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SYDNEY (Reuters) - At most outdoor festivals the longest queues are generally for the portable toilets and bar but at World Youth Day in Sydney, the Catholic Church's version of Woodstock, one of the biggest queues is for confessing sins. ADVERTISEMENT With some 300,000 young Catholic pilgrims attending WYD from July 15-20 the Church is staging the world's largest confessional, with more than 1,000 priests at anyone time hearing sins and dispensing penance at 250 locations. "The notion in Sydney was to decentralize the celebration of reconciliation (confession). The groups received reconciliation in over 250 locations throughout greater Sydney," said...

Protestants don’t see why Catholics who come to disagree with essential teachings of the Church don’t just leave. Adult conversion to Catholicism involves more than adding a few new beliefs. It means a whole new world and life view. No ingredient in that new perspective was more of a shock to my old Protestant sensibilities when I became a Catholic than the idea that the God-man is really present in, and not just symbolized by, what appears to be a wafer of bread and a cup of wine. It seemed scandalous! It has ceased to scandalize me, though it has...

Q. When did confession to a priest start?A. Confession is a sacrament instituted by Jesus Christ Himself in John 20: 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven… From the early writings of the Church fathers below you can see that the sacrament of confession has always been a practice of the Church founded by Jesus Christ.In the early Church confession was not done in private to the priest but to the whole gathered...

Q. Why do Catholics have to confess their sins to a priest instead of praying straight to God?A. In obedience to Christ. John 20:19-23 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!� 20After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. 21 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.� 22...

As best as I can determine, my same-sex attraction began in reaction to my father, who was a violent alcoholic. He often drank, came home to throw things around the house and abuse my mother in addition to threatening me and my brother. I thought he hated us. Consequently, I didn’t want to be anything like him. In my sorrow, I started looking for the love of my father in thearms of other men. At age 17, a predator took advantage of me under the teacher/pupil dynamic and I became completely mixed up about human sexuality. Over the years, one...

FRiends, tonight I went to mass with my family, and one of the scriptures was the story of "The Road to Emmaus." The monsignor's sermon was on that topic, and it was excellent. He started out by asking why Jesus would allow the disciples not to recognize Him until He broke bread for them, and his thought was that Christ wanted us to look for Him everywhere, to remember that He said "Inasmuch as you have done it unto the least of these, you have done it unto me" so that we would realize though we may not recognize Him...

Today fewer people are going to church to confess their sins, and instead taking to the Internet to atone and repent. A number of Protestant and evangelical churches are embracing the Web as a way to revive the ancient ritual of confession, but the trend is not without its critics. The Rev. John Siebling, of The Life Church in Memphis, Tenn., runs a Web site called endthesecret.com, where people pour out their stories of cheating on boyfriends, hiding debt from spouses and drug abuse. "It's really a tool that will hopefully bring a first step as people begin to interact...

I do a lot of freelance writing for non-profit organizations and, frequently, while attending brainstorming sessions, I will hear the phrase "We need to 'Think Outside the Box' on this one.""Thinking Outside the Box" has become a mantra for Americans. It means to conceive ideas that are not commonplace; to one-up the competition with original creativity; to find a new path to profit that has yet to be exploited in the marketplace.In fact our society is obsessed with "Thinking Outside the Box." People continually search for new ways to entertain themselves, to feed themselves, to exercise themselves, to justify themselves,...

Controversy has erupted once again over whether priests and religious leaders are subject to mandatory reporting laws after a "priest" at an evangelic Christian church in Melbourne did not report a child sex abuse confession. The Herald Sun reports the priest will not be charged over not reporting the assault despite the pentinent striking again. The case has stirred debate over the role of the churches in handling confessions by lawbreakers and raised questions about whether religious leaders should be subject to mandatory reporting obligations. Teachers, doctors, nurses and other professionals are legally bound to report suspected sex abuse...

Advice from Fr. Philip Neri’s ConfessionalI. Starting point: 1. Sin. When we sin we abuse a gift from God. Just about every sin we commit can be traced back to a disordered use of some grace we have received from God. Abusing God’s gifts is a dangerous practice b/c it is through the charitable use of our divine gifts for others that God perfects His love us. If you are not using your gifts for the benefit of others then God’s love is not being perfected in you. 2. Forgiveness. When we ask for forgiveness we are not asking...

