Since Vatican II the one sacrament that seemed to encounter the most abuse from the Catholic church is the sacrament of Confession. To be clear the Novus Ordo confession not the TLM. Lets look at both.
TLM confession
Here the sacrament is know strictly as “Confession”. Readily available numerous times of the week especially before mass. Its great to know there is one last “Oasis” before communion. Every TLM venue its always the same rubrics. That in itself is reassuring. There is not get out of jail free card. Like the old show Baretta, “If you can’t do the time than don’t do the crime”. The penance are usually heavy and meaningful. Remedies to avoid sin are based on the spiritual not secular fixes. The absolution prayer is always the same and always in Latin. The advice may have some variations depending on the priest. Some might suggest using secular aids but the basis of the cure is spiritual.
Novus Ordo Confession
Back in the 70s the church for some reason did not want to be bothered with a priest having to sit in a confessional. So they deemphasised it to the extent that one Sunday sermon my mom told me the priest said if your only going to confession with venial sins you are wasting the priests time. As a result she stopped going to confession as did many others at that time. You would be lucky to find a parish that even had a weekly confession time on Saturday and if they did it was usually a 15 min slot.
Then they changed the approach. Now they push it. Too late, many stopped going and have not returned.
Because I am 65 miles one way from my church sometimes I am forced to use Novus ordo “reconciliation”. This is always a crap shoot depending on the parish and the priest. I divided them into three catagories.
The church of the tree hugger
I am never sure of the validity of these. When I have the misfortune of going to one of these I feel I never went to confession and immediately try another parish. The scenario of the absolute worse is you can confess murdering 5 people, raping 14 women, robbed 22 banks and you might get one Our Father, one Hail Mary and one Glory be. Sometimes your asked to say an act of contrition sometimes not. The absolution prayer is a simple I absolve you of your sins in the name of the Father and the son and the Holy Spirit. Why not just say “In the name of the Father, and the son, take a shortcut now we’re done”. We can call that the bikini absolution. Your rushed like the priest really does not want to be there. Maybe it impacts his Tee off time who knows? W.C. Fields comes to mind, “Go away boy, ya bother me”. They might carve out a 15 min slot for you on Saturday but if there is a conflict with Fathers sock daring seminar then confessions will be cancelled.
The church of Doctor Phil
The is not really a sacrament its more of an appointment with your therapist. You tell your sins and have to endure the priest chattering away on secular self help techniques. Usually because the priests takes so long chattering away there is no time for the act of contrition so your told you can say that outside. The penance is usually going to some self help website.
Orthodox Novus Ordo
This would be the only priests I feel comfortable with and to date I have only found 4 such priests in the whole of the Rockford diocese. They will listen quietly to your sins. Then they will offer a solution involving God and how to ask him for help in combating sin. You will get a meaningful penance, not as meaningful as the TLM but good by Novus Ordo standards. The absolution prayer is the long version, “By his life death and resurection……..etc” which is recited right after they ask you to make an act of contrition.
They say by their fruits you shall know them. The lines in the Orthodox Novus Ordo are ever bit as large as the TLM and confession times most offering 2 or 3 times a week. On the other hand the tree hugger and the Dr. Phil confession have no lines. Maybe one or two but thats about it. You see in their minds no one sins anymore so no one really goes to hell. We will have to ask Jorge Bergoglio about that. In the other two might be one person. Again not as good as the TLM but in a pinch……………….
Conclusion
When will the powers to be in the church finally understand we are looking for someone to simply go about the task and forgive us our sins, not someone who is intent to play Sigmund Freud. As they said on the movie “Catholics” Heresy is defined as “yesterdays Orthodoxy is today’s heresy” How very true that is. The heart of the church is the Eucharist and the only way to keep it alive is to teach respect for it. You do that by getting rid of the extraordinary ministers of communion. I knew one who was in mortal sin. The women was divorced and remarried. Only the priest should distribute communion. Why? Doesn’t the poor priest need help doing it by himself? I go to a TLM that has 250 – 300 people at mass. The only one distributing communion is our one priest. Although not everyone receives communion all go up to the rail. The children who have not made their first communion and those in mortal sin. They will get a simple blessing from the priest all else the sacrament is given on the tong which in the old rite of baptism is the only part of the body that receives and exorcism.
Rather than Pope Leo the Lip work on the non existent global warming or rights for Illegal murderers and rapists how about restoring respect for the Eucharist. In order to do that Confession must first be restored. Or is that beyond your pay grade Bobby?