EDITORIAL

UP FRONT

GERARD MOLONEY CSsR

GOD'S SILENCE AND THE DEATH OF VOCATIONS

One of the upsides of Pope John Paul II's historic visit to Ireland in 1979 was a significant spike in religious vocations. The enthusiasm generated by the visit reversed a decline in vocations that had been gathering momentum since the 1960s. But it didn't take long for the excitement to wear off and for vocations to wane once more. Today, the number of Irish in religious formation is at an all-time low, while every month, another convent or monastery is forced to close.

Some hoped that Pope Francis' visit to Ireland in 2018 would lead to another surge in vocations, but that didn’t happen. Instead, the disappointing numbers at the papal events demonstrated just how much the country has changed in the last four decades.

Ireland is a vastly different country now compared to 1979. In the past, vocations were nurtured in the home, school and parish. Schools actively promoted religious life as an attractive career option, alongside pensionable professions like the civil service and the bank. Pupils were accustomed to teachers and chaplains in religious garb. Today, nuns and brothers are missing from the classroom, and religious life scarcely features on any list of career options.

A tremendous cultural shift has taken place in society’s attitude towards the church and religion. In the past, most young people grew up in a deeply religious environment that encouraged vocations. Religious paraphernalia dominated homes and was displayed in many public settings. Households prayed the rosary daily. Religion was vital to people’s identity, the prism through which they viewed the world.

Now, in the words of sociologist Dr Tom Inglis, the institutional church and Catholic language, beliefs and rituals are no longer significant webs of meaning in people’s lives. In a short period, the Irish have moved from being orthodox to being cultural in the way they use Catholic beliefs and values. Except for Christmas, Easter and special occasions, younger people are absent from church. Empty churches do not foster religious vocations. The extended lockdown of the past 18 months will have encouraged even more people to abandon regular church attendance finally.

The public’s attitude towards religious authority has also changed dramatically. In the past, the prevailing mood, even by many who had abandoned the church, was docility. People doffed their hats to clergy and religious. People listened when a bishop spoke, even if they didn’t always heed him. Governments knew the importance of keeping the hierarchy onside. Priests and religious enjoyed significant social standing.

Now, after years of secularisation, scandal and negative publicity, many young – and not so young – regard the church with outright hostility. They have not merely drifted away from the church; they have actively rejected it. Churchmen’s pronouncements are ignored or derided. Church teaching, especially on sexuality, is dismissed as outmoded. The church is seen as an anachronism, on the wrong side of the major issues of the day.

Many prominent commentators, writers and influencers reject even the very notion of God. A militant atheism has become fashionable. Being 'woke' is understood to mean leaving childish religious notions behind.

Religious education in the schools is failing. Two or three generations ago, school-leavers knew at least the rudiments of the faith. They could recite the catechism, even if they couldn’t comprehend much of it. Now, despite teachers’ best efforts, most graduates of Catholic schools are unable to explain even the basic tenets of what the church teaches. Poor religious knowledge produces few vocations.

As does poor liturgy. When people went to Mass out of obligation, it didn’t matter too much whether the liturgy was good or bad. Today, when people no longer feel obliged to go, the quality matters a great deal. Unfortunately, many liturgies are poor, with bad preaching, substandard or no music, and little active participation by the congregation. Bad liturgies do not entice people to attend. They certainly do not encourage religious vocations.

Meanwhile, religious leaders continue to ask for prayers for vocations, even though it seems clear by now that God is not listening. Perhaps God’s silence is sending a message. The old clerical model of church is dying. Priesthood and religious life as we knew it are coming to an end. We need to imagine a radical new way of being church in the 21st century. Even though it may seem like we are peering through a glass darkly, we need to trust that God will show us a way forward.

WHAT FUTURE FOR CONFESSION?

“When we enrolled our daughter for the Sacraments of Reconciliation and First Holy Communion, I was excited. We ticked the boxes, making sure we would participate in the parish preparation, and that it's our responsibility as parents to hand on the faith. For me, these are moments of celebration, as she is going to become an even closer friend to Jesus and the community of followers. "After registering, I heard nothing for months. Then I spotted an announcement on the parish Facebook page. The parish team was still hoping to celebrate the Sacrament of Confirmation and First Holy Communion before the summer, and the Sacrament of Reconciliation was to be organised in the school. I nearly fell off my chair. I contacted the parish team and was offered kind words like, 'It will be dignified in the school.' "It might sound selfish but, I thought, what about me? What about the promise I made on the day of her baptism? I have been doing my best to pass on my love for God, and now I cannot be there on the day she is to receive her second sacrament? A sacrament should be celebrated as a family."

