AMDG
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| The Confessional, 1712, Giuseppe Maria Crespi |
Well into the 1960s long confession lines were common
in the typical Catholic church in the days leading up to Christmas and during
Holy Week. They still are common in
Poland. During the rest of the year, every
parish had an hour or so of confession every Saturday afternoon or
evening. . Very few people would go to Holy Communion unless
they went to Confession the night before.
Most people assumed they were not in spiritual condition to receive our
Lord in the Eucharist…….many because of scrupulosity and others because of sins
of impurity as lustful thoughts, engaging in porn, contraception, sex outside
of marriage, cohabitation (a.k.a. “shacking up”), etc.; divorce and remarriage,
deliberate drunkenness, drug usage, intentionally missing Sunday Mass for no compelling
reason, or some other objective mortal sin.
Then came the turmoil after Vatican II and the sexual
revolution. Many Catholic laymen and
even some priests fell into it, as for example sexual abuse. Before everything was a sin; suddenly and
since then nothing seems to be a sin……a little hyperbole to make a point.
Fast forward some 50 years to the typical American Catholic parish of today. Unless the pastor aggressively promotes confession, there may be a handful of people attending a Penance Service during Advent and Lent. Most parishes have a very limited schedule for the rest of the year, in part because the demand for confessions is so low. According to a CARA survey of 2008, 45% of Catholics never go to confession and another 42% go to confession once a year or less. According to a more recent survey most adult Catholics have not been to confession since they were kids. See
http://cara.georgetown.edu/caraservices/FRStats/reconciliation.pdf; for other resources
go to www.usccb.org/confession, www.goodconfession.com. .
Today practically nobody goes to
confession; yet everybody goes to communion at Sunday Mass
when they do come. What’s going on? Has sin disappeared? Has confession gone out of style? Is it that nobody sins anymore? Or is there a general moral laxity (loss of a
sense of personal sin) and a lot of sacrilegious communions going on, either knowingly or
unknowingly out of ignorance in not knowing the faith and its moral teaching? Fr. Bill Casey CPM brought this out on EWTN in
no uncertain terms. Of course, only God
can judge the individual soul. Apart from the scandal involved, cohabiting
couples, must have extraordinary will power and grace to remain pure and thus
able to receive communion.
Clearly, the American Church has a crisis on its hands. To a large extent the confession crisis is simply a reflection of an even bigger problem. The average person in the pew does not know the faith or picks and chooses what to believe as a cafeteria Catholic without understanding. At one time most Catholics went to a Catholic school where dedicated nuns made sure the children knew their faith. Furthermore, their teaching was reinforced by a Catholic culture at home. Parents also taught the faith to their children. Today, the typical Catholic family does not have much of a Catholic culture. Sunday Mass attendance is often sporadic and the next generation follows suit. Parents think they’ve done their jobs by dumping their kids off at CCD and shopping in the meantime. They think that they’ve done their duty, not realizing that the parents are the principal educators of the faith. CCD is only a help, but nowhere near enough. What the kids learn at CCD must be reinforced and advanced at home, but often the parents don’t know the faith themselves.
The Advent or Lenten Penance
Service is beautiful.
We as a community sing together, listen to scripture, and examine our consciences. Each person has a choice of four confessors
who are willing and able to be instruments of God’s mercy to counsel, answer
questions, give spiritual direction and individual attention in order to help
us become holy and ready for eternity that could call at any time. It’s so sad that three visiting priests drove
through the rain to join one pastor for a Penance Service and only a handful of
people show up…..in one church more confessors than penitents.
Clearly, the American Church has a crisis on its hands. To a large extent the confession crisis is simply a reflection of an even bigger problem. The average person in the pew does not know the faith or picks and chooses what to believe as a cafeteria Catholic without understanding. At one time most Catholics went to a Catholic school where dedicated nuns made sure the children knew their faith. Furthermore, their teaching was reinforced by a Catholic culture at home. Parents also taught the faith to their children. Today, the typical Catholic family does not have much of a Catholic culture. Sunday Mass attendance is often sporadic and the next generation follows suit. Parents think they’ve done their jobs by dumping their kids off at CCD and shopping in the meantime. They think that they’ve done their duty, not realizing that the parents are the principal educators of the faith. CCD is only a help, but nowhere near enough. What the kids learn at CCD must be reinforced and advanced at home, but often the parents don’t know the faith themselves.
