Greetings!

On July 2nd, my 96 year old mother fell out of her chair and broke two vertebrae in her neck. As her primary caregivers, my wife and I have been spending a great deal of time at the hospital and the nursing home as my mother slowly recovers.

My mother's time spent with EMT's, doctors, and nurses sparked the idea for the current month's topic. It would not have gone well for my mother if she refused medical treatment. Her fall was life-threatening. According to Rome, the Sacrament of Reconciliation (confession to a priest) is similarly critical - it offers spiritual healing to the Catholic. In order to qualify for heaven, a Catholic must obtain forgiveness and absolution from a priest of all "mortal sins." They are also taught to confess all "venial sins"(minor) sins in order to strengthen their relationship with God, thereby avoiding potential mortal sins. It is a precept of the Church that all Catholics age 7 and older must go to confession at least once a year (CCC 1457). It is highly recommended that they go to confession once a month. Anyone who commits a mortal sin should go to confession as soon as possible.

Most Catholics do not confess their sins. They do not think that they need this "spiritual medicine." In a 2008 Georgetown University Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate survey (CARA survey, summary found here), it was found that 75% of Catholics go to confession less than the required once a year. Of this total, 45% never go to confession. In a similar survey conducted in 1965, 38% went to confession once a month. In the 2008 survey, the percentage of monthly confessors dropped to 2%!

In 1986, I began attending St. Matthew Catholic Church, which at the time was meeting at a movie theater in Pineville, NC. St. Matthew is now one of the largest Catholic congregations in the country, with over 15,000 registered families. (About 6 in 10 Catholics register in a parish). There are currently three priests that minister to the congregation. If you assume about three confessing family members for each family, approximately 50,000 souls are expected to receive the sacrament. At five minutes per confession, if every person were to confess monthly each priest could expect to spend over 16,000 hours a year hearing confessions. (There are about 8700 hours in a year). At the mandatory minimum of once per year, this would "only" require 1,300 hours per priest. (This ignores the 40% of non-registered Catholics). The current schedule for hearing confessions at St. Matthew is Saturday afternoons from 4PM to 5PM, and 45 minutes on Wednesday evenings. About 90 hours per year. This past Saturday, I sat in the "confession waiting room" at St. Matthew for 90 minutes, and about 25 people arrived to confess to the priest. One penitent commented that it was unusually crowded.

Why have Catholics stopped going to confession to receive "the gift of reconciliation" with God? Here are some reasons:

1. "I can confess my sins straight to God."

A majority of Catholics do not believe that confessing to a priest is necessary. However, CCC 1456 states: "Confession to a priest is an essential part of the sacrament of Penance." Those who hold otherwise may be guilty of the mortal sin of heresy (CCC 2089).

2. "It's easier to just receive communion."

The Catholic Church teaches that sins are also forgiven by receiving Holy Communion (CCC 1393). But the body and blood of Christ must only be received by those who are in a state of grace. Anyone who commits a mortal sin must confess to a priest prior to partaking in the Lord's Supper. Mortal sin temporarily "excommunicates" the Catholic (CCC 1395). So, eating the Eucharist does not provide forgiveness of mortal sins. To receive communion with unconfessed mortal sins is to commit the additional mortal sin of "sacrilege" (CCC 2120). While 25 people received the sacrament of reconciliation this Saturday at St. Matthew, there were perhaps 2,000 people who received communion at the Saturday evening mass alone.

3. "I divorced and remarried, so I am not allowed into confession."

This reflects true Catholic teaching. Unless a Catholic receives an annulment from the Church (declaring that their first marriage never really happened), remarriage causes the person to be in a perpetual state of adultery. Since adultery is a mortal sin, they are not allowed to receive holy communion, nor may they receive the sacrament of penance. There is one exception: if the married couple commits to lifelong abstinence (living as brother and sister), then they may receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Remember, dying with any unconfessed mortal sin sends a person to hell. According to the Georgetown University survey on marriage, 23% of adult Catholics in the U.S. are divorced, of which 85% have not received an annulment. If remarriage results in a likely future in hell, Catholic teaching seems to encourage divorcees to cohabitate rather than marry. At least they could still participate in the "Sacraments of Salvation."

4. "I haven't committed any mortal sins."

According to Catholic teaching, the following are some mortal sins, along with survey results from CARA:

  -- Deliberately failing to attend Sunday mass (CCC 2181). 69% of Catholic miss mass on any given week; 57% do not believe that missing mass is a mortal sin.

  -- Deliberately failing to attend mass on Holy Days of Obligations (CCC 2177). 88% of Catholics miss mass on at least one of the annual Holy Days.

  -- Failure to believe in the bodily presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. 43% of Catholics do not believe Jesus is present in the wafer.

  -- Failure to abstain from meat on Fridays during lent (CCC 2043). 40% of Catholics do not abstain.

  -- The use of contraceptives, which is intrinsically evil (CCC 2370).

Most Catholics would agree that they struggle with sin. But most would argue that they lead decent lives, and are good enough to go to heaven.

5. "I don't believe in hell."

According to the CARA survey, 33% of Catholics doubt that there is a hell.

6. "I had a bad experience confessing to a priest"

7. "I'm embarrassed since it has been too long since I confessed."

One of the statements made to the priest during confession is: "it has been ___ since my last confession."

8. "We use contraceptives" 

All mortal sins must be confessed. To intentionally omit a mortal sin from the priest invalidates the confession, making the confession itself a mortal sin.

9. "I know the priest personally, and I would be embarrassed by my sins."

Some Catholics purposely go to another parish to avoid confessing to their parish priest. 

10. "I don't trust priest since the sex abuse scandals."

As I discovered in my trip to overwhelmingly Catholic Ireland, the Catholic Church has been severely weakened by the cover-up of pedophile priests.

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So what? What do we learn from this aversion to Confession?

According to the CARA Survey, 77% of Catholics agree with the statement "I am proud to be Catholic." 81% consider their Catholic faith to be important in their daily life. Yet the vast majority of Catholics do not hold to the most critical tenets of their faith. During the Reformation, multitudes of Catholics were convinced of the errors of the papacy, and left the Church. Many were martyred for their decision. Unfortunately, today's Catholic is likely to agree with you that Roman Catholicism is wrong but still remain entrenched in their religion. This makes it difficult to enter into spiritual conversations with Catholics. They are inoculated by their religion. Of all the above reasons for avoiding Confession, perhaps the most distressing are the lack of belief in hell (and a corresponding belief in Purgatory) and the delusion that they are "good Catholics" who occasionally commit venial sins.

Please pray for your Catholic friends, that they may be convicted of their sins, understand the holiness of God, and be convinced of the danger of dying apart from Jesus.

I also ask that you pray for the Catholic priests, that they will recognize the disconnect concerning the Catholic teaching on confession versus the crushing reality of the lukewarmness of their flock.

And please pray for the salvation of my Catholic mother.

In Christ,

Dale