Confession on Sunday, Confession boxes and ummm Confession...

Onesimus

So I see that confession is not available in the confession boxes here on Sunday perhaps half hour before Mass. Why is this? Do you think there should be? I think it would help people see that confession is real when they see others going to confession prior to Mass.

As far as confession boxes goes, I see in most Roman ''modern'' Churches that confession boxes are actually not even there and have been removed. It was bad enough they stop preaching about confession but then had to go and remove all traces and reminders of confession by taking away the confession box itself. How do you feel about this removal?

Finally, what can we do to begin helping people understand the need for this confession and bring them back?

Doc Farrell

Onesimus wrote: »

So I see that confession is not available in the confession boxes here on Sunday perhaps half hour before Mass. Why is this? Do you think there should be? I think it would help people see that confession is real when they see others going to confession prior to Mass.

As far as confession boxes goes, I see in most Roman ''modern'' Churches that confession boxes are actually not even there and have been removed. It was bad enough they stop preaching about confession but then had to go and remove all traces and reminders of confession by taking away the confession box itself. How do you feel about this removal?

Finally, what can we do to begin helping people understand the need for this confession and bring them back?

The sacrament of penance and reconciliation is freely available at anytime from any priest. A lot of parishes are stretched for resources.
I honestly think that many of your concerns would be answered if you just sat down with a knowledgable Dominican or Franciscan and had a good chat. If you pick up a Catholic newspaper normally the email address of a contributor will be listed.
Alternatively the office of a bishop will have contact details of spiritual directors.
In the meantime here's some reading material.
http://www.americancatholic.org/features/special/default.aspx?id=32

I can't remember the last time I didn't see the confession times for a local church posted on their board, even extremely isolated churches.
You really should have made an appointment to have a chat with the preachers from the Novena that impressed you last week.

Onesimus

Haha. No I was not in need of confession today. But I am aware of the confession times on the board, but no parish ever has confession at least half hour before Mass on Sunday. I'm not criticizing them for it, there are probably many reasons for it but my post is more of an idea to perhaps begin doing that. If they can do it, they should do it, just an idea.

As for spiritual directors, are there really a list of spiritual directors in the area? would love to check that out.

lmaopml

Actually, it would be pretty cool to see that little 'light' turned on - and lit before the vigil Mass and also on Sunday morning, they would be great times I agree - just before Mass.


I think a lot of Parishes do first Fridays, along with a few times dotted throughout the week depending - but it would be nice, if time allowed and it were possible to have the light on just before Mass during Vigil and Sunday - It's difficult to always suit everybody, but lots of people attend the vigil and also Sunday morning Mass. It's worth mentioning in your Parish, to light the little lamp outside the confessional, and God only knows who he will send that way...


Most Parishes do display the times, but I think a lot of people go to one 'confessor' at times, or go to confess and also seek direction, and tbh I think a lot of people would love to go, but would feel embarrassed to take up too much time - most of us could spend hours..lol.......and although it's probably daft, they also may feel embarrassed calling to make an appointment.

Sadly, Priests are worked to the bone here though.

Peregrinus

Onesimus wrote: »

So I see that confession is not available in the confession boxes here on Sunday perhaps half hour before Mass. Why is this?

Because it’s a long time since many people wanted to go to confession in the half-hour before mass. Priests stopped waiting in confessionals for penitents to come when they observed that penitents weren’t coming.

Onesimus wrote: »

Do you think there should be?

Not if nobody’s coming, no.

Onesimus wrote: »

I think it would help people see that confession is real when they see others going to confession prior to Mass.

It’s far more likely, though that what they would see was people not going to confession, despite its availability, which presumably would have the reverse effect to the one you hope for.

Onesimus wrote: »

As far as confession boxes goes, I see in most Roman ''modern'' Churches that confession boxes are actually not even there and have been removed. It was bad enough they stop preaching about confession but then had to go and remove all traces and reminders of confession by taking away the confession box itself. How do you feel about this removal?

I’m fine with it. There’s nothing about the sacrament of confession that requires it to be celebrated in an adapted wardrobe.

Onesimus wrote: »

Finally, what can we do to begin helping people understand the need for this confession and bring them back?

And that’s the question you should have started with!

Your questions suggest that you think at least part of the reason people rarely go to confession any more is that confessionals are less prominent, and are no longer manned before mass. It’s a bit like arguing that the reason nobody buys Reckitt’s Blue any more is because the shops have stopped selling it, whereas in fact the causation is the other way around. It’s a common attitude among religious traditionalists - in fact, among traditionalists of every sort - that if only we could make things look like they used to look, then they would be like they used to be. So if active confessionals could be seen, people would flock back to the confessional. This is wishful thinking.

The question we need to ask is, why did people stop going to confession, even when it was readily available? We know that this happened over quite a short time-frame, and on a massive scale, and this points to the cause being a cultural change of some kind. And the associated question that has to be asked is, why did they go to confession in the first place? Yes, we know all the theological and doctrinal reasons why people should go to confession, but those are clearly not the reasons why they actually do go, because those reasons are as strong as they ever were, and yet people stopped going.