Thus
we need a New Evangelization of those in the pews in addition to fallen away
Catholics and non-Catholics. One aspect
of this new evangelization in the parish is promoting Confession for all
members of the parish at least at the Communal Penance Services in Advent and
Lent each year.
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| Confessing to the Priest as Christ, the Source of Mercy |
Is confession also for those who have
not committed any serious sin? Pope
John Paul II went to confession every week and he will be canonized a saint
this coming Mercy Sunday, a week after Easter.
Frequent confession must have had an important role in helping him become a saint
of the Catholic Church. If this saint
felt a need for weekly confession, how much more do we need this sacrament
of mercy in our quest for holiness and salvation at least during the twice
a year Penance services, first in preparation for the coming of the Messiah and
later for His victorious passion and resurrection?
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| Pope Francis showing the example and confessing his sins. |
Spiritual
directors generally recommend confession once a month to all who try to lead a
good Christian life. We often get tired
of repeating the same old sins. Our Lord
never gets tired of forgiving us as long as we are sorry and
sincerely resolve to overcome our sins. In
one of her programs, the feisty Mother Angelica, founder of EWTN, made a point to the minimalist, who only
follows the Church precept that one must go to confession at least once a year
by asking: “Do you take a bath only once
a year?” Let’s give our souls a good bath and a spring
cleaning for Easter. Go to confession!
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| We really confess our sins to Christ in a very personal way. |
The Sacred Seal of Confession.
The priest is bound to complete secrecy.
The seal of confession is so sacred that a priest could be
excommunicated for violating it. The
threat of prison, torture, or death; saving the life of a person on death row who is falsely accused, a court subpoena, or national security is
no excuse or justification for violating that sacred seal with even the
slightest hint, direct or indirect. More
than one priest suffered martyrdom for refusing to reveal a confessed sin.
For example, suppose that a
priest heard the confession of a woman who became pregnant out of wedlock. The woman accuses the priest of being the
father. The priest could not use that knowledge in any way whatsoever. He could not even say: “I cannot
defend myself because of the Seal of Confession”. That would be a hint which
could implicate either the woman as a liar or the real father. All he could do is deny it. One priest actually was involved in a similar situation
regarding an accusation of another sort.
St.
John Nepomucene (1340-93) heard the confession of the Queen Sofia of Bohemia. Her jealous and paranoiac husband, King
Wenceslaus IV ordered him to reveal her sins.
After suffering torture, he was killed, paraded on the streets, and thrown
into the river. In modern times Cardinal
Theodore McCarrick of Washington vehemently opposed legislative proposals that
would require priests to report cases of suspected child abuse said in the
confessional, saying that he would tell priests to disobey the law and would
even go to jail himself if need be. The
standard of secrecy protecting a confession outweighs any form of professional
confidentiality or secrecy.
Confession is an opportunity
for both near saints and great sinners
to obtain mercy, forgiveness, and graces that help us to grow in holiness. Priests, brothers, and nuns go to confession
too. We cannot enter heaven unless we
are holy. Shall we become holy here or
shall we wait for the intense and arduous purification of Purgatory? Confession is an opportunity to examine our
consciences, to assess how we are doing, and to obtain the grace to overcome our
faults in our quest for holiness and growth in virtue. Confession is really an encounter with Christ, who is most generous in His mercy. May we overcome our
faults and grow in holiness and virtue so that after death we can take a direct
flight to heaven with no stopover in Purgatory.
According
to Pope Benedict XVI, “the New Evangelization…..begins in the confessional”. Then the renewal of the parish and revival in
the nation must also begin in the confessional.