The above reflection is from the parent of a child in second class in Ireland. Christina and her husband made the difficult call earlier this year to take their daughter out of school on the day the children were to celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation. The decision came after "many tears, endless discussion and sleepless nights." Still, Christina says they did what they believed was right.

"How often have I heard church leaders challenging parents to be involved? If a pandemic is not a time to evangelise rather than play the numbers game, then what is? As someone who wants to belong and engage, I am tired – the empty talks about collaboration, that we are all baptised with the same Spirit, about the importance of young families."

The questions around how we celebrate First Confession, such as those raised above, cast a spotlight on our relationship with the sacrament as a whole. Has it become, as many now claim, the 'forgotten sacrament'? Monthly, or even weekly, confession may have been the norm for previous generations, but that is not the case anymore. Many Catholics now confine their attendance to once or twice a year, while others have abandoned the sacrament altogether. Priests and parish workers report a lack of engagement with the sacrament after First Confession. Sometimes it is also a child's 'last confession.'

After a year during which opportunities to celebrate it have been few and far between, is it time the Irish church re-examined how to talk about and celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation?

AN EVOLVING SACRAMENT

It's interesting to note that frequent, individual confession was not always the norm. In the early church, publicly known sins were often confessed openly in church. The beginning of individual confession dates back to the 11th century. By the 13th century, canon law decreed that every Catholic must go to confession at least once a year.

The practice of regular confession was introduced as recently as 1905 when Pope Pius X recommended that confession should be made more frequently than monthly, and weekly if possible. The latter half of the 20th century saw a major shift in focus from guilt and penance to love and forgiveness, but by that stage, many Catholics were encountering 'stumbling blocks' with church teaching and starting to drift away from the sacrament. In 1978, the late moral theologian Bernard Häring CSsR wrote that adult Catholics ceased to confess because so many were using artificial contraception and saw nothing wrong with it. Disagreement on other issues such as sex before marriage, gay relationships, divorce and remarriage, also caused people to leave the church or simply ignore church teaching. For Irish Catholics, the experience of the confession box was often negative, and the revelations of the extent of sexual abuse by clergy and religious destroyed the trust people had previously placed in the church.

In recent years, Pope Francis has spoken repeatedly about the Sacrament of Reconciliation, encouraging Catholics to avail of the opportunity to experience "the forgiveness and infinite mercy of God." "When I go to confession, it is in order to be healed, to heal my soul. To leave with greater spiritual health. To pass from misery to mercy," he said in March this year. "The centre of confession is not the sins we declare,

I have question marks over getting children to say 'Bless me, Father, for I have sinned…' Their first real introduction to clergy is the idea that they have failed and that we as priests are sitting to judge them.

Fr Paddy Byrne

but the divine love we receive, of which we are always in need. The centre of confession is Jesus who waits for us, who listens to us and forgives us. Remember this: in the heart of God, we come before our mistakes."

TIME TO REFLECT

Bishop Paul Dempsey of Achonry, who was ordained bishop in August 2020, feels now is the perfect time to reflect on the future of the sacrament. "Pope Francis has been very encouraging of people working together, looking at structures and not being afraid to do things differently," he says. "The pandemic has raised big questions about our celebration of the sacraments, and confession is a sacrament many people have struggled with. In 'normal times' not a lot of people avail of it, and there weren't many people seeking it during the lockdowns. For many, it wasn't missed at all, and that's a pity, as it's a beautiful sacrament."

According to Bishop Dempsey, part of the difficulty with confession is people's past experience – the sense of having to "come up with sins" every Saturday morning for the priest in the confession box. "It didn't make sense," he suggests. "There was an overemphasis on sin and not enough emphasis on the celebration of God's love and mercy. Reconciliation is a sacrament of new beginnings."

