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His homilies must be working: For the past month, Rev. James Clark has been hearing twice the number of confessions he normally hears at Corpus Christi parish in Round Lake.

The pastor's Saturday hours for the sacrament of reconciliation were previously 3 to 3:30 p.m. - half an hour before the vigil Mass. But when the number of penitents grew from four to about eight each week, that became a problem.

"It was pushing me at the other end because I couldn't get ready for Mass," Father Clark explained.

Reconciliation now starts at 2:30 p.m. More people are seeking the sacrament during the week, too, the pastor said: "I have people who just pop their head in and say, 'Hi, do you have a minute?'"

This increase, however humble, stands in contrast to national trends. Three-quarters of U.S. Catholics report that they never participate in the sacrament of reconciliation or that they do so less than once a year, according to a 2008 study from the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate.

The Church teaches that Catholics should seek the sacrament at least once a year.

"We don't talk about sin anymore," Father Clark lamented. "We just forget about it. But sin is part of life. Priests need to make an effort to convey that to people."

He blames the decline in confessions not on the 1960s' Second Vatican Council, but on a society that has pushed the parish church out of the center of people's lives today.

When he was a child, Father Clark said, confession fit into his Saturday schedule alongside Mass, the parish dance and a bath.

The way today's laypeople see their parishes is "a different relationship now than it was 50 years ago," he said.

In his homilies at Mass, the priest reminds parishioners that reconciliation is a welcoming sacrament. The recent increase in penitents at Corpus Christi has even inspired Father Clark to more frequently seek out his own confessor.

The sacrament of reconciliation "is just one more visible sign that God loves us," he remarked. "We need that voice hearing that our sins are forgiven."[[In-content Ad]]

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