Why go to confession? - article

[HomeschoolDad]

https://www.catholicmatch.com/institute/2020/08/dont-fall-into-that-98-percent/

This is an outstanding article! Very punchy and hits you right between the eyes, without sounding preachy or like it was written a hundred years ago.

This needs to be mandatory reading for all Catholics. How did we ever get to that two percent figure? (Yes, I know, I can already hear it, “how can you know who’s been to confession unless you interview everybody?”. I can only say that there is such a thing as polls, and they generally approximate reality.)

 

[edward_george1]

I don’t know about the 2% figure, but this I do know.

My first parish assignment as a priest was a massive parish with about 15,000 people on the rolls. We offered a total of 18 hours of Confession a week. Sometimes we were busy for the full half hour or two hours that we offered on a particular day. Sometimes we’d sit for half an hour and nobody would come.

I did the math once, and figured that if everyone in the parish that was old enough to go to Confession went once a month, assuming an average of five minutes per confession, we would’ve had to have offered 12 hours of Confession per day. Per priest. There were three of us.

So if we figure that in 18 hours of confession offered, we were probably hearing confessions for a total of about 9 per week, and we take that as a percentage of how many hours we would have to offer each week to get everyone in once a month (252), then it does come out to about 3.5%.

-Fr ACEGC

 

[HomeschoolDad]

I don’t know about the 2% figure, but this I do know.

My first parish assignment as a priest was a massive parish with about 15,000 people on the rolls. We offered a total of 18 hours of Confession a week. Sometimes we were busy for the full half hour or two hours that we offered on a particular day. Sometimes we’d sit for half an hour and nobody would come.

I did the math once, and figured that if everyone in the parish that was old enough to go to Confession went once a month, assuming an average of five minutes per confession, we would’ve had to have offered 12 hours of Confession per day. Per priest. There were three of us.

So if we figure that in 18 hours of confession offered, we were probably hearing confessions for a total of about 9 per week, and we take that as a percentage of how many hours we would have to offer each week to get everyone in once a month (252), then it does come out to about 3.5%.

-Fr ACEGC

Thank you, Father. I realize there are different schools of thought on this, but I think this makes an excellent case for administering general absolution as part of the penitential rite, with the proviso that those in mortal sin must get to auricular confession as soon as possible, as in “this means you must drop everything and make an appointment, it’s not a free pass, you cannot just keep getting absolved over and over again without making a good confession”.

Or perhaps more men could start trying to discern God’s call to the priesthood, so that we would have the abundance of priests that we so desperately need. If I were twenty years younger, with no family responsibilities and with that annulment that I do not have, I’d be seriously convicted to do it myself. (Not sure how long they’d keep me, but…) Heaven knows I do enough armchair bloviating about matters Catholic as things stand now.

 

[edward_george1]

but I think this makes an excellent case for administering general absolution as part of the penitential rite

I think quite the opposite.

We weren’t slammed when we were offering confessions. We sat there idle a good bit of the time. That people aren’t coming doesn’t mean to make it easier, that will only serve to make people more indifferent to it. If we just gave general absolution all the time, there would be, perhaps, the reception of sacramental grace, but very little incentive to actually repent and reform one’s life.

 

[HomeschoolDad]

HomeschoolDad:

but I think this makes an excellent case for administering general absolution as part of the penitential rite

I think quite the opposite.

We weren’t slammed when we were offering confessions. We sat there idle a good bit of the time. That people aren’t coming doesn’t mean to make it easier, that will only serve to make people more indifferent to it. If we just gave general absolution all the time, there would be, perhaps, the reception of sacramental grace, but very little incentive to actually repent and reform one’s life.

I agree with what you say, and traditional auricular confession is much better, but I suppose I just have “tunnel vision” and am thinking about how to get the most sacramental grace, and the most forgiveness, to the most penitents, as quickly as possible, in the here and now, given the staggering logistics of what it would take actually to get the people to confession one-at-a-time. And for those in mortal sin, I’d want to be very clear, that “you are not off the hook, we just don’t want you to go to hell, we are cutting you slack at this very moment — think of it as ‘spiritual CPR’ — but having received this absolution, it’s on you to get to ‘real’ confession pronto”.

Not the best solution, I realize, I have to wonder if it would be feasible to have monthly penance services, not just Lent and Advent. That would no doubt be a better, and more regular, alternative.

 

[edward_george1]

No again. Penance services don’t really encourage regular confession, they encourage people to only go if there’s a Penance service.

We can’t treat the sacraments as a manufactured product, where we try to most efficiently distribute them to as many people as possible. Your approach would result in more people participating, but doing so casually so as to barely benefit.

The best thing is to saturate the environment with confessions, and then catechize about it. I would know. I’ve been there.

 

[HeDa]

If only more people, lay as well as the ordained, talk about how much the Sacraments like the Holy Eucharist and Confession help them in their daily life struggles…

 

[MtnDwellar]

The article doesn’t mention sacramental grace.

 

[HomeschoolDad]

The best thing is to saturate the environment with confessions, and then catechize about it. I would know. I’ve been there.

Agreed. As I said, I just have “tunnel vision”, perhaps it’s my business training, “do the good right now, rather than the better later, because ‘now’ is what matters”, or “never let the perfect be the enemy of the good”. Again, as you well point out, you are in a position to know what needs to be done, and how to do it. I’m really not.

 

[0Scarlett_nidiyilii]

We instinctively want to confess.
We just don’t like being told who to confess to.
I remember the days of Jerry Springer and Sally Jessie Rafael and even Phil Donahue and people would gleefully tell al their secrets to the broadcast audience.
Now it’s blogs and vlogs.