Feb. 18, 2008, 2:42AM\ Worshippers praise youth pastor for confessing to 1994 slaying HOUSTON — A youth minister who confessed to the unsolved 1994 killing of a convenience store clerk is being widely forgiven by worshippers at his former church who say they admire his courage to finally surrender to police. Calvin Wayne Inman, 29, remains jailed without bond since being charged Wednesday with capital murder in the stabbing death of a clerk during an alleged plot to steal cash and cigarettes. He was 16 at the time. In the first service Sunday at the 800-member Elim Church since Inman...

To this day, only one person truly knows what happened on a lonely Massachusetts bridge on the night of July 18, 1969. Sometime that evening, a car driven by US senator Ted Kennedy plunged into the icy water below. While the politician survived, his passenger, a 28-year-old aide, was not so lucky. Mary Jo Kopechne died on the road from Chappaquiddick that Friday night. In the ensuing scandal, the presidential hopes of the last of the Kennedy brothers were destroyed. Now the senator has signed a £4million deal to write his memoirs, due out in 2010, raising hopes he is...

First, Mortal Sin ... Our excuses are numberless. In fact, they are as numberless as our sins, none of which are now deemed by us (and, for sorrow, by many priests) grievous enough to preclude our receiving the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ in Holy Communion. Most often they are reducible simply to this: "I have not committed any mortal sin". Indeed. For Catholics who have never been taught the difference between Mortal and Venial sin --- which is to say, the entire last generation of Catholics --- we must be clear about the notion of sin, especially...

One of the first things Roman Catholics do when they enter the confessional is utter how long it has been since their last confession. But Franca Gargiulo can't remember the last time. Gargiulo is a spiritually thoughtful woman who went to Catholic school as a girl and at 44 still attends Mass at St. Dominic Catholic Church in San Francisco. Confession--telling your sins to a priest and receiving absolution--is one of her faith's seven sacraments, but for Gargiulo it now seems as anachronistic as prayer veils and meatless Fridays. "It lost its efficacy for me," says Gargiulo. "It was too...

A few Scriptures and some Quix commentary . . .  Keeping in mind . . .  THESE SIGNS SHALL FOLLOW [FOLLOW WHO?] THOSE WHO BELIEVE . . . cast out demons . . . speak with other tongues . . . etc.  AND . . . by reasonable extrapolation: John 20:22-23 (The Message)The Message (MSG)Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson 22-23Then he took a deep breath and breathed into them. "Receive the Holy Spirit," he said. "If you forgive someone's sins, they're gone for good. If you don't forgive sins, what are you going to do with...

What You Need to Know: Penance (Reconciliation, Confession) When it comes to understanding the Sacrament of Penance (also called the Sacrament of Reconciliation, or simply Confession), we can move quickly from the barest possible outline to one of the deepest documents the Church has issued in the modern era. The best short summary of the theology behind the sacrament, its history, and its structure and efficacy is found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Given that Confession is both under-appreciated and underutilitzed in our own day, Pope John Paul II issued a brief document, On the Mercy of...

Americans are flocking to confess their sins as Protestant churches have joined their Catholic counterparts in modernising the sacrament of penance.Thousands of people are attending confession at weekends and just as many are posting their repentance on videos that are played back to congregations or shared on websites such as YouTube.New technology is fuelling the boom, but so is clever marketing by Churches that are portraying confession as a form of self-improvement — always popular with Americans — rather than some sort of punishment.Church leaders also attribute the boom to the fashion for self-analysis peddled by daytime television programmes such...

The indications are modest, but consistent. The latest one comes from Loreto, where twelve thousand young people received the sacrament of forgiveness, with the pope's encouragement. And in the seminaries, there's a return of books for studying "cases of conscience" ROMA, September 6, 2007 – During the two-day meeting between Benedict XVI and the young people who flocked to Loreto by the hundreds of thousands from Italy and from many other countries, something happened that was unexpected in terms of its intensity and breadth: mass participation in the sacrament of confession. Between Saturday, September 1, and Sunday, September 2, in...