When he reflects on the sacrament, it is both as priest and penitent. "I heard a lovely description of confession: it is one beggar telling another beggar where to find a bit of bread. Some of my most special moments as a priest have been in the context of confession. To be able to unburden what's holding us back, to know we are loved, that we can't change the past, but we can move on – it is very humbling. When it's not tied up with the confession box, maybe sitting in a room or going for a walk with someone, there is a sense of being with that person in a sacred space. "As a confessor I try to remember I'm representing the person of Christ. People are sharing very sacred stuff from their lives and it's important to be compassionate and caring. We are all in need of conversion and of God's love and mercy. God loves us where we are, but loves us so much he doesn't want to leave us where we are. We have to find ways to encourage a new understanding of the sacrament."

NEED FOR CHANGE

Parish priest of Abbeyleix and Raheen in Co Laois, Fr Paddy Byrne, agrees that there needs to a change in how we celebrate the sacrament. "Reconciliation or Penance is a sacrament that's dying on its feet," he says. "I'm 20 years a priest and confession has been dead for the last 20 years. I think the day of walking into the confession box is over. People need to have the sense of being heard and listened to and loved, and for wounds to be healed takes time. The moments of reconciliation I've been inspired by have been accompanied by listening, time and ritual. That's what makes Lough Derg or the Camino, for example, so attractive – there is pilgrimage involved, the sense of walking a new pathway."

Fr Paddy believes there is a huge thirst for reconciliation in society and that the church must embrace this need in a new way. "There are many families where there is silence and division, relationships that have wounded people. There needs to be a way to ritualise this, allowing the Spirit to guide us. We have locked it up in a dark box and this has caused pain in the past."

FIRST BUT NOT LAST?

Christina Malone, the parent quoted at the beginning of this article, is also a parish pastoral worker in the Dublin archdiocese. Having previously helped children prepare for the sacraments in the parish, her recent experience as a parent gave her a new perspective. "I was really challenged in my role as a pastoral worker as well as a mother," says Christina. "If we went ahead with First Confession for our daughter in the school, how would I feel facing 250 parents in the parish? It was important for us as a family to do what we believed was right, and I was also aware as a pastoral worker that I'm representing the church and I have to practise what I preach."

She points out that no other sacrament would take place without family members and the community present. "How would it feel if this happened with the Sacrament of Baptism, if

Bishop Fintan Monahan hearing confession at Liffey Valley Shopping Centre

someone took your baby to be baptised and said the family could not attend? What does this say about where the Sacrament of Reconciliation stands?"

Bishop Dempsey also believes it is vital to include parents in the celebration of the First Confession. "First Confession is a lovely ceremony and very special. But I often found that children were sent up and parents stayed in the pews, so I asked the parents, 'How do you think this looks to your child?' I started to invite parents to come forward too, and many of them would. "I would also say to parents: if you have drifted away, perhaps now is an opportunity to reflect on the bigger questions of faith. You're always welcome back to the church community. This is part of the journey for you too."

Fr Paddy Byrne feels there needs to be a reimagining of First Confession if we are to change our perception of the sacrament as a whole. "I have question marks over getting children to say 'Bless me, Father, for I have sinned…' Their first real introduction to clergy is the idea that they have failed and that we as priests are sitting to judge them. We expect children to jump over this hurdle before First Communion and then never be seen again at confession. We have failed to bring new pastoral practice around confession. "The Gospel message is hugely relevant and people are very open to it. I minister in some of the most fragile moments in people's lives, as a hospital chaplain, in the nursing homes, with young people. We need to change our sacramentality. We need to almost pre-evangelise. Having communion and reconciliation are the icing on the cake, but we need to go back to the baking, to the elements."

OTHER FORMS

In recent years, there has been a move towards penitential services, particularly during Lent and Advent. These are generally well attended, suggesting that people are more comfortable speaking to a priest in a less formal setting than the confession box. They are often very meaningful events that offer an opportunity to examine our relationships with our loved ones and with the local and global community.

The recent pandemic led to an increase in 'general absolution,' which the church says can be used when there is an "imminent danger of death, not enough time to listen to confessions of individual penitents, or a grave need." The Vatican said it was acceptable for clergy to offer general absolution to groups of people, for example, when a priest was unable to enter a hospital. However, individual confession is the "ordinary way" to celebrate the sacrament, and there is no indication that this is likely to change.

Catholics were also reminded that if they should find themselves with "the painful impossibility of receiving sacramental absolution," they can make an act of contrition directly to God in prayer. If they are sincere and promise to go to confession as soon as possible, they "obtain the forgiveness of sins, even mortal sins."

