The Decline of Private Confession

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PrayingTwice

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I’m looking for some resources to consult for a paper I’m doing for my sacraments of initiation course. The title of the paper is “The Decline of Private Confession since Vatican II”. I’m hoping to contrast the view of the sacrament pre-VII when people were lined up on Saturday afternoons and now when my parish probably gets 1 person a month on Saturdays. The liberal professor I have has been presenting articles calling for a change in the present form of sacramental reconciliation and I’d like to show that there is nothing wrong with the form of the sacrament as it is, but with the understanding of it and the implementation. Any articles or books to recommend would be very helpful. I’d like to hear your thoughts and opinions as well.

PrayingTwice
 
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PrayingTwice:
I’m hoping to contrast the view of the sacrament pre-VII when people were lined up on Saturday afternoons and now when my parish probably gets 1 person a month on Saturdays.
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You may want to consider that neither of these scenarios are/were representative of the typical parish.

Another factor to consider is the availability (convenience) of Confession times. In the area where I grew up, Confession was always available before each Sunday mass. But it’s been many years since I’ve seen that - most parishes in my area now (a different diocese and region of the country) only have confession on Saturday, and perhaps also an evening or two during the week. Not at all convenient for the typical Sunday-only parishioner.

What is the school for which you are taking this class? College? High School? Seminary? Just curious.
 
That sounds like a fascinating paper! I just wanted to share some thoughts - since I recently returned to the faith after a twenty-year absence, and during Lent no less! I was amazed at the lines for confession. The times it is available include 20 minutes M-Th and about an hour and fifteen minutes on Saturday afternoon. I believe the lines were always longer than the time alloted. This past Saturday, I got there early - anticipating these lines… and they were quite a bit shorter!

While I’m not an expert reader yet, I do know I’ve read a few things here and there that I’ll try to find again and I know there are quite a few well-read people here in the forums who I hope will be able to help.

My first impression however would be that perhaps pre-VII, people confessed even venial sins - or the homilies were more fire & brimstone than they are now.

Or - is it the confusion about the requirement to confess at least once a year - have we condensed those words to “once a year” and save it all up for Lent?

Great topic - hope you’ll share with us when you’re done!

=)
Fiz
 
I am under the impression that the sacraments of initiation constitute Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharest. Reconciliation or penance and Anointing of the Sick are sacraments of healing. In any case all are an opportunity to come into personal contact with our living Lord Jesus. I too would be interested in what you discover. Our new pastor has been making a real effort to attract people back to this sacrament. He provided opportunities to go to confession six out of seven days of the week during lent and one could call in for a special appointment.
 
My old church was about what you describe.

Since I have moved- reconcilliation is preached int he mass, and I have yet to find less than 8-10 people in front of me if I’m 5 min after it begins, or few enough people that confessions actually end on time.
 
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rcn:
Another factor to consider is the availability (convenience) of Confession times. In the area where I grew up, Confession was always available before each Sunday mass. But it’s been many years since I’ve seen that - most parishes in my area now (a different diocese and region of the country) only have confession on Saturday, and perhaps also an evening or two during the week. Not at all convenient for the typical Sunday-only parishioner.
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I attended a parish in San Jose while on vacation last week which had confession before every Sunday Mass. I was surprised that at the 7am Mass 15-20 people went to confession. I’d imagine the later Masses probably had many more given that the church was only half full for the 7am Mass.
 
Confession lines actually seem to be growing in places.

But there are a few factors which also may have contributed to the decline. These include a softening of catechesis to “Jesus loves you.” A cultural change in how people live their Saturdays. A lesening of the sense of sin. A moving away from an almost Jansenistic sense of not being able to commune unless one first confesses. Emphasis on communal celebrations of the sacrament. Emphasis on special Advent and Lent confessional times (which had given a lot of Catholics the impression that it’s cool to just go two times a year during those seasons.)
 
I live in the diocese of Rochester, NY.

Attendance for the Sacrament of Reconciliation is extremely low at at any of the parishes I have attended. What is a little more popular?
Penance services given to groups a couple times of year - Easter and Christmas season.

I could go into detail about these but I understand they are not supposed to be used as a general rule.

