The people of God have a right to see that
the ministry of hearing
confessions is a priority in our lives as priests.

". . . And by appointment"

By Joseph F. Wilson

n He was the last penitent. He stepped into the reconciliation room, looked down at me uncertainly, and sat down. It had been a very, very long time since his last confession, and it turned out that he had completely and thoroughly made an utter mess of his life. Eventually he crashed, bottomed out, and slowly and painstakingly began the process of putting his life back together again. He had realized, he said, that returning to the Faith would have to be part of the process, and he intended to do that. But for the present, Easter was approaching, and he decided that on Good Friday he would drive back to his home state, to the town in which he was raised, and make a visit to the church in which he had served years ago as an altar boy.

"I was surprised at how many people were here in the church," he said. "Then, I saw that you and the other priest were in the confessionals-and I thought to myself, 'Oh, don't tell me that now I can go to confession!'" It was 4:30 in the afternoon; I had been hearing confessions since one, with a break at three for Stations of the Cross. And once again, as I administered the absolution to this penitent, I was glad I was there.

Fifteen years ago when I was in the seminary the recently received wisdom was that the sacrament of reconciliation should not be offered during the Paschal Triduum. Lent was the time of repentance and reconciliation; by Holy Thursday evening that should have been taken care of. It was a wonderful day when I saw the news photo of Pope John Paul II stepping into a confessional in St. Peter's basilica on Good Friday to hear confessions. He has done so every year since-to emphasize the importance of the ministry of the confessor.

It is an emphasis which is badly needed in the Church today, for the Church's life has been seriously impoverished by something which becomes quite evident as soon as one looks at the cover of the Sunday bulletins of most churches-the times appointed for confession are often almost nonexistent.

Recently I was putting together a retreat for our parish confirmandi, preparing for the day of their Confirmation. As part of the program I devised a pamphlet for their parents, advising them of the topics we would cover on the retreat and suggesting a few ways in which they could get involved themselves. One of my suggestions was simple: One of the best things you can do for your child is to say to him or her, I'm going to prepare for your confirmation day by going to confession. Thinking that I would make the pamphlet as practical as possible, I phoned five nearby parishes to find out what their confession hours were, and discovered that four of those parishes had just forty-five minutes to an hour of confessions on Saturday, either at noon or late afternoon; the secretary of the fifth parish searched her desk for a bulletin, found one and said, "Father, I don't think we have regular confession times." The really sad thing was that it was LENT!

This is common today-the bulletin reads "Confessions from 3 pm to 3:45 pm Saturdays, and by appointment." The scheduled time, whether noontime or later in the afternoon on Saturday, must surely be inconvenient for most people-I can't imagine a worse time for families-and how frequently people call up for a personal appointment in such parishes I couldn't say for sure. My impression would be, not too often, for I think the announced schedule says something about the importance placed on the sacrament by the parish. In my first assignment I was fortunate to serve in a parish where confessions were heard after every weekday Mass-three times daily and on Saturday, more often during Lent and Advent. People knew that confessions were heard daily, and they came; more often than I could begin to estimate, people from other parishes expressed their gratitude that we were hearing so often.

Availability and anonymity are key

It was an important part of the daily life of the parish. The priest was available to people who wanted to speak with him. The church was open daily for visits, and people estranged from the Church for whatever reason who stopped in to think or to pray would see the bulletin and know that at least eighteen times a week they had the opportunity to slip into the confessional either for confession, or just to talk. It was important that the opportunity for anonymity was offered, as the Church wisely prescribes; if they chose, they simply knelt behind the curtain, or if they preferred they sat in the chair-surely, an option they wouldn't have or expect if they called the rectory for an appointment.

It wasn't a burden for the priest. He was there for Mass anyway, and given the pressures of ordinary daily parish ministry, it becomes too easy to dash out of the sacristy after the liturgy has ended, without pausing for reflection and thanksgiving. We knew that after Mass there were confessions scheduled; one simply went into the reconciliation room, perhaps with one's breviary, sat down and collected one's thoughts. If no one came, which was pretty rare, one had at least a few moments for recollection. And over the years I came to appreciate how helpful it is to a parish priest to be hearing confessions daily, to be that much more in touch with what is going on in the lives of one's people. I have come to believe that to have missed that experience would have impoverished not just the life of the parish, but our ministry as priests.

