March 18-24, 2007 Issue |
Posted 3/13/07 at 7:00 AM
SAN ANTONIO — Archbishop Jose Gomez
only has to recall his childhood in Mexico to recognize that people don’t go to
confession like they used to.
“In Latin America, it’s part of the
culture,” said the Archbishop of San Antonio, Texas. “When I was a kid, the
priests would hear confessions on first Thursdays from 4 to 10 p.m. In the
U.S., people won’t dare to look for a priest in the confessional unless it’s in
the bulletin.”
But things may be changing. Signs
abound that confession is making a comeback:
• In the Chicago
Archdiocese, St. Mary’s Church in Lake Forest, Ill., offered “24 Hours of
Grace” Feb. 23-24, during which penitents could avail themselves of the
sacrament. When the program was first offered last year, 70 priests heard
confessions and more than 350 people received the sacrament.
• In the Diocese of Colorado Springs, Colo., Capuchin friars continue
to offer the sacrament at a storefront called The Catholic Center in the
Citadel Mall. More than 6,600 persons have visited the center for the sacrament
since its opening in November 2001. The numbers have grown each year, starting
with 519 the first year and growing to more than 1,534 last year.
• In recent months, no less than three bishops have
written pastoral letters on the subject of confession, placing a new emphasis
on the Church’s most underutilized sacrament.
When Pope John Paul II spoke of a
crisis in the Church, he meant the crisis of confession. In his 2001 apostolic
letter Novo
Millennio Ineunte (At the Beginning of the New Millennium), he asked
bishops to have “courage, confidence and creativity” in re-establishing the
sacrament of confession in their dioceses.
The confession crisis was a constant
theme of John Paul’s. In one Holy Thursday letter, he said three times that
people in a state of sin should not receive Communion without receiving
confession first. On Divine Mercy Sunday in 2002, he dedicated a special apostolic
letter to confession. In his 2003 encyclical Ecclesia de
Eucharistia (The Eucharist and Its Relationship to the Church), John
Paul II’s language was almost like a formal declaration:
“I therefore desire to reaffirm that
in the Church there remains in force, now and in the future, the rule by which
the Council of Trent gave concrete expressions to the Apostle Paul’s stern
warning when it affirmed that, in order to receive the Eucharist in a worthy
manner, one must first confess one’s sins when one is aware of mortal sin.”
And Pope Benedict XVI weighed in.
During a Feb. 19 meeting with father confessors of Roman basilicas, he
commented: “How many penitents find in confession the peace and joy they were
seeking for so long. Christ has chosen us, dear priests, to be the only ones
with the power to pardon sins in his name. This then, is a specific ecclesial
service to which we must give priority.”
Last year, Pope Benedict recommended
the practice of weekly confession, especially for priests, which he follows himself
(see sidebar).
It’s undeniable that the sacrament
has fallen into disuse in recent years. Because it’s a private matter,
statistics on the use of the sacrament are hard to come by. However, surveys
from the 1970s showed that the use of monthly confession had fallen from 38% to
17%, while those who rarely or never go rose from 18% to 38%. A 1980 University
of Notre Dame study found that 26% of active Catholics never went to
confession.
Correcting Abuses
There’s also been a lot of abuse of
the sacrament, such as illegitimate use of general absolution under normal
circumstances.
Some bishops, though, such as New
Ulm, Minn., Bishop John Nienstedt, have been re-educating priests and faithful.
General absolution is a topic Bishop Nienstedt has visited at least twice in
recent years in his monthly newspaper columns.
According to the Catholic
Encyclopedia of 1913, general absolution, where all eligible
Catholics gathered at a given area are granted absolution for sins without
prior individual confession to a priest, is lawfully granted in only two
circumstances: when there is imminent danger of death and there is no time for
priests to hear the confessions of the individual penitents, or when a serious
need is present, that is, the number of penitents is so large that there are
not sufficient priests to hear the individual confessions properly within a
reasonable time (generally considered to be 1 month) so that the Catholics,
through no fault of their own, would be forced to be deprived of the sacrament
or Communion. The diocesan bishop must give prior permission before general
absolution may be given under this circumstance. It is important to note that
the occurrence of a large number of penitents, such as may occur on a
pilgrimage or at penitential services is not considered as sufficient to permit
general absolution.
