The confession during Mass: “Kill two birds with one stone”?

Father Giovanni

– Theologica –

CONFESSION DURING MASS: "KILL TWO BIRDS WITH ONE STONE"?

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Today again, fifty years after the inauguration of the Second Vatican Council, there is still a certain habit of penitents who confess during Mass; to which obviously the presence or availability of confessors corresponds to this purpose, which in a sense allow them to "kill two birds with one stone".

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Author John Cavalcoli OP

Author
John Cavalcoli OP

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To open the ’ article click below:

05.02.2016 Giovanni Cavalcoli, ON – CONFESSION DURING MASS: "KILL TWO BIRDS WITH ONE STONE"?

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12 replies
  1. Brother Philip?
    Brother Philip? says:

    the congregation for divine worship and the discipline of the sacraments published a few years ago a document encouraging for the good of the faithful to confess during mass. I practiced it myself and it was an opportunity to receive penitents who had not attended this sacrament for several decades.. I think these people were able to commune with more fruit later.. It is not intended for regular penitents but for those who constantly postpone their confession until later..

  2. father ariel
    Fr. Michele ofm.conv. says:

    Dearest Father, a sincere (and also admired) compliment for this last article, which together with the different one but on the same theme as Fr.. Ariel, it should give priests and especially confessors a lot to think about, especially those of … “new generation”

  3. hector says:

    I recommend visiting this: http://www.amicidomenicani.it/index.php
    Padre Angelo Bellon op, teacher of moral theology, he curates the column with meritorious dedication
    “A priest answers
    Your questions to the priest. In the charity of the Truth, a Dominican priest puts himself at your disposal to preach the themes proposed by you and to try to enlighten you in your doubts.”
    The contact methods and characteristics of the service are clearly explained on the site.
    The large archive contains a very large series of general answers to the many questions that the penitent faithful ask about confession as well as the many theological arguments, liturgical, etc that interest believers and non-believers.

  4. father ariel
    Don Andrea says:

    Thanks to you Father Giovanni and also to Father Ariel for these last articles of yours which I share and which I totally approve.

  5. father ariel
    Don Angelo Rossit says:

    Dear P. Giovanni Cavalcoli, I have already pointed out these last two articles of yours on confession, his and that of P. Ariel, to various priests of my district, and I must tell you that they and I both greatly appreciated them.
    I really know that in various respects you have truly remained the last island for those who still believe …
    With gratitude.

  6. father ariel
    Don Andrea says:

    Caro Father.
    I am writing to you from Milan, and I am writing to you from seventy to seventy. All ahead a memory: I was able to listen to your lecture many years ago from the Dominicans of Rome, at the time that you worked in the Secretariat of State as an expert theologian, while I was dealing in those days with the Lombard College of Rome. Years later I have read your books and have been following your articles for some time.
    At the hour of my death, when God wills, I will die in a totally different diocese from the one where 50 Years ago, In the 1969 I became a priest (and saying “in all and for all” I mean in the worst).
    In Milan a certain managerial pastoral care tends to prevail … practice … not to mention the rest, for example of the so-called theological tendencies of which you have written several times with reference to Bontadini etc. …
    Whatever the results are, it is easy to tell: when I was ordained in our seminary there were over 600 seminarians, there had already been a decline in vocations. In my year we were ordered fewer than 100, which caused concern, because you were used to about it 100 sorted at a time.
    Please note that the Milan seminar was designed for 1.000 seminarians.
    Today we have our Milanese 118 seminarians.
    http://www.seminario.milano.it/la-nostra-comunit%C3%A0/menu-la-nostra-comunit%C3%A0/statistiche-seminaristi-1.110382
    Ma, you know how: the Martini-party has produced in more than 20 years its effects, even if few want to see and accept them …
    Years ago I was reprimanded “from above” because I denied confessions during Holy Masses in a parish where at the time we were parish priest and three vice parish priests, always available before and after the Eucharistic liturgies, especially Saturday and Sunday.
    What clergy we had … once! And what bishops! Too bad that the beatification of card. Schuster was one “medal on the chest”, forgetful of the exceptional pastoral example that this blessed had left us and that we have been careful not to follow.
    Let's go, Father Giovanni, towards the hour of our death, when will. And while “the house burns” we must witness the deeds of those who “they go out to water the daisies so they don't wither”, as the other brilliant and explosive pen of the island of Patmos wrote long ago, father ariel.
    And we know how often, inside the confessionals, conversions are born, life changes, the same vocations …
    Poor sacrament of confession, today often reduced to a quick chat with a pseudo psychologist, with a social worker … to take in the space of less than an hour “two birds with one stone” …

    • father ariel
      Giovanni Cavalcoli, ON says:

      Dear Don Andrea,

      thank you for your words of priestly brotherhood. I think of the great responsibility that the Milanese diocese has, to the rich gifts that God has given her, to its stupendous and illustrious history, to the strength of the Milanese's character. How many energies! How many initiatives! How many works! Quati examples of holiness!

      However, I would like to see Milan more united with Rome, to the Successor of Peter. Too aware of his riches, Milan risks being presumptuous.

      We ask Mary that Milanese Catholicism live its communion with the Church more and better, for a more fruitful and orderly realization of his vocation to serve the kingdom of God.