Answering these questions would require quite a lot of investigation - and very open-minded investigation, it has to be said - but let me throw out a couple of thoughts.

Perhaps, to a large extent, when people did go regularly to confession it was not for the sacramental benefits, but for the associated counseling and spiritual direction. Perhaps they no longer want that counseling and direction, or perhaps they prefer to seek it in another setting or from another source.

Perhaps their experience of confession was too much an expression of an authoritarian ecclesiology and/or a legalistic morality for them to be comfortable with it now that their ecclesiology or their morality has matured.

Note that these are just wild guesses on my part; I have no evidence. if you want to know why people have stopped going to confession, you have to ask them. But, to the extent that the answers might be something like that, plainly longer opening hours for confessionals will do nothing to address the phenomenon.

newmug

Peregrinus wrote: »

The question we need to ask is, why did people stop going to confession, even when it was readily available? We know that this happened over quite a short time-frame, and on a massive scale, and this points to the cause being a cultural change of some kind. And the associated question that has to be asked is, why did they go to confession in the first place? Yes, we know all the theological and doctrinal reasons why people should go to confession, but those are clearly not the reasons why they actually do go, because those reasons are as strong as they ever were, and yet people stopped going.

Short answer: The abuse scandals put people off.

Long answer: Most people were Catholic in name only, paying it lip service, and nothing more. Very few actually took time to learn about Christianity, and were just doing what they always did, ie following a tradition. When that tradition began to fall apart, primarily because of the abuse scandals in this case, peoples attitudes and culture changed, just like people's culture changed when Christianity came to these shores in the first place. People dont go to confession anymore, well because, they're not Christian / Catholic anymore. And to be honest, they never really were in the first place, not properly anyway. Catholicim has enjoyed a biased success in this country ever since it was outlawed by the brits. I hate to say it, but that is a big reason why it gained popularity, not because of the love of God. In a way though, this whole new unpopularity of Christianity / Catholicism could be a good thing. It will sort the wheat from the chaff, and give us a clean slate with which to really win souls for God, as opposed to what we had up till now, churches full of non-believers just carrying out a tradition.

Onesimus

I think the whole visible confessional box in the Church along with preaching it at Mass is but a small step to bring people back to confession. The biggest step we can make it prayer of course.

It's true though, as a business man himself knows, If he don't keep advertising a product and making it visible in the community through all the avenues available to him, nobody will buy the product.

Same with confession, it needs to be visibly seen by others, as does the praying of the rosary and other pious actions.

Even if it gives just one soul the incentive to turn to confession after having not been in 20 years, its a step forward.

By the way, in the Eastern Churches, our confessions are made in front of the Icon screen. No confession box there. But I'm thinking the Roman rite have a great opportunity to really get confession back from being on its knees to it's feet.

Peregrinus

newmug wrote: »

Short answer: The abuse scandals put people off till now, churches full of non-believers just carrying out a tradition.

Short, but I think wrong. The collapse in the practice of confession happened about a generation before the abuse scandal broke.

angeleyes

I used to be on the Parish team and last month I asked my parish priest three times if we could have confession on the First Friday and each time he refused to answer and skirted around the issue. Confession is now just twice a year -Christmas and Easter.

So it looks like to me priests are not interested in offering confession, those that do want monthly confession are forced to go elsewhere for it and I know those numbers are small.

philologos

I'm interested in this. What does the RCC claim is the advantage of confessing before a priest rather than to God in prayer? I thought what Onesimus said about needing confession wad interesting. How do you know if you need confession? Surely we could do with confessing every single day of the week for how we've fallen short of God's standard?

Peregrinus

Hi Philologos

I think this stems ultimately from the very strong emphasis in the Catholic tradition on the Incarnation, and in particular on the Incarnation as a continuing reality.

Paul makes the point that, when I sin, I diminish not only myself but the body of Christ. All sin, even the most private and inward, has this dimension. And, just as the body of Christ is involved in my sin, so it’s fitting that the body of Christ should be involved in my reconciliation from sin. I should want this.

Of course I can repent in my heart and ask forgiveness, and of course God’s forgiveness will be given to me - it has already been promised. But I encounter God not only in my heart, but in the person of Jesus Christ. Likewise, I encounter the grace of forgiveness (and all graces) in the person of Jesus Christ. And when Paul calls the church the body of Christ, that’s not just a metaphor or a figure of speech; it’s a continuing sacramental reality. So the idea of reconciliation being effected though the ministry of the church isn’t something that’s bolted on to forgiveness, as a disciplinary measure, so to speak; it’s a natural concomitant of the incarnational understanding of the church which is central to the Catholic tradition.

And not just the Catholic tradition, of course. Onesimus has already pointed to the Eastern practice (common to Eastern Catholics and Orthodox Christians) of penitents facing the altar as they confess, with the priest standing by as to witness on behalf of the church. Thus Eastern Christians don’t think of themselves as confessing to a priest; they think of themselves as confessing to God, in the presence of a priest, who as the minister of the church pronounces the forgiveness which God has given them.