The worst penance service I attended happened last year.
I was asked to sponsor a young woman for the Sacrament of Confirmation. The Sacrament of Reconciliation was required to be offered to the young people and a penance service was planned in the church. We were all asked to face the young people and the young people were asked to face their sponsors and confess our sins. We were then asked to forgive each other. The priest did all this and still didn’t make himself available for private confession after the service. Did I have it out with this priest? Yes but that is a different story. I believe the respect for this important sacrament has deteriorated in some places, particularly where I live.
 
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Binney:
I live in the diocese of Rochester, NY.

Attendance for the Sacrament of Reconciliation is extremely low at at any of the parishes I have attended. What is a little more popular?
Penance services given to groups a couple times of year - Easter and Christmas season.

I could go into detail about these but I understand they are not supposed to be used as a general rule.

The worst penance service I attended happened last year.
I was asked to sponsor a young woman for the Sacrament of Confirmation. The Sacrament of Reconciliation was required to be offered to the young people and a penance service was planned in the church. We were all asked to face the young people and the young people were asked to face their sponsors and confess our sins. We were then asked to forgive each other. The priest did all this and still didn’t make himself available for private confession after the service. Did I have it out with this priest? Yes but that is a different story. I believe the respect for this important sacrament has deteriorated in some places, particularly where I live.
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In one parish I went to at a penance service we were told to go up to the altar where 6 or seven people would be stationed. One priest and the rest laity. We were told to confess one or two sins and then the folks at the altar would pray for us.

In another parish the Jesuit priest said the old rite of confession was done away with and there was no need to confess mortal sins in kind and number.

It is a mess.
 
I guess there’s an overall decline in confession (since that’s what I’ve been hearing for quite some time), but I’ve noticed over the past year our line has been growing (confessions are 4-4:30 on Saturdays). We’ve reached the point where the pastor is going to have to consider adding hours.

I’ve noticed, especially over the last 8-10 months, confession has run over the allotted time. I figured after Christmas, it would slack off, but it didn’t. Then Lent was unbelievable and I figured surely it would slack off after Lent. Not only did it not slack off, yesterday instead of ending at 4:30, it ended past 5:30! I was on line nearly an hour.

So I’m not so sure my parish is an aberration. Maybe some kind of rejuvenation is going on.

Penitent
 
I’m in Vegas. Unless I go to the Shrine of the Redeemer down on the Strip, I always have to stand in line for between 30-45 minutes at the confessional, always. But then, that could be because this is Vegas! 😃
 
Confession is growing here in the diocese of Corpus Christi, Texas. Many parishes have long lines for confession. I know of one parish that has lines that last 2-3 hours believe it or not. They sometimes start at 6:15pm and don’t end until 8-9pm. They go on even during liturgy.
 
St. Mark 1: 4-5 John (the) Baptist appeared in the desert proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
People of the whole Judean countryside and all the
inhabitants of Jerusalem were going out to him and were being
baptized by him in the Jordan River as they acknowledged their
sins.

St. John was a priest.

The priests were told the specific sin.

The priests were the ones that knew the law.

They told the sinners which sacrifice should be used for which sin.

It was a private confession.

It is implied that the confession of sins was personal.
 
I wish I could help. The 2 parishes in my neighborhood both have long lines on Saturdays. Thanks be to God!
 
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fix:
In another parish the Jesuit priest said the old rite of confession was done away with and there was no need to confess mortal sins in kind and number.

It is a mess.
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The Jesuit’s have been heavily-censored by the Church for many things they have said that go against Catholic teaching.
 
The main reason for the decline in confession and for a general ignorance of the faith by most Catholics is a false idea that dissidents promoted after Vatican II in which they claimed the homily was** ONLY supposed to be a commentary on scripture** instead of teaching on the basics of salvation like it was before Vatican II.

For a summary of what the homilies were before Vatican II see this wonderful link.

wordofgodinstitute.org/BooksOnline/McNamaraBook.htm

Vatican II only changed the idea that the homily was supposed to be separate from the liturgy. It says there should be a liink between the readings and the homily. It never ever changed the idea that the homily was to be primarily the place for teaching the basics of the faith, the creed, sacraments, commandments and prayer.
 
Confession is a very labor intensive sacrament. If 1000 parishioners confessed their sins to a priest just once a month, it would be almost a full time job in and of itself for a priest. Do the math, the average size of a parish, 5 to 7 minutes per confession, its just a lot of time, maybe a hundred hours per month of pretty intense work.

With the increase in the priest to parishioner ratio, it seems almost inevitable that the practice of frequent confession would not be encouraged.
 
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