After all, to evangelize others, we must first evangelize ourselves. Then by prayer and example, word and deed…….bring
others back to the Church. The most
crucial step to a new beginning in the Church is Confession.
Confession
gives us the grace to live a renewed life in Christ, closer to Him. It helps us to appreciate the Lord’s passion
which made reparation for the sins of the world past, present, and future. One of the fruits of the passion is the
manifestation of God’s love, mercy, and forgiveness in Confession. It gives us renewed strength and ability to follow
Christ. It helps us to receive Communion more
effectively with a more lively faith and sacrificial love. God
wants us to grow in holiness so that we may become saints.
Beautiful
is a selection from the website of the United States Council of Catholic
Bishops at http://www.usccb.org/prayer-and-worship/sacraments/penance/:
"The Sacrament of Penance is an experience of the gift of
God's boundless mercy. Not only does it free us from our sins but it also
challenges us to have the same kind of compassion and forgiveness for those who
sin against us. We are liberated to be forgivers. We obtain new
insight into the words of the Prayer of St. Francis: 'It is in pardoning
that we are pardoned."
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| Repentance: Sincere Contrition and a Firm Purpose of Amendment |
Confession is easy and certainly
not scary. You can
confess behind a screen or face to face with the priest in a conversational
mode. You don’t have to memorize any
prayers. Most confessions take less than
five minutes. The steps are simple:
1) Pray asking the Holy
Spirit to enlighten you to remember your sins and make a good confession.
2) Examine your conscience
to rehearse what sins and their frequency to confess. Only mortal sins, including forgotten ones in
a previous confession, must be confessed with your best estimate of the frequency and kind. Significant venial sins should be confessed
because, if unchecked, they could eventually lead to greater sin. Venial sins are setbacks in the quest for
holiness and growth in virtue. You can
also mention faults and shortcomings that hinder your spiritual growth and you
need to work on. Essential is sincere repentance. That is sorrow for your sins and a firm
resolution not to repeat them. For examinations of conscience for children, young adults, singles, married persons, based on Catholic social teaching, and based upon the Ten Commandments, click on http://www.usccb.org/prayer-and-worship/sacraments/penance/examinations-of-conscience.cfm.
3) Enter the confessional and
begin
your confession with the sign of the cross and say something like:
“Bless me Father for I have sinned. It’s
been so many years or weeks since my last confession. I have committed the following sins.”
4) Confess your sins according
to the examination of conscience you made a few minutes earlier. It’s OK if you nervously stumble or forgot how to go to
confession. Confessors are patient and
eager to help you. Ask any question you
might not want to ask outside of the confessional. You may ask for his advice and brief
counseling. Don’t be afraid to reveal
any sin; the priest has heard them all and is most happy along with all of
heaven when a repentant sinner with serious sins returns to God, after perhaps 30
or 40 years away from the Church.
5) Conclude your confession
by saying something like “I am sorry for all of my sins and all that I have
forgotten. I humbly ask pardon of God
and your absolution". The priest will say
a few words of encouragement or advice, give a very doable and reasonable penance
symbolizing restitution and a first step in renewing your walk with the Lord. He will then ask you to say an act of contrition which may be
written below the screen. You can bring
a “cheat” sheet or notes if you wish. Finally, the priest gives absolution and
dismisses you with something like, “Go in peace”. Often the penitent feels clean and relieved
as though a burden has been lifted.
In most parishes
there are many opportunities for confession. It may be half an hour before each weekend Mass
and by appointment. In addition a couple
of weeks before Christmas and Easter, most parishes provide opportunities to
attend a Communal Penance Service during both Advent and Lent with visiting
priests from nearby parishes. Wouldn’t
it be beautiful if the parents also go to confession when their children make
their first confession this Spring? DON’T
MISS OUT THIS LENT. You’ll have a more
meaningful Lent and a happier Easter.
St. John Vianney and St. Padre Pio, great apostles of the confessional, pray for us
and for a resurgence of confession.
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| Forgiven |
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| St. John Vianney, Patron of Parish Priests and Confessors |