REACHING OUT

At parish level, steps are being taken to capture people's imagination and encourage them back to confession. For example, during the lockdowns, a 'carpark confession' initiative in Tallaght attracted widespread attention, even featuring on Vatican News.

In pre-pandemic times, the parishes of the Maynooth deanery brought the sacrament 'to the streets' by taking over a unit in Liffey Valley Shopping Centre to offer confession. Volunteers chatted to passers-by, and a steady stream of people poured into the 'pop-up confessional.' Some people laughed when they saw the signs, while others posted photos on social media.

For Christina, the experience was a fine example of the church moving out of its comfort zone. "We wanted to show we were not hiding," she says. "We put ourselves out there, and we had to be ready to be told to get lost and to understand that people are coming from a place of anger or hurt. Young people were really challenging us. Some people just wanted to have a conversation. If it helps just one person to reconnect, it is worth it."

Christina feels people have a lot of valid questions about confession. "As a church, we have done a lot of things wrong, and people ask who are we to judge. When it comes to First Confession, many people wonder if a child can really be a sinner – and then to have to confess to a priest, this person representing the church, when we know what the church has done.

"A lot of people haven't experienced what reconciliation really means. They didn't hear about a God of mercy and forgiveness. Love was not the language used when we were growing up. It's not about ticking a box. God created us in God's image and wants to be in a relationship with us. In my family, someone will have said sorry before we leave the house every morning – our home would not survive without apologising! God loves us so much that God invites us to come back and try again. "The important thing is reaching out and connecting with people where they're at, hearing their stories and experiences. Confession is the sacrament that is least availed of, and we must change the communication around it."

NATIONAL SYNOD

As the Irish church enters into a preparation process for a national synod, our engagement with the sacraments will be one of the topics up for discussion. Bishop Dempsey feels it's time to get creative. "Synodality is about walking together. The question of evangelisation has to be reflected on, and how we celebrate the sacraments is part of that journey. The task of the church is to preach the Gospel. How are we reaching out to young people, single people, married people, people in other relationships? "We are in an opportune moment to respond to the challenge. This will involve change and entering into the realm of the unknown. But if it is a reflective, prayerful process and we are open to the Spirit, we can be optimistic. The life of the church is messy; we are reminded of the message that the church is a field hospital. If you read the Acts of the Apostles about the challenges the early church faced and the efforts they made, how the Spirit was with them, I think there is that same sense now. We have to be radical and go back to our roots."

Tríona Doherty is a freelance journalist and editor who lives in Athlone. She is a regular contributor to Reality. Tríona is co-author, with Jane Mellett, of The Deep End: A Journey with the Sunday Gospels in the Year of Luke, available to preorder on www.messenger.ie.

WHAT TO DO ABOUT CONFESSION?

THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX WILL BE NEEDED TO RESCUE THE SACRAMENT OF CONFESSION. WHY NOT START EMPHASISING THE SACRAMENT AS A SIMPLE CALL TO ONGOING CONVERSION?

BY RAPHAEL GALLAGHER CSsR

Children making their First Confession this year will not experience anything like Jackie in Frank O'Connor's my 'First Confession'. The dark confession box and the fear-provoking language of hell were part of that era. This year's First Confession children will not have to cope with those.

The practice of going to confession has been declining for 50 years. The hygiene regulations of COVID-19 make it doubtful that confession boxes will be used again. Instead, they will become museum pieces, a relic from a forgotten age.

Good riddance will be the response of many. But will the baby be thrown out with the bathwater, and would it be healthier to forget altogether about confessing sins?

OLD SINS AND NEW SINS

John McGahern puts it memorably in his Memoir:

“A young priest replaced Father Glynn for a few months when the old priest fell ill. His sermons were short and delivered quietly in plain language. They related

Christianity to the lives of people and stated that reflection on the mystery of life was itself a form of prayer, superior to the mouthing of empty formulas: he touched on character assassination, backbiting, marital violence, childbeating, dishonesty, hypocrisy: he claimed a primary place for personal humility and love of others and charity of mind. My father in the front seat was incensed …. he did not lack support. The criticism took the form of a deep and troubled censoriousness of what the modern church was coming to. They rejoiced when Father Glynn returned. What they wanted was hell and damnation which they could apply, like death, to other people."