HIGHLANDS RANCH, Colo. — To many Roman Catholics, especially the older generations, it's inconceivable that online blathering could stand in for confession. "It would be like cheating!" said one woman at St. Mark, in the Denver suburb of Highlands Ranch. But for Ashley Iodice, a high-school senior in Weston, Fla., Internet absolution feels more natural than talking to a priest. Now a Baptist, Iodice grew up Catholic; she remembers confession as scary — and less than sincere. It's hard be honest about the depths of teenage depravity, she said, when you're talking to an elderly priest "who's committed his whole...

It has been 4 months since my last confession. After each confession I come out thinking, "I am going to do a monthly confession." And then a few months go by and here I am. I finally had to schedule "Confession" on my calendar to ensure I would get in there. I decided to read up on the Sacrament of Reconciliation/Penance/Confession at New Advent. It is good to read what they have to say. Here are a few bullets that jumped out at me. While this sacrament as a dispensation of Divine mercy facilitates the pardoning of sin, it by...

Dear Friend of Catholic Answers: True story: Many years ago I was at the cathedral in San Diego for confession. I told the unseen (and now long deceased) priest my sins and waited for his counsel. What I got was: "Why are you wasting my time?" "Pardon me, Father?" I said, thinking I had misheard him. "I asked why are you wasting my time? You had only venial sins to confess. You can have venial sins forgiven by saying an act of contrition or during the penitential rite at Mass. So why are you wasting my time?" Uncharacteristically, I was...

O J's 'confession' cash given to victim's family By Jacqui Goddard in Miami, Sunday Telegraph Last Updated: 12:56am BST 17/06/2007 A judge has awarded the publishing rights of O J Simpson's purportedly "hypothetical" murder confession to the family of one of his alleged victims. Relatives of Ron Goldman, who was stabbed to death in Los Angeles in June 1994 with Simpson's ex-wife Nicole, plan to have the account on bookshelves within weeks, under the title Confessions of a Double Murderer - or, more simply, I Did It. OJ Simpson tried to hide profits The book, in which Simpson chillingly theorised...

    Learning to Confess    FR. WILLIAM SAUNDERS I have heard the priests of my parish encouraging us to go to confession during Lent. I admit I have not been to confession in years because I am not sure I know how to go to confession. With all the changes that occurred in the '60s, would you please review how to go to confession?  The Second Vatican Council did decree that “the rite and formulas of penance are to be revised in such a way that they may more clearly express the nature and effects of this sacrament”...

Valencia, Mar 29, 2007 (CNA).- The Holy See is moving ahead with the cause of beatification of Father Felipe Ciscar Puig, a Spanish priest who was martyred during the persecution of 1936 for protecting the seal of confession.In statements to the AVAN news agency, the vice postulator of the cause, Father Benjamin Agullo, said Father Puig “is considered a martyr of the sacramental seal as he was shot for refusing to reveal the confession of a Franciscan priest who was himself executed.”Francisco Father Andres Ivars asked to go to confession when he was in prison in August of 1936, suspecting...

MESSAGE FOR ALL CATHOLICS:“JESUS IS IN THE CONFESSIONAL” Despite evil’s attempts at discrediting Catholic Priests, many fallen-away Catholics will soon be returning to the practice of their faith.  The reason: the Church’s new feast on the Sunday after Easter.  What new feast you might say?  It is the “Feast of Divine Mercy”.  The Catholic Church has been celebrating this feast ever since the Vatican had made it official on April 30th in the Jubilee year 2000.  Why would every Catholic want to come back, you might ask?  It is the promise that Jesus Himself made for a complete forgiveness...

VATICAN CITY, MARCH 29, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI, performing a key priestly duty, entered one of the confessionals of St. Peter's Basilica to hear the confessions of various young people from the Diocese of Rome. It marked the culminating moment of today's penitential service over which the Pope presided to prepare for the diocesan-level World Youth Day, to be held Sunday in Rome. In a basilica filled with young men and women, about 200 priests -- some seated on chairs because there were not enough confessionals -- administered the sacrament of reconciliation. While the confessions were being heard, the choir...