  7. father ariel
    Mauro Solinas says:

    Caro Father.
    I've always been against killing two birds with one stone, but since I go for the 80 … if my memory does not fail me, I remember that in our churches, 50/60 years ago this happened: when the priest started preaching, the men (which stood at the back of the church), they went out to chat, the women went to confession.
    These are scenes that I remember.
    In my view, during the celebration of masses, you really shouldn't confess, making confessions before or after mass.
    Different instead, as she says, if there is in the church, in a separate place from where mass is celebrated, a special place for confessions, where people who do not attend that mass go to confession.
    Great article, illuminating as always.

  8. father ariel
    Michela Fantini says:

    Dad, thanks for this new article, and thanks also to Father Ariel who wrote in another way but always on the same subject … topic for us laymen very painful, because finding a good confessor today has become a very difficult undertaking. Certainly the absolution of sins “a bad confessor is well worth it”, but believe me: confessing to certain types of priests is torture, sometimes (Unfortunately!) even shameful.

  9. father ariel
    Paola F. says:

    Dear Father. In July last year, being in the Cinque Terre on vacation, I came with my husband to Mass in the church of his convent in Varazze. My innate shyness prevented me from introducing myself, then it was Sunday, there were many people. I wanted to tell her that we always read your articles, but I didn't have the courage to do it. My husband first I later confessed to her. My husband came out smiling from the confession and said to me … go and take advantage because we won't find a confessor like that. Venni io, and when I left I told my husband … you were right!
    The coming summer, how much we will be back, I will overcome shyness and introduce myself.
    In the article on confession written by Fr.. Ariel I found several described “bad” confessors known to me since I had 13 year old, today I have 67. I too was so upset with a confessor (I had 35 year old) that I returned to a confessor only many years later (a few days before making it 50).

    • father ariel
      Giovanni Cavalcoli, ON says:

      Dear Paola.

      Don Ariel also touches on the subject of those cases in which certain penitents stop confessing for years,
      because offended or scandalized by the confessor's bad behavior. Certainly this one,
      as Don Ariel rightly says, must do everything possible so that the penitent does not
      come and experience these feelings.

      But even the penitent shouldn't be so sensitive and irritated, to cease
      to confess. Let us also admit that the confessor acted guilty:
      he too is not a sinner? It cannot happen to everyone to meet a doctor who does not treat us well?

      And what we do? Let's stop looking after health? If a doctor doesn't treat us well,
      you go to another. E’ very simple.
      The confessor is the doctor of our soul. If a confessor does not satisfy us or us
      offends or sins in the confessional, you go to a good confessor, maybe taking
      first information. But it makes no sense and it is foolish to stop confessing.

      Of course, the priest who confesses wrong, he must correct himself, but we are careful not to blame too much
      to the confessor, as if to be blamed on him, if the penitent stops
      confess for 20, 30 O 40 year old. Not at all. Even the penitent
      has his fault, that's that, as I said, to refuse
      go to another confessor. And indeed the suspicion comes that this
      exaggerated susceptibility hides a certain contempt for confession,
      which is even more serious.

      The errors of today's confessors are no longer those of asking indiscreet questions in the
      field of sex, ma, on the contrary, consist in acquitting false penitents,
      who are not at all in a position to be acquitted, they consist in neglecting to question the penitent about his sins, letting him tell the good works he has done
      and listening to his rancorous complaints about the wrongs received and about his own misfortunes.

      Here the confession is not only indiscreet and embarrassing, but it is even null and void,
      risking sacrilege and superstition, because the material is missing, which is the accusation of sins.

      Here it happens that the so-called “penitent” he goes away in indignation, not because it was
      questioned indiscreetly, but why the confessor simply,
      as is his duty, he asked him what sins he accuses himself of.

      If in the rigorous pre-conciliar climate the confessor tortured the penitent with
      a third degree interregatory, in the good mood of now he is the loyal confessor
      to his duty that he is tortured by “penitent”, accustomed by other priests not
      to be questioned, but to talk about everything free-wheeling, so that the confessor
      zealous, who finds the penitent lacking the necessary dispositions, is obliged to
      to introduce a catechesis on confession, to demolish with difficulty, when all is well,
      inveterate prejudices for decades.

  10. hector says:

    His intervention was timely with the arrival in Rome and in St. Peter's of the relics of two saints “tireless ministers” of the sacrament of HEALING.
    In the Catechism(1422,3,4,), it should be remembered, it is called and defined in simple words for all, in the order, SACRAMENT of the
    CONVERSION
    “sacramentally fulfills Jesus' call to conversion,the way back to the Father, from which one has departed with sin.”
    PENANCE
    “consecrates a personal and ecclesial journey of conversion, of repentance and satisfaction of the sinful Christian.”
    CONFESSION
    “the accusation, the confession of sins before the priest is an essential element of this sacrament. a "confession", recognition and praise of the holiness of God and of his mercy towards sinful man.”
    PARDON
    “through the sacramental absolution of the priest, God grants forgiveness and peace to the penitent ”
    RECONCILIATION
    “gives the sinner the love of God who reconciles: "Be reconciled with God" (2 Color 5,20). He who lives of God's merciful love is ready to respond to the Lord's invitation: «Va’ first to reconcile with your brother " (Mt…

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