Is it just me, or is set time for confessions becoming an endangered species

mburn16 · #1 Jan 16, '12, 12:43 pm

Hello all,

I'm just wondering whether anyone else has noticed this, but giving confession seems to be becoming something of a quest in itself. My church attendance in the past year or so has been sporadic, which naturally establishes the need for confession. Yet, my home parish (I'm a college student, so I'm not often there) offers confession only by appointment outside of the Lenten season, two of the parishes that I've visted near college listed confession time before mass, yet this did not take place either time I visited, a third parish offers set confession time in the middle of the day during the week (how many people can really make it? I have work/class), and a fourth makes no mentions of confession.

What gives?

I understand the Vatican has nixed the idea of providing confession over the internet or some other telecommunication channel, but I'm start to see why those exact things might make a LOT of sense.

**Bookcat** · #2 Jan 16, '12, 12:46 pm

Usually everywhere I have been..it is on Saturday.

Cathedrals often have daily.

One can also make an appointment ...or drop by.

Luvtosew · #3 Jan 16, '12, 12:52 pm

An hour a week where I go , unless you make an appoint. I guess.

It makes it hard.

DihydrogenOxide · #4 Jan 16, '12, 12:54 pm

Look for a church that offers more time for confession.

Without confession, the parish will become weak and fail.
The following is time tested and true: a solid parish places a large emphasis on confession. You see this time and again. The parishes where there is a lot of fluff, place little emphasis on sin. Find another parish.

Check here: www.masstimes.org

Put your ZIP in and it'll list nearby parishes and times for confessions.

Luna Lovecraft · #5 Jan 16, '12, 6:06 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by DihydrogenOxide

Check here: www.masstimes.org

Put your ZIP in and it'll list nearby parishes and times for confessions.

Masstimes isn't a guarantee you'll get Confession. We used it to locate two parishes at Christmas that had Confession times listed on their websites, but when we showed up no one was there.

Thankfully our parish has regular, convenient Confession times, but our experience made me feel for people in other parishes.

Luna

DihydrogenOxide · #6 Jan 16, '12, 7:51 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by Luna Lovecraft

Masstimes isn't a guarantee you'll get Confession. We used it to locate two parishes at Christmas that had Confession times listed on their websites, but when we showed up no one was there.

Thankfully our parish has regular, convenient Confession times, but our experience made me feel for people in other parishes.

Christmas is the worst time to look on Masstimes for a schedule. Surely you should know that Masstimes is really only helpful during ordinary times. Big holy days such as Christmas and Easter generally always have there own special penance services.

gh4 · #7 Jan 16, '12, 8:39 pm

Our priest has only been here for about 7 months and he's working things out. He was having Holy Hour every Friday with mass afterwards and there was about 40 minutes where he heard confessions. That was good! Now Friday goes back to morning mass and we are having 4pm mass on Tuesdays, but not sure what's happening about Holy Hour and confessions. Supposedly he will hear confessions 1 hour before mass, but honestly, he only gets to the church about 10 minutes before mass, hardly enough time for anything but the very briefest of confessions. And our confessional is not 100% sound proof, so I'd really rather not confess with people milling around right outside the door!!
I think many people just don't do confession anymore and a lot of people only do confession at Christmas and Lent/Easter.

Luna Lovecraft · #8 Jan 16, '12, 8:47 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by DihydrogenOxide

Christmas is the worst time to look on Masstimes for a schedule. Surely you should know that Masstimes is really only helpful during ordinary times. Big holy days such as Christmas and Easter generally always have there own special penance services.

Surely we should know no such thing. Sheesh. We used the site to put us in touch with parish websites. We could have just as easily used our Google-fu, I suppose.

What we should expect is for parishes to keep their sites current and accurate. If they can't do that, they should take their sites down, no? I mean seriously... I can get Confession being cancelled because of an emergency, but if it hasn't been held on Saturdays since Fr. David was transfered to Los Angeles in 2007 and no one's bothered to update their website (was told that at one parish office), they need to get on that. And if they don't know how, recruit some of their high school parishioners; kids can get stuff like that squared away in no time.