"Bless me Father, for I have sinned."The words which usually serve as the opening to confession, a sacrament in the Catholic Church, are being heard more by local priests these days. The reason - confession seems to be making a comeback.Although fewer people sought absolution in the post-Vatican II era, it appears as though confession, also known as the Sacrament of Penance or Reconciliation, is on the rise in the Diocese of San Bernardino. The Sacrament of Penance allows Catholics to confess their sins to a priest through a screen in a small closed confessional, under cover of darkness. They...

Iran claims to have confessions from marines By Gethin Chamberlain, Sunday Telegraph Last Updated: 12:34am GMT 25/03/2007 The Iranian military last night claimed its interrogators had extracted confessions from 15 British naval personnel, who had admitted straying illegally into Iranian territorial waters. The 14 men and one woman were reported to have been transferred to Teheran to be grilled over what they were doing when they were picked up near the entrance to the Shatt al-Arab waterway south of the Iraqi city of Basra. Iran called the action "blatant aggression". Britain insists its forces were on the Iraqi side of...

In April 2002, as chief investigative reporter on Al-Jazeera, I was taken blindfolded to meet Khalid Sheikh Mohammed at a safe house in Karachi. He introduced himself as the head of Al-Qaeda’s military committee and admitted responsibility for 9/11. Altogether I spent 48 hours with KSM — as he is known to the intelligence community — and another key figure, Ramzi Binalshibh, whom he described as the 9/11 co-ordinator. Ramzi was captured in September 2002; KSM in March 2003. ...I was not surprised. In person he had struck me as shrewd and blunt. A doer, while Ramzi was a thinker....

In Cairo last year, Deputy Supreme Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood Mohammed Habib told us that the 9/11 attacks were "great crimes," but that he doubted Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda were responsible. It's probably too much to expect that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's confession that he "was responsible for the 9/11 operation from A to Z" will sway minds like Mr. Habib's. But for the rest of us, the testimony by bin Laden's top operational lieutenant is a jolting re-education in the enemy we face.

[snip] Yesterday, however, the military released a redacted transcript (PDF), and it makes for fascinating reading. There is one part of it everyone should read: the list of 31 actual or prospective attacks in which KSM acknowledged having been "a responsible participant, principal planner, trainer, financier . . ., executor, and/or a personal participant." Here it is, quoting verbatim from the transcript (pages 18-19): [snip] 4. I was responsible for the Shoe Bomber Operation to down two American airplanes.

SAN ANTONIO — Archbishop Jose Gomez only has to recall his childhood in Mexico to recognize that people don’t go to confession like they used to.“In Latin America, it’s part of the culture,” said the Archbishop of San Antonio, Texas. “When I was a kid, the priests would hear confessions on first Thursdays from 4 to 10 p.m. In the U.S., people won’t dare to look for a priest in the confessional unless it’s in the bulletin.”But things may be changing. Signs abound that confession is making a comeback:• In the Chicago Archdiocese, St. Mary’s Church in Lake Forest, Ill.,...

Since it is Lent again, and many of you are (I hope) determined to develop the good practice of making a regular and frequent confession.  It is therefore opportune to repost my 20 Tips for Making a Good Confession.  They have been zipping around the internet for years, but some of you may not have seen them yet. Fr. Z’s 20 Tips For Making A Good Confession We should…   1) ...examine our consciences regularly and thoroughly;   2) ...wait our turn in line patiently;   3) ...come at the time confessions are scheduled, not a few minutes before they...

The Early Church Fathers taught that Christ passed on His authority to forgive sins to His priests.The Didache Confess your sins in church, and do not go up to your prayer with an evil conscience. This is the way of life. . . , On the Lord's Day gather together, break bread, and give thanks, after confessing your transgressions so that your sacrifice may be pure (Didache 4:14,14:1 [A.D.70]).The Letter of BarnabasYou shall judge righteously. You shall not make a schism, but you shall pacify those that contend by bringing them together. You shall confess your sins. You shall not...

