Greg Erlandson, president and publisher of Our Sunday Visitor, reports on a successful and simple approach to reviving the sacrament of confession at his parish:
My parish tried something unusual this Advent. It decided to make the sacrament available when parishioners were available. A few months ago, Father James Shafer, our pastor, proposed to his two associates that instead of hearing confessions for an hour Saturday, they try a “back to the future” idea.
“I told them that I always wondered what would happen if we heard confessions around the weekend Mass schedule,” he said. “Would making it more available and convenient for people help more of them experience his great forgiving love in their lives?”
The priests agreed. They first talked about confession from the pulpit. They published an examination of conscience in the bulletin. Then, for two weekend Mass cycles, as one priest celebrated Mass, the other two were available not just before and after Mass, but during it as well. For two weekends, the three priests logged more than 60 hours in the confessional, and according to Father Jim, more than 98 percent of the time, they were busy.
This is precisely the sort of authentic creativity envisioned by Church teaching. In his 1984 apostolic exhortation Reconciliatio et Paenitentia, Pope John Paul II urged pastors “to use all possible and suitable means to ensure that the greatest possible number of our brothers and sisters receive the ‘grace that has been given to us’ through penance.”
10 January 2013 at 8:24 pm
A parish here in Memphis offered confession every Tuesday and Thursday evening during Advent. Judging by the lines when my daughters and I went, it worked well. When we lived in Toledo there was a downtown chapel which offered confessions every weekday before the noon Mass. There was almost always a line. When I was in line one day I looked up to see that the man standing next to me was the deacon at my parish. He gave me a half smile and said, “Good day for confession”. That may be the only laugh I ever get in the confession line. Offer it and they will come.
10 January 2013 at 8:59 pm
St. Xavier in downtown Cincinnati also offers confession every week day, both before and during daily Mass. Every time I have gone there has been at least a short line.
10 January 2013 at 9:06 pm
At Old St. Mary’s in Cincinnati we offer it before all the Masses on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation. Also after the daily 12:10 Mass–which is a little weird. I should think we’d want it before Mass. BTW–when a home-schooling family comes in EVERYBODY in the family except the little ones goes to confession. Reminds me of Thursdays before First Fridays in the ’50s. Which is a good thing.
10 January 2013 at 10:52 pm
Yes, there are downtown parishes which have generously offered the sacrament over the years. For that they should be commended. The point of Mr. Erlandson’s story is to show what another sort of parish did to break out of the 3-3:45 Saturday box and make confession more available.
12 January 2013 at 12:35 am
Creativity is good. It is one of the things that sets us apart from the animals and draws us closer to THE “Creator.”
I heard of a Latin mass parish that serves southern Kentucky and Northern Tennessee where more than half the “regulars” travel over an hour for mass, many over 2 hours….one way! The priest was asked to have mass for first Friday and First Saturday devotions. People couldn’t make the trip three days in a row so he would do devotions and say first Friday mass at 11:30 p.m and then turn around at 12:05 a.m. and say First Saturday mass.
sorry Rich, somewhat off topic but I’m sure confessions are heard before and after.
12 January 2013 at 1:51 pm
Fr. Daniel in Monett, Missouri did it before Sunday morning Mass. The lines were long.