Is There One Single Reason Most Catholics Don't Do Confession

 

As I reviewed in a previous post, confession was practiced widely in the U.S. though the 1950's. It has fallen to a trickle. This, even though the Pope advises the faithful to continue the practice. The book I'm reading, For I Have Sinned, goes through the many reasons confession no longer works for most Catholics. Clergy have committed their own sins. People have become more suspicious of authorities. There are a host of other societal changes that are discussed in the book and many other places. 

The book spends a lot of time reviewing written materials from Catholic parishes, local parish newsletters, official Catholic studies and other sources. A huge unresolvable problem for the practice of confession from both the perspectives of clergy and lay people has been birth control. Contraception is a major sin with no resolution. With almost all Catholics practicing contraception how can those who sin navigate confession? And, with the sin all but universal, how can clergy navigate the issue?

The book has pages and pages of writing records on how priests have handled those women who confess to practicing contraception including "the pill." There are not many priests who openly admit to forgiving these sinful women. We will never know the conversations that went on in many thousands of confessional booths. There are many who have anonymously published their view they simply forgive and move on. There are also many lay people who have written about "what they heard others say" about the reaction of priests in confession listening to women confess.

Apparently, there is a lot of informal information floating about large parishes as to which priests have no problem with birth control and which give stern lectures. Women, of course, find the right priest for themselves. As one woman put it, "I don't think the pill is a sin. So, I confess to a priest who forgives me. I don't confess to a crabby priest. But I don't skip confession because I want to be a good Catholic."

Drawing lines in the sand as the Catholic hierarchy has done with birth control needs to be done only after careful reflection of whether the line will hold. I remember the old Mad magazine saying long ago there is a line in the sand about good taste. Our job, it said, was not only to cross the line but kick the sand all over the place. 

Crossing the line, kicking the sand, is happening in the Catholic church, not only with birth control but with the ritual of confession.