Feb. 8, 2007 (CWNews.com) - In a pastoral letter to the faithful of Washington, DC-- the first such message since he became head of the Washington archdiocese last June-- Archbishop Donald Wuerl has made a powerful push to restore the use of sacramental Confession. Archbishop Wuerl has come in for some criticism on this site lately because of his laissez-faire attitude toward pro-abortion Catholic politicians. Without rescinding the legitimate questions that have been raised on that subject, let’s give credit where credit is due. In this pastoral letter, the archbishop had provided a fine teaching document-- but more importantly, he...

SAN ANTONIO, Texas. (National Catholic Reporter) – Lyn Woods, a middle-aged Catholic woman who teaches ceramics at the Southwest School of Art & Craft in San Antonio, said that, although she goes to church, she hasn’t been to confession in many years. She says her childhood experience of the sacrament of reconciliation explains much of her adult attitude toward it today. “When I was 7, 8 or 9 years old,” she said, “I found myself repeating the same sins over and over to the priest. It seemed to me they weren’t really sins but simply human nature. On the other...

A yawning gulf between the stern doctrines preached by Pope Benedict and the advice offered by ordinary Roman Catholic priests has been exposed by an Italian magazine which dispatched reporters to 24 churches around Italy where, in the confessional, they sought rulings on various moral dilemmas. One reporter for L'espresso claimed to have let a doctor switch off the respirator that kept her father alive. "Don't think any more about it," she was told by a friar in Naples. "I myself, if I had a father, a wife or a child who had lived for years only because of artificial...

The Spiritual and Psychological Value of Frequent Confession by Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J. Judging by the drastic drop in confessions in countries like the United States, the false opinion is gaining ground that Confession is not to be received, or made, frequently. No doubt, one reason for this sad state of affairs is the prevalence of some wild theories about mortal sin. For example, the Fundamental Option theory claims that no mortal sin is committed unless a person totally rejects God. Who but the devil hates God? One adultery or one abortion is not a mortal sin. On these...

The next very important piece of "furniture" that you see in Catholic churches consists in-how shall I describe it? Perhaps it looks like a sentinel-box, or a telephone-kiosk, with an extra little room on either side. You may see a priest sitting in the middle part, listening to what someone in one of the side parts is telling him. This bit of furniture is called the "confessional," and sometimes it is differently constructed-the priest may be in a real little room walled off from the part into which people go to speak to him. But the point is, in all...

St. Ephraim the Syrian: On Repentance Grant forgiveness, O Lord, send also strength. Convert me, that I might live in sanctity, according to Thy holy will. Sanctify my heart that has become a den and dwelling-place of demons. I am unworthy to ask forgiveness for myself, O Lord, for many times have I promised to repent and proved myself a liar by not fulfilling my promise. Thou hast picked me up many times already, but every time I freely chose to fall again. Therefore I condemn myself and admit that I deserve all manner of punishment and torture. How many...

This caucus of moderate Calvinists, i.e., "Calvinists in the Tradition of Arminius" is called to order ONLY FOR CTA's or their FRIENDS in regard to this question. What is position of us CTA's on the Tulip.... Total Depravity, Unconditional Election, Limited Atonement, Irresistible Grace, and Perseverence of the Saints? Two answers have been forthcoming to date. P-Marlowe has offered one, and I have offered another. INITIAL Suggestion From P-Marlowe: The TULIP was developed as a reaction to the Remonstrants and belief in the petals of the Tulip was not necessary in order to be a Calvinist at the time...

BEND — Choosing as I have to focus some additional energies on the Sacrament of Penance, I could not help but be struck and attracted by the L’Osservatore Romano headline of Oct. 18: “Time spent in the confessional reveals the merciful Face of the Father.” L’Osservatore Romano is the official weekly newspaper of the Vatican. The headline refers to the remarks of Pope Benedict XVI to the Bishops’ Conference of Canada who were in Rome for their ad limina visit. After offering a brief reflection on the Parable of the Prodigal Son the Holy Father writes: “Dear Brothers, as you...

