Trying to find confession

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marissa98

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I am trying to find a place to go to confession. I cannot travel too far away from my hometown, and so far, I can’t find anywhere to go. My church only offers confession on Saturday and I may be out of town or busy. I tried a church in a neighboring town and I was turned away. I don’t know what to do because I have anxiety and I feel sick knowing I may not get to confession before Sunday
 
marissa98 said:
I am trying to find a place to go to confession. I cannot travel too far away from my hometown, and so far, I can’t find anywhere to go. My church only offers confession on Saturday and I may be out of town or busy. I tried a church in a neighboring town and I was turned away. I don’t know what to do because I have anxiety and I feel sick knowing I may not get to confession before Sunday
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I have no idea why you were turned away, that seems very strange. In situations like this, you need to call your parish’s pastor and schedule and appointment for confession. Another option would be to attend morning mass and after/before mass try to catch the priest and ask him kindly to hear your confession.
 
Have you tried calling the parish office? It may be possible to arrange a confession outside of normal confession hours.

You might also be able to take a moment before or after confession and speak to the priest about your anxiety. I’m sure he would be willing to give you good advice, at least as it applies to the sacraments and your faith life

I hope you are also getting professional help with your anxiety. If not your priest may know affordable Catholic-friendly resources that can help you.
 
marissa98 said:
I am trying to find a place to go to confession. I cannot travel too far away from my hometown, and so far, I can’t find anywhere to go. My church only offers confession on Saturday and I may be out of town or busy. I tried a church in a neighboring town and I was turned away. I don’t know what to do because I have anxiety and I feel sick knowing I may not get to confession before Sunday
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Many if not most parishes offer confession by appointment. Could you call your parish to arrange a time to meet with your priest?

If it’s urgent, can you cancel or rearrange your Saturday plans?
 
I have called another parish, along with my own to try to schedule confession. The first one, I was turned away. My own parish has not gotten back to me yet. Please say some prayers that once my priest gets in, he will be able to meet me for my confession.
 
marissa98 said:
I have called another parish, along with my own to try to schedule confession. The first one, I was turned away. My own parish has not gotten back to me yet. Please say some prayers that once my priest gets in, he will be able to meet me for my confession.
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Why in the world are you being turned away? This seems seriously wrong to me.
 
It was like that last time I tried to find somewhere to go, too. The priests were either busy, had meetings, or I was just plainly told that they don’t do scheduled confessions. I’m praying for the best and if worse comes to worse, I will go to a church in a different town on Monday because that will be my first chance.
 
The “turned away” thing baffles me also. I can’t imagine a priest would do this. It must have been the office staff making decisions for them, or maybe it was a case of priests being temporarily unavailable due to some other activity. Anyway, they should not have turned you away. But, I have read about similar ridiculous statements from office staff when people call churches. Don’t let it discourage you from going.

You don’t have a location on your profile, but if you are in USA, I find the website Masstimes.org to be helpful in finding churches that have confessions. However, always verify the info on Masstimes by checking the church website or calling them, as sometimes the info on Masstimes is out of date or the church has different schedules for summer time.
 
When you call, don’t say ANYTHING except:
I would like to schedule a confession with Father.

Do not tell them your issues or problems, or complain about other parishes, or say **anything **else.
Google is your friend. Google “Catholic church nearest to me” . Call those parishes.
Find a ride, or call uber.

Best wishes.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
The “turned away” thing baffles me also. I can’t imagine a priest would do this.
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Actually, that kind of happened to me as well.

I once spoke to a Priest from a different parish about scheduling a Confession time with him. I mentioned that my own parish had their Confessions cancelled for the weekend, and that I would like for him to hear my Confession. He told me I should just attend during the regularly scheduled half-hour on Saturday, i.e., he didn’t want to allot a special time just for me.

Now, I don’t particularly care whether he had fault there or not. He may well have had perfectly fine reasons for his decision, even if I made a reasonable request.

But someone else may have interpreted this as being “turned away,” and I wouldn’t be too quick to state they would have no reason for so doing.

I love Priests but, God bless 'em, they can be mighty trying now and again.
 
DanielStDominic said:
I love Priests but, God bless 'em, they can be mighty trying now and again.
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A lot of priests divide their time among more than one parish, so they can be stretched pretty thinly. I had an appointment yesterday evening with my pastor as I needed some guidance on an issue, and he texted me to reschedule our time. He has a fairly long drive from one parish to another.
 
DanielStDominic said:
I love Priests but, God bless 'em, they can be mighty trying now and again.
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The whole Confession thing seems to be increasingly difficult in terms of finding a time to go. Virtually every single parish does it on Saturdays. If you have a conflict on Saturday it is not easy to find an alternate day in many places. If priests are then going to give you a hassle when you try to schedule a time, then it’s very discouraging indeed.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
The whole Confession thing seems to be increasingly difficult in terms of finding a time to go. Virtually every single parish does it on Saturdays. If you have a conflict on Saturday it is not easy to find an alternate day in many places. If priests are then going to give you a hassle when you try to schedule a time, then it’s very discouraging indeed.
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I don’t know if this has anything to do with it, but maybe there are such limited times because fewer people are going on a regular basis? It’s just speculation on my part
 
Ours are Wed and Thurs night. Or by appointment.
I’m baffled that people feel like they have to explain themselves or tell their life story or that they are from another parish…etc. That’s why they are “turned away”. They divulge that they are someone else’s responsibility to shepherd.
When the people go to their regular parish, they don’t get 20 questions. People over share and then the priests, yes, do make a judgment call as to urgency.
Just say: Father, would you please hear my confession? I don’t know a single priest who would say, no, go away.
 
marissa98 said:
I am trying to find a place to go to confession. I cannot travel too far away from my hometown, and so far, I can’t find anywhere to go. My church only offers confession on Saturday and I may be out of town or busy. I tried a church in a neighboring town and I was turned away. I don’t know what to do because I have anxiety and I feel sick knowing I may not get to confession before Sunday
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So you’re not sure if you can make it to the scheduled confession time on Saturday in your parish in time for Mass Sunday? You do know you can attend Mass without being in a state of grace, you just can’t receive.

If there was no way I could make it to confession (although it would be a top priority in the realm of being busy) I would still attend Mass and just not receive. Now that I work for our parish there is no excuse for me. We have confession on Wednesday afternoons and all I have to do is cross the street.
 
Of course one can also say an act of perfect contrition, and put off sacramental confession until the next opportunity where confession time and schedule coincide. Of course if the sin is one of grave matter, then there’s no rule that says one must receive communion at each Mass unless one has grave reasons such as danger of death.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
The whole Confession thing seems to be increasingly difficult in terms of finding a time to go. Virtually every single parish does it on Saturdays. If you have a conflict on Saturday it is not easy to find an alternate day in many places. If priests are then going to give you a hassle when you try to schedule a time, then it’s very discouraging indeed.
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This is often the case. However, I happen to be fortunate in that we have a Franciscan Chapel in my diocese (5 minutes from my house) that has confessions for about 6 hours per day Monday through Saturday. It’s unfortunately a rarity, but it does exist.
 
FrDavid96 said:
I checked my own parish.

Daily Mass times are wrong.

Confession times are wrong.

I don’t know where or how they get their data or where/how they update it.

The point is: check with the parish itself.
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Father, I think parishes call their info in. I just checked my parish, and a change that was only announced TODAY in our Mass announcements is already there, updated.
Apparently they work quickly. The decision to change the Confession times was only made Thursday at the Staff meeting.

Peace.
 
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