WHAT HAPPENED?

What has happened to confession? This is a complex question. The usual suspects are paraded: the decline in the sense of sin, the banishment of religious experience to private life, the collapse of public deference to priests, a general sense that morality is relative and there are no sins anymore.

The sacrament of confession did indeed have a very legalistic feel to it. We were told to confess our sins according to their number, kind and species, and to do so often. That the sacrament was celebrated in a dark box contributed to this legalistic feel. We were on trial before a one-man tribunal. The priestjudge gave his verdict and actually imposed a penance – a sort of fine for bad behaviour. Many people got off with a ritual "three Hail Marys", but you might get a few rosaries to say or the seven penitential psalms to recite for the big sins.

The decline in confessional practice coincides with the period after the Second Vatican Council that ended in 1965. Vatican II is not to blame, though there are some who claim that all the recent ills of the church are due to what happened at the council. If there is a church reason for the decline in the sacrament of confession, it is because we did not take the positive renewal of the church seriously enough here in Ireland. It is not because Vatican II wanted a renewed church. We were the laggards.

A BIT OF HISTORY

Confession boxes are a late arrival in Catholic churches. The number of different ways for celebrating confession in the history of the church is surprising. A type of public penance service in the early centuries, a cloistered celebration with rather fierce penances promoted by Celtic monks in the early Middle Ages. The start of what became the Easter Duty came in the high Middle Ages. Catholics had to confess their sins within a specified time limit

to a local priest. As the rules became stricter, people's ingenuity became more inventive. Fearful that telling all the sins to one clergyman might be too much for a sensitive parish priest, some developed a strategy of going to a number of different priests and telling them separate bits of the story. This was not tolerated by the authorities, and the fear of making a bad confession hung heavy on Catholics. Control by church authorities was the priority.

LAW AND LIFE

Authoritarian legal control of confessions by the church is proving hard to shake off, and COVID-19 will raise further reservations. At stake is a serious matter: how does the church justify its power to absolve sins? Understanding the traditional explanation could help us. Christ died for our sins, and the merits of his redemption have been reserved in the treasuries of grace in the church. Priests had control over the keys to that treasury.

This is not the only way to understand the church's relationship to the absolution of sin. There is a more personal way. Christ died for us so that we might live in communion with the Holy Spirit through continuing conversion from our sins. This is the type of language you will find Pope Francis using.

Life is a journey, and we need to have nourishment when life gets complicated. Having sinned creates a serious dilemma for a Christian. We need a personal conviction of the need to confess our sins. It is not enough to do it because we were told to do so. The fact that we realise that we will sin again is an encouragement for thinking outside the box.

BACK TO HISTORY

The practical collapse of the sacrament of confession is a significant challenge for a church that supports us to live as a community of disciples. History lessons will not do much good on their own. History can, however, be a great teacher about the different ways that have been used to celebrate the sacrament of confession. What changed before can change again.

Changes in the Catholic Church are often developments of what was there before but had become overlooked. There have been several emphases. This is reflected in the five names given to the sacrament in the Catechism of the Catholic Church: it can be called the sacrament of conversion, penance, confession, forgiveness, reconciliation. We have done our best with hearing confessions, having penance services and reconciliation rites. Why not start emphasising the sacrament as a simple call to ongoing conversion? We remain sinners even after confession. Conversion is never a once and for all moment.

BACK TO THE CHILDREN

I was a parish priest in France nearly 30 years ago. The parents organised children's preparation for their First Confession. I came in near the end. The children were actually looking forward to their First Confession. They had one request: that they confess their sins in public before each other. I thought they might be wanting general absolution, which would have created problems with the bishop. It wasn't that. They made the point that there was no sense in telling their sins only to me. The other children were the ones who would remind them if they became backsliders. I gave each of them an individual absolution blessing.

I would not expect that practice to work with adults. It is a sign that thinking outside the box will be needed to rescue the sacrament of confession. We risk becoming a church with no sacrament of confession. Would it still be the Catholic Church without a liturgical form to confess our sins? I think not.

Fr Raphael Gallagher taught moral theology in Ireland and at the Alphonsian Academy in Rome, a specialist institute for postgraduate study in moral theology. He is currently a member of the Mount St Alphonsus Community, Limerick

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