Catholic Confession is Still a Thing



A Catholic site recently discussed the question of how long a member should spend in the confession session with their priest. The article asked if 30 minutes was too long?

A while back I wrote here about a book published by the Catholic professor who found the practice of confession is much less popular today than it was in the past. The majority of Catholics do not go to confession. Yet apparently some do. Perhaps it is more popular in some parishes. Older members are more likely to practice it than younger. My late friend who was a priest said listening to people drone on about details in their lives was quite boring.

Catholic friends I've asked about confession said they learned while children they were to think of something insignificant, hear they are forgiven and leave. But reading the link about half hour confessions gives me the impression some Catholics view confession as a counselling session. They don't see it as an opportunity to get their sins forgiven but a time to unload their general troubles on the priest. Things like, "My daughter is dating a non Catholic. What can I do?" or, "I can't sleep at night." I would be tempted myself to think of it in this way because I don't understand why I should tell someone like a priest about my private life.

I know a priest who, when the scandals about pedophile priests surfaced, said he did not believe it because the priests would have confessed any immoral thing with children and his diocese would have stepped in to stop it. This priest was naive. The priest pedophiles went into the priest business because they thought no one would ever know.

My advice to anyone who believes there is a god and also believes he/she has sinned is to skip the middleman, the priest, and get forgiveness from the top. The priest himself was born a sinner so we can't be sure about his standing.  

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