“Despite the fact that the repeated
use of general absolution was never approved as being valid by the Church
Universal and never officially sanctioned by my predecessors, it took on a life
of its own,” Bishop Niendstedt wrote. “The misuse of the rite has led to
confusion about the sacramental nature of grace, a general denial of the
seriousness of sin, a lessening of the importance of the priesthood and a loss
of countless opportunities for spiritual growth. In my humble opinion, these
results are the work of the Evil One.”
It was because of a loss of a sense
of sin that Archbishop Gomez released his pastoral letter on confession. It was
also part of the culmination of a jubilee year. The Archdiocese of San Antonio
marked the 275th anniversary of the founding of the Cathedral of San Fernando.
“A jubilee year is a time of
reconciliation traditionally in the Church,” Archbishop Gomez told the
Register. “Reconciliation is essential for the future of humanity. ... It’s a
concept that has been kind of forgotten or misunderstood in modern society.”
The archbishop encouraged pastors to
find new ways to make the sacrament accessible to people given the current
situation of their lives, including offering it during the week over lunch and
offering more family-friendly schedules. But he also called on Catholics to be
responsible.
“Failure to seek God’s mercy in the
sacrament puts our eternal souls at risk, and can result in our spiritual
death,” he writes in the letter, The Tender Mercy of Our God,
which came out on Ash Wednesday. “We must not let ourselves
be confused or led astray by a culture that would have us avoid truths of the
Gospel we might find challenging or uncomfortable.”
Bishop William Murphy of Rockville
Centre, N.Y., also released a pastoral letter. He said it was inspired by the
diocese’s display of the relics of St. John Mary Vianney in Merrick, N.Y., last
fall.
“Thousands of people came to
venerate St. John Vianney’s heart and availed themselves of the sacrament,”
said Sean Dolan, diocesan director of communications.
Lines Growing
Not all have been positive about the
effort.
“Confession was instituted by men in
the Church, not by God,” read a letter to the editor of The Washington
Post. “Why not take the money to be spent promoting confession and
use it to help needy families in the region.”
“I don’t think the archdiocese is
wasting its money,” responded Msgr. Edward Filardi of St. Stephen Martyr Church
on Pennsylvania Avenue. “Poverty of soul goes hand in hand with the charitable
drive of the archbishop.”
“Christ instituted it,” said Father
Christopher Walsh, author of The Untapped Power of the Sacrament of
Penance: A Priest’s View. “It can’t be accidental that the risen
Christ’s first words conveyed the sacrament. It was the first important power
the Risen Lord wanted to give to his disciples.”
Father Walsh noted that confession
and the Eucharist are the only two ongoing sacraments that Catholics receive.
“The sacrament has been marginalized,”
said Father Walsh. “We have to uncork this untapped power that Christ put in
the Church.”
There’s evidence that people are
responding to the efforts to promote confession.As
part of the “The Light Is on for You” campaign accompanying Archbishop Donald
Wuerl’s pastoral letter on confession, the Archdiocese of Washington produced
user-friendly confession guides, a wallet-size card with the Act of Contrition,
and bus and subway advertisements. Archbishop Wuerl asked all parishes to make
the sacrament available between 7-8:30 p.m. each Wednesday during Lent.
Msgr. Filardi wasn’t sure what to
expect on the first Wednesday.
“I was definitely there beyond my
shift,” he said. “As these things do, they more readily attract people who have
been away [from the sacrament]. It was worthwhile.”
Archbishop Gomez said that some
pastors have difficulty finding time to hear all the confessions because there
have been so many people.
“At St. Matthew’s they have three
confessors,” he explained. “They are hearing confessions for an hour and a
half, and there are still people in line.”
In Washington, Father Charles McCann
of St. Peter’s Church on Capitol Hill said he doesn’t expect to see long lines,
but thinks the new emphasis on the sacrament could have an impact long-term.
“Many people have gotten used to
communal penance services followed by private confession,” said Father McCann.
“For some, confession without a penance service is a novel idea. I don’t expect
an immediate surge, but an increased celebration of the sacrament will come
over a period of time.”
Tim Drake is based in
St. Joseph, Minnesota.
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