Lent, Holy Week, Easter and Divine Mercy Sunday have come and gone, but what some Sydney priests remember is hearing a huge number of confessions. It disproves the widespread notion that reconciliation is a forgotten sacrament.
A widely-publicised recent book, For I Have Sinned: The Rise and Fall of Catholic Confession in America, by an American academic, claims that confession has declined “with a speed that may fairly be described as breathtaking.” He cynically concluded that “the collapse of confession was maybe not such a bad thing after all.”
As a description of the past, this might be true, but this year it was the crowds of people queuing up in some Sydney churches which ought to be breathtaking for sceptics.
One of the priests in residence at St Mary’s Cathedral, Fr Roberto Keryakos, says: “With many priests that I speak to, in particular young priests, they report that confessions are very much up in their parishes.”
“At the cathedral I spent many hours each day and each week in the confessional, both during Lent and also during Holy Week,” Fr Keryakos adds.
Fr Michael Boudaher dismissed the notion that confession is a dying practice, reflecting on his experience at Our Lady of Lebanon Maronite Co-Cathedral, in Harris Park. “It’s booming,” he said. “It’s flourishing.”
On Good Friday five priests there heard the confessions of people of all ages for five hours. One of them was in the confessional until 1.00 am in the morning.
Parish priest of St Patrick’s Church in Sutherland, Fr Daniel McCaughan had a similar story.
“The Thursday before Holy Week we held a mercy night where someone gave a testimony on conversion and the power of confession and then four priests heard confessions while the congregation did Adoration. I estimate about 150 people went to confession that night,” he says.
The late Pope Francis promoted the theme of sacramental forgiveness whenever he had a chance. Some of the most iconic images of his pontificate included the pope making his own confession and then hearing confessions in St Peter’s Basilica in Rome.
In one of his many exhortations to return to the sacrament, he said: “I would like to ask you — but don’t say it aloud, everyone respond in his heart: when was the last time you made your confession? Everyone think about it … Two days, two weeks, two years, 20 years, 40 years? Everyone count, everyone say, ‘When was the last time I went to confession?’. And if much time has passed, do not lose another day. Go, the priest will be good.”
“Jesus is never going to say: you have maxed out on my mercy,” Fr Boudaher pointed out. People should never be ashamed. “Repetition of sins is always met with repetition of his mercy.”
Perhaps it’s like the mantra made famous by the movie Field of Dreams—“If you build it, they will come.” According to Fr McCaughan: “If you preach confession and make it available, they will come.”
“Confession is far from dead,” he insists. “It is making a quiet but relentless comeback. The rejection of morals and the downplaying of guilt by modern society jars with the lived experience of so many people. Conscience is not dead and the desire to be holy is not dead.”
And apparently, it’s not just the older generation. “Young adults, people in their 20s and 30s, are wanting to receive the sacrament more and more,” says Fr McCaughan. “What is also striking is that if there has been a proper preparation, high schoolers will go to confession in enormous numbers on retreat. As priests we’ve sometimes joked that it’s easier to get a teenager to go to confession than to Mass!”
What’s a game plan for promoting confession? Fr Keryakos had three ideas. “The first thing is to simply have the times available.” Second, preaching about the sacrament from time to time. And third, “just praying, praying, praying for our flock, praying for the world, praying for people to accept the grace of confession, accept the grace of reconciliation, because deep down, all people want to be reconciled with God and with one another.”
Next year the Marist Fathers leave St Patrick’s Church Hill after more than 150 years of hearing confessions there, perhaps a thousand every week. They deserve a shout-out because it has been a very generous apostolate, says Fr Keryakos. “It’s a beautiful, beautiful ministry that they’ve done.”
However, despite the sadness of the tradition, it appears that the tradition of making confession readily available will live on in Sydney.