u/Dr_Talon

I went to confession recently at my local parish. It had short lines, with less than ten people besides myself that I noticed. Throughout my life, I have been to confession at numerous parishes, and I notice that lines are short at many of them.

At the same time, almost everyone goes and receives Holy Communion. I have seen this at most parishes that I have been to both confession and Mass at.

Of course, one could say “focus on your own spiritual life.” Of course we should, but I don’t think that it waves away what is front of my own eyes, and I don’t think that I’m wrong to be bothered by it either. I care about people going to Heaven. Some may go to other parishes for confession, but the numbers don’t seem to add up.

I went to Mass at this parish the next day, which I don’t usually do - it’s not my usual parish for Mass. I was upset because the priest gave a homily in which he spoke of God’s mercy, but didn’t use the opportunity to invite people to go to confession. I rarely hear priests encourage their congregation to go to confession, or tell them the necessity of it.

Indeed, growing up, I was not well catechized on confession, the distinction between mortal sin and venial sin, or when to go confession. I was taught how to go, but not when or the theology behind it. Conversations with people older than me have revealed the same. My reading has told me that many priests in the 1960’s and 70’s downplayed sin and confession.

So my question to you all is the following: what are the pastoral challenges of getting one’s congregation to go to confession? Why don’t we hear about it more from the pulpit, especially when the topic would seem to make it opportune?

I imagine they were made of materials which made things much hotter inside the suit in the 1980’s.

This is one of the most comprehensive and authoritative teachings of the Catholic Church on morality. The Holy Father gives an excellent analysis of the dialogue between Christ and the Rich Young Man. It also condemns numerous errors in moral theology popular after Vatican II.

I’ve always wanted to try it since I was a kid. What is it like?

I find this encyclical fascinating, not only because it’s refreshingly clear and short compared to many encyclicals today, but because of what it shows about the state of the Church at the time. Vatican II had just ended earlier that year, and yet this document was necessary. This indicates that the problems did not start with the interpretation of the Council. They go deeper, and one has to grapple with the root causes of why trained, educated, formed Catholic adults would want to minimize the Real Presence, something that Vatican II did not even remotely do.

It also shows that the Pope who exercised oversight over the creation of the New Mass and approved the missal clearly believed in traditional Catholic teaching on the Eucharist.

In particular, the first reading today in the new calendar of readings was from Wisdom, one of the seven books that Protestant Bibles don’t include.

I have a Protestant cousin, and she invited me to visit her Protestant church. I felt uncomfortable because I fear conflict, and because I know that she’s coming from a good place and I don’t want to turn her off with an overly blunt rebuff. Wanting to be polite, I asked some questions about it. Apparently it’s charismatic non-denominational.

I said, “well, I’m a very convinced Catholic. But I certainly do believe in charismatic gifts.”

We discussed the gift of tongues. She told me a story that she heard from her pastor about a Chinese woman hearing a sermon, and she heard it entirely in Chinese, which he doesn’t speak.

She says, “he’s a pastor so I have no reason to think he’s lying.”

For some reason, this story disturbed me. It made me feel genuinely shaken and unsettled in my Catholic faith. I don’t know why. It shouldn’t. Even if the pastor is telling the truth, and this woman was relating a real experience she had, and not something she imagined, God can do things like this for non-Catholics, and it is for their spiritual good. It does not mean that it is a confirmation of Protestantism as a system. The Church does teach in Lumen Gentium 15 and Unitatis Redintegratio 3 that God works among Protestant groups, even if He desires that they leave behind their errors and enter the Catholic Church. That woman may be invincibly ignorant, and the preacher was saying something true that God wanted her to hear.

The conversation did lead to me telling them about the Church Fathers, explaining what a bishop is, and introducing the concept of apostolic succession.

I know all that. Why did I feel so shaken?

He was an Ancient Greek and this short book is one of the earliest surviving texts on horsemanship. If you have read it, what do you think of it?

I read someone who claimed that the Catholic Church teaches today that all religions are equally valid. This document shows that, while other religions may have elements of truth, the Catholic Church teaches that she is the one, true, religion.

Lately, I have been thinking a lot about Solomon. He was full of wisdom, and even wrote or at least provided the content for books of Scripture, and yet he fell into idolatry.

Do the Church Fathers or any of the scholastics discuss this in-depth?

I miss seeing pitchers bat.

In the United States, people have the right to have an attorney present during police interrogations. I just saw a video where the suspect actually asked for a lawyer.

How long does it take to get a lawyer, and what does the lawyer actually do?