Rekindling an awareness of personal sin

The parish had previously had twelve years of General Absolution liturgies. Four times a year-twice in Lent, twice in Advent -the church would be full of people who knew that they would be receiving absolution without having to confess their sins (no extra confessors were invited, and the resulting imbalance between numbers of priests and penitents was understood to constitute an "emergency situation"). It was necessary to begin a sensitive period of catechesis to wean the parish away from this custom, and the experience showed me what the real emergency situation was: for several years there were many penitents who would come in, begin by saying that they had not been to confession for twelve years "but I always went to the General Absolution," and would then be completely at a loss over what to confess. It had been more than a decade since they had examined their consciences -there was no need to do so if one were not going to confess one's sins. Awareness of personal sin had become a lost habit.

With the help of carefully written materials on preparation for confession, people began to rediscover the help frequent confession can be. It was a rewarding experience for priests and people. A deeper awareness of one's sinfulness and a stronger emphasis on the mercy of the forgiving Christ are just two of the graces this brings to the Christian life; another invaluable good is the opportunity people have to put questions to the priest, to ask for clarifications, to correct wrong impressions and misinformation about the Faith. Emphasizing confession made a decisive and practical difference in the parish's life. We reminded the people that every priest who hears your confession regularly kneels before a brother priest to confess his own faults and sins, for of course the sacrament must have a central place in the spiritual life of the confessor himself. Ten years later, we scheduled an hour of confessions on Good Friday, and confessions were actually heard for three and a half hours; on Holy Saturday our scheduled hour stretched out for two-and-a-half.

The practice of Penance Services with Individual Confessions has become widespread: a couple of times a year a parish will invite guest confessors in for a liturgy, homily and individual confessions. The practice has something to recommend it, but surely not as a twice-yearly substitute for the daily provision of regularly scheduled confessions. The biggest advantage I can see in these penance liturgies is the opportunity for parishioners to go to confession to guest confessors-every realistic parish priest will make that provision for his people if at all possible. But these penance liturgies always seem to me to impose time constraints, as priests and penitents are aware of the number of people waiting to be heard.

I approach invitations to such liturgies very carefully, for unfortunately it is necessary to do a bit of preliminary investigating to find our exactly what is planned. Horror stories abound about these liturgies. One Vincentian Father invited to a penance service in a parish which was hosting a mission told me later that the preacher had exhorted the penitents to confide to the confessor "just one serious sin." Evidently it never occurred to the good Father that if Joe Catholic has just murdered his girl friend, embezzled a million dollars and slandered his supervisor at work he might be tempted to confess only that he had missed Mass on Sunday! I myself was invited for the penance service of another parish's mission. I carefully ascertained that no "funny stuff" was planned, and was assured, "Oh, no: everybody will make full, integral confessions." What they didn't tell me was that the confessors were to be told not to offer any counsel whatever. The congregation was instructed thus by the mission priest: "Now, you will step up to the confessor of your choice and confess your sins, but Father won't offer any advice to anyone. If you need to talk over something, make an appointment with a priest as soon as you can." The advantage to this arrangement was that we whipped through the hearing of confessions like roller-blading teenagers and the whole congregation could join in the "prayer of thanksgiving" and be finished in an hour and five minutes. I found this experience of Confession Lite deeply underwhelming. There were penitents there whose confessions cried out for advice or for comment; it was disturbing to me that this important benefit of sacramental confession was not provided for, was considered less important than the "prayer of thanksgiving."

There are two sacraments which our Lord has given to his Church to be our constant companions-Penance, and the Most Holy Eucharist. Where generous provision is made in the life of a parish for the Sacrament of Reconciliation, the lives of parishioners and the ministry of their priests are enriched. The people of God have the right to see that this ministry is a priority in our lives as priests. n