Luna

George Stegmeir · #9 Jan 16, '12, 8:54 pm

For all of you who need to go to Confession, and find that it is not offered on a scheduled basis, Why not go into the sacristy right after one Mass has ended and before the next one is scheduled. As the priest if he will hear your Confession. Very few will deny you, unless it is apparant that yours will be a lengthy one and will cut into the scheduled Mass time. If you are at a University, call the priest at the Newman Society on campus. You will find they are always available...... Don't cop out by making excuses that I am too busy, or the priest isn't available. If you can't find it at one Parish, go to another. There are very few towns in the US with only one Catholic Church-even in the Deep South!

babochka · #10 Jan 16, '12, 9:15 pm

Our parish is very small, but Confession is offered 1 hour before Sunday Mass and 30 minutes before every other scheduled service. I actually have difficulty getting to church early on Sunday morning, as I have 5 young children. Our priest is more than happy to hear Confessions after church or any other time that you ask him.

As for the priests who say that spending an hour in the Confessional is "wasting time" if nobody comes - they could use that unexpected time for prayer or spiritual reading.

MissRose73 · #11 Jan 17, '12, 4:18 am

I prefer to go when there are set times for Confession compared to making an appointment. I just wished more priests would preach on the necessity of the sacrament, and that going more than 1 time a year is not a bad thing no matter if its to your parish priest or another priest. Also, it would be nice to perhaps have once a month or perhaps twice, confessions available on times other than Saturday mornings to accommodate working people with unusual work schedules as an example who may not be able to go on a Saturday morning.

DihydrogenOxide · #12 Jan 17, '12, 5:56 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by Luna Lovecraft

Surely we should know no such thing. Sheesh. We used the site to put us in touch with parish websites. We could have just as easily used our Google-fu, I suppose.

Yeah, I know what you mean. I did something a little more old-fashioned around Christmas. I'd go on to masstimes, find the parish phone number and give 'em a ring. Needless to say, even the recordings for holy day confession schedules were pretty bad. I couldn't find one for the saturday before. I was in the state of grace, so I just shrugged and decided to go the next time I could.

As an aside, I have at least 15-20 catholic churches nearby that I could go to relatively easily, so that's why Masstimes is useful to me. I forget the names sometimes and sometimes it's nice to see which is closer to where I am at the moment.

Quote:

I mean seriously... I can get Confession being cancelled because of an emergency, but if it hasn't been held on Saturdays since Fr. David was transfered to Los Angeles in 2007 and no one's bothered to update their website (was told that at one parish office), they need to get on that.

lol. Some kids can. Hey, most anyone can put that stuff in the website. They make them kind of cookie-cutter now, for the technologically illiterate. You don't need to know anything about coding, just put "this and this" here and "so-and-so" there. It's very, very easy.

Sounds like they have a fear of the computer or they just don't care.

Mrs Sally · #13 Jan 17, '12, 6:11 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by Luna Lovecraft

Masstimes isn't a guarantee you'll get Confession. We used it to locate two parishes at Christmas that had Confession times listed on their websites, but when we showed up no one was there.

Thankfully our parish has regular, convenient Confession times, but our experience made me feel for people in other parishes.

Luna

I always call after I locate a parish in masstimes even if I'm just looking for Mass. Catholic parishes are not the best at updating their websites.

Mijoy2 · #14 Jan 16, '12, 12:55 pm

I figure it's supply and demand. Where there is little demand there is little supply.

I usually go to a Carmelite Chapel in my area which has confessions multiple times a day. And there, I have never not had to wait. There, for whatever reason, there is a geat demand and also an abundant supply (of avaliablity).

It is almost always a line of sweet looking elderly ladies of which I need to wait for.

Funny how it's the sweet elderly ladies who seem to do most of the sinning isn't it?

mburn16 · #15 Jan 16, '12, 1:00 pm

Quote:

I figure it's supply and demand. Where there is little demand there is little supply.

You would think so, yet I went to Mass yesterday at the only church in the area that offers the TLM, and even they weren't offering confessions at the time listed.

Thats the one that surprised me.