MEMORIAL TO JAMES ARMINIUS Arminius, that servant of Christ, in order to approve himself before God, chose to endure the hatred and contradiction of all mankind, rather than to violate his conscience. He held out to the whole Christian world the ensign of peace and concord, and he wished a commencement to be made in the Reformed Churches. Being a man of prudence and mild in spirit, he perceived that those Churches were distracted and separated from each other in many ways, and that in these days neither measure nor end was observed in making secessions; that endeavours were therefore...

PROJECT WITTENBERG __________ The Confession of Faith: Which Was Submitted to His Imperial Majesty Charles V At the Diet of Augsburg in the Year 1530 by Philip Melancthon (1497-1560) Translated by F. Bente and W. H. T. Dau Published in: Triglot Concordia: The Symbolical Books of the Ev. Lutheran Church (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921), pp. 37-95. To: Book of Concord - Philip Melancthon - Project Wittenberg Preface to the Emperor Charles V _______________ [cf. Confutatio Pontificia] Most Invincible Emperor, Caesar Augustus, Most Clement Lord: Inasmuch as Your Imperial Majesty has summoned a Diet of the Empire here...

Traditional Mass Propers, CommemoratingSaint Teresa of Avila, Doctor of the Church( Nineteenth Sunday After Pentecost ) 15 October 2006 A.D. Missa Salus pópuli Ego sum "....For many are called, but few are chosen...." "Nothing is so consoling, so piercing, so thrilling, so overcoming, as the Mass, said as it is among us. I could attend Mass forever, and not be tired. It is not a mere form of words; it is a great action. The greatest action that can be on earth. It is. . .the vocation of the Eternal." -- John Henry Cardinal Newman

Traditional Mass Propers, CommemoratingSaint Birgitta of Sweden, Widow( Eighteenth Sunday After Pentecost ) 01 October 2006 A.D. Missa Da Pacem "....My son thy sins are forgiven thee...." "Nothing is so consoling, so piercing, so thrilling, so overcoming, as the Mass, said as it is among us. I could attend Mass forever, and not be tired. It is not a mere form of words; it is a great action. The greatest action that can be on earth. It is. . .the vocation of the Eternal." -- John Henry Cardinal Newman

Traditional Mass Propers, CommemoratingSaint Remigius, Bishop and Confessor ( Seventeenth Sunday After Pentecost ) 01 October 2006 A.D. Missa Justus es, Dómine "....Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself...." "Nothing is so consoling, so piercing, so thrilling, so overcoming, as the Mass, said as it is among us. I could attend Mass forever, and not be tired. It is not a mere form of words; it is a great action. The greatest action that can be on earth. It is. . .the vocation of the Eternal." -- John Henry Cardinal Newman

Traditional Mass Propers, CommemoratingThe Order of Our Lady of Ransom( Sixteenth Sunday After Pentecost ) 24 September 2006 A.D. Missa Miserére Mihi ".... "He that hunbleth himself shall be exalted."...." "Nothing is so consoling, so piercing, so thrilling, so overcoming, as the Mass, said as it is among us. I could attend Mass forever, and not be tired. It is not a mere form of words; it is a great action. The greatest action that can be on earth. It is. . .the vocation of the Eternal." -- John Henry Cardinal Newman

Traditional Mass Propers, Commemorating forthe Stigmata of Saint Francis of Assisi( Fifteenth Sunday After Pentecost ) 17 September 2006 A.D. Missa Inclina, Dómine ".... Young man I say to thee, Arise...." "Nothing is so consoling, so piercing, so thrilling, so overcoming, as the Mass, said as it is among us. I could attend Mass forever, and not be tired. It is not a mere form of words; it is a great action. The greatest action that can be on earth. It is. . .the vocation of the Eternal." -- John Henry Cardinal Newman

Traditional Mass Propers For The Feast Day ofSaint Nicholas of Tolentino, Confessor( Fourteenth Sunday After Pentecost ) 10 September 2006 A.D. Missa Protéctor Noster "....No man can serve two masters...." "Nothing is so consoling, so piercing, so thrilling, so overcoming, as the Mass, said as it is among us. I could attend Mass forever, and not be tired. It is not a mere form of words; it is a great action. The greatest action that can be on earth. It is. . .the vocation of the Eternal." -- John Henry Cardinal Newman