’s not help in doing the normal “keeping the parish running” requirements, how do we decide how to triage? In the end, it seems like the suggestion is “keep doing that” but also “do more of this and this, as well”!

That’s up to His Excellency and Father.

 

[phil19034]

babochka:

But if you’re tying all scheduled Confessions to Saturday evening Mass times, you’re still going to run into the problem of them all occurring on Saturday afternoon, even if you stagger the Mass times a bit. I agree, it is a start, but if someone is working a retail shift from 11-7 on a Saturday, it won’t help much.

Agreed. Maybe the solution is asking the priests to collaborate? Offer confessions at one parish at a different time (Saturday at 9am? another time?), but always at the same parish (after all, it’s too confusing to ask “are 9am confessions at St Aloysius this week? Or at St Zachary?”.

However, this asks priests to travel – only once every six weeks – to an ‘extra’ confessions session at a neighboring parish. Extra work? Sure. But two hours (including travel time, etc, etc) every six weeks doesn’t sound burdensome…

I like this, but I think I would massage it a little.

Most parishes have a Saturday afternoon/earlier evening Confession schedule. And for many parishes, that’s the only time they have scheduled. For the parishes that only have 1 time on Saturday, my suggestion would be to schedule at least one more time during the week, which is at a convenient time that other parishes don’t have scheduled.

So all the local parishes have their Saturday afternoon/earlier evening Confessions plus as a region, there are a number of different confession times staggered throughout the region.