By TARA CONNOLLY
Staff writer
As a young working adult with an active social life, getting to confession can be tough on Saturday afternoons and evenings when most parishes offer the sacrament.
After receiving several inquiries from young adults about establishing a more convenient time to take advantage of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, Alexa Doncsecz, assistant director of the Office of Youth, Young Adult and Family Ministry (OYYAFM), took action.
While attending a young adult retreat in March, Doncsecz was sharing ideas with other group leaders about better ways to minister to the young adults in their respective groups and throughout our Diocese.
“Several young adults mentioned that in many of their parishes, the only opportunity to go to confession is Saturday evening right before the vigil Mass, or otherwise ‘by appointment.’ They said that while the ‘by appointment’ option is nice in its flexibility, it almost completely negates the anonymity of the sacrament, which is so important for many young adults,” she said.
“This conversation really remained on my heart in the weeks that followed. It occurred to me that this was not the first time a young adult had mentioned a desire for a more widespread availability for confession. In my own conversations with Catholic friends and acquaintances who fell into the young adult age bracket, this had been somewhat of a recurring theme.”
One of the young adults who raised the need for more opportunities for confession was Mary Simone, who works with young people as secretary of the Lehigh Valley chapter of Juventutem and director of religious education at Sacred Heart, Bath.
“The longer I work for the Diocese, the more I see an ever-growing need for sacraments like confession to be made available in the evening. Young adults finishing college use sacramental celebrations in the evening. New families with young children often struggle to make early morning confession times,” she said.
“This past Christmas, Bishop Alfred Schlert invited Catholics of our Diocese ‘Home for Christmas,’ and to that end the first step in truly coming home to Christ is reconciliation.”
In Doncsecz’s endeavor to make confession more widely available, she reached out to a handful of priests. Father David Anthony, assistant pastor of St. Jane Frances de Chantal, Easton, quickly jumped on board and agreed to offer the sacrament Wednesday evenings from 8 to 9 p.m.
“I am happy to be able to offer confessions during the week,” said Father Anthony.
“In confession we come into contact with the mercy of God. He breaks the bonds of sin, which drag us down. He lifts us up to his Sacred Heart. He washes us in his Precious Blood. He makes us more and more the sons and daughters of God, which we are by virtue of our baptism. It really is a beautiful sacrament.
“And it is one of my favorite parts of being a priest. The ability to tell someone who is struggling, who is down, who feels overwhelmed or stuck in a bad place, ‘your sins are forgiven,’ is a tremendous, life-affirming experience.”
Father Anthony said administering the sacrament has opened his eyes to the fact that everyone has struggles and pain.
“We're all addicted to sin to one degree or another. That's why it is so important to be kind. Everyone is fighting a battle. And it's a battle that we can win only if we fight together,” he said.
Father Anthony also understands the difficulty of finding another time – besides Saturday – to receive the sacrament, because he is usually administering the sacrament on Saturday.
“I can never make confessions on Saturday because during that time I am hearing confessions, too,” he said.
“That's why I’m grateful for places like the St. Francis Retreat House, which offers confession on a Monday, or the Blue Army Shrine in New Jersey, which offers confessions every day. It gives me a chance to go to confession, which I need to do if I'm going to be a good priest.”
Father Anthony also said the new confession time is another way the parish is encouraging every Catholic to make confession an integral part of their lives.
“Why live with the burden of sin when we can be forgiven in confession? Christ died for us so that we can be freed from our sins. It makes no sense to hold on to them,” he said.
According to Doncsecz, OYYAFM is