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No religious rite gets as personal as the sacrament of reconciliation. Pop culture frequently depicts the sacrament as terrifying, in which frightened penitents are scolded for acts, usually sexual, by a stern, unforgiving priest who revels in the weaknesses of others.

Yet Catholics who actually partake in the sacrament sometimes tell a different story.

One mother from the Albany Diocese recalled how she would get testy with her three children, often raising her voice in frustration. She confessed it, making the point that at least her children were not being raised in a home where they needed to fear physical assault.

Her confessor offered her a challenge: "Words can be as painful as a slap," he said. The mother recalled, years later, that the experience of the sacrament changed her family's life.

"It brought me to see how painful it could be. It changed my approach to parenting," she said.

Empty booths 
Sin may not have taken a holiday, but participation in the formal sacrament among American Catholics has declined drastically over the past few decades. It's been known for decades that long lines for confession on Saturday afternoons are largely a thing of the past.

That anecdotal evidence now has a strong empirical basis. In a study released last year on the sacraments, the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) at Georgetown University found that participation in the Sacrament of Reconciliation has taken a nosedive. Three-quarters of American Catholics report that they never participate in the sacrament of reconciliation or that they do so less than once a year.

Of the seven sacraments, Catholics are least likely to say the sacrament of reconciliation is "somewhat" or "very" meaningful to them. 

Sixty-two percent of Catholics agree "somewhat" or "strongly" with the statement: "I can be a good Catholic without celebrating the sacrament of reconciliation at least once a year."

Rev. James Kane, administrator of Assumption/St. Paul parish in Mechanicville and St. Peter's in Stillwater and diocesan director of the Office of Ecumenical and Religious Affairs was ordained in 1971. He said that during his priesthood, he's found that "Catholics are voting with their feet" in terms of avoiding the sacrament. Many younger Catholics don't even have a memory of the strong pull that sacramental confession used to have.

Guilt-free times
He attributed the decline to a number of factors, including a lessening of the sense of sin in the wider culture and a decline in the trust that people have in priests to serve as moral guardians.

However, noted Father Kane, the need for sacramental forgiveness always seems to assert itself during the Lenten season. He noted that when he was pastor of St. Helen's Church in Niskayuna, some 400 parishioners would attend Lenten communal penance services, even if the lack of clergy made one-to-one confessions impossible for most.

Father Kane noted that Catholics are missing out when they do not participate in the sacrament.

"The process lends itself to conversion," he said, noting that the Church's call for examination of conscience, confession, penance and absolution, is "a wonderful spiritual and psychological process" that has the potential to change lives for the better.

While the numbers partaking are down, the sacrament of mercy still holds power, noted Rev. James Belogi, pastor of St. Madeleine Sophie Church, Schenectady. The numbers seeking reconciliation spike during Advent and Lent and he's found that young people on retreat often report that the opportunity to partake in the sacrament was the most powerful part of the experience.

He's found the sacrament to be a powerful means for people estranged from the Church to find their way back. Those who have remained Catholic find that, after the sacrament, they "are freed to give better attention to relationships with their spouses, parents or children."

Back to Christ
Penance has a long tradition in the Church. Jesus in the Gospels forgives sins and tells the Apostles, "Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained" (John 20:22-23). 

In the early church, public penance was a common practice in which serious sinners confessed their sins publicly before a bishop and the local community. In the Middle Ages, Irish monks spread the practice of private confession.

More recently, the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s instituted changes in the penance rite, emphasizing the role of priest confessor as healer, rather than as judge.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church notes that the sacrament goes by a number of names because of its qualities: conversion, penance, confession, forgiveness and reconciliation.

The human dimension of the sacrament was emphasized by Pope John Paul II in his encyclical "Dives in Misericordia" ("Rich in Mercy"), a reflection upon the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15: 11-32). 

It is a familiar story: The youngest (prodigal) son has difficulty with the concept of unconditional love; the oldest son is irritated with his father's demonstration of mercy.

"The present-day mentality," according to Pope John Paul II, "seems opposed to a God of mercy, and in fact tends to exclude it from life and remove from the human heart the very idea of mercy." [[In-content Ad]]

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