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Confession’s Comeback: Bishops Want to End The Confession Crisis

Editor’s note: This is a shortened version of an article by Tim Drake, appearing in the National Catholic Register about the “confession crisis” and signs that the faithful are beginning to return to a more frequent use of the sacrament of mercy and reconciliation. This article quotes recent pastoral messages from several United States bishops.

lines for confession 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” during Lent, 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, Colorado, Capuchin friars 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, three bishops have written pastoral letters on the subject of confession, placing a new emphasis on the Church’s most underutilized sacrament.

In his 2001 apostolic letter Novo Millennio Ineunte, Pope John Paul II 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 [grave] 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, 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 has weighed in. During a meeting with father confessors of the 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.

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.

[The Church’s teaching and restrictions on general absolution are clearly presented in the Code of Canon Law, canons 961-963. Basically it affirms that in very specific, emergency circumstances general absolution can be given but must be followed by individual confession; it also stipulates that the simple fact of a large number of penitents at one time is not a sufficient reason for general absolution without individual confession.]

“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 [of San Antonio] 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 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. “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, NY, 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, NY, 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
“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.”
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.
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.”