Q. You heard confessions last year during “Be Reconciled.” What do think about the whole concept of concentrating much time and energy on a special day just for the sacrament of reconciliation?

A.  I think it is a wonderful idea and I am glad that Bishop Malloy started it here. I wish I had thought of it myself.

One of the things that I think all of us who have been in the priesthood for a good number of years regret is the decline in the use of the sacrament of penance. I think maybe a misreading of some of the things in the Second Vatican Council’s documents has convinced people to think that they are better than they really are and maybe they don’t need this as much. That is an error.

We are all constantly in need of God’s grace and help to avoid sin in our lives and one way we keep track of that is periodically to examine our consciences in preparation of confession and to go to confession and have those sins remitted by the power of the keys given by Christ to the Apostles and their successors.

Absolution is a salutary thing, particularly to people who have been away from the sacraments for a long time. They find there is no better feeling than finally bringing themselves to sorrow and contrition and making a good confession and receiving absolution. These are good things.

For the practicing Catholic it would seem that it would be difficult to advance in purgatory without going to confession several times a year.

Confession should be a part of the life of every practicing Catholic and to neglect the sacrament of penance, it seems to me, is a kind of a sign of presumption on the part of the person — to think I am so good that I don’t need confession is a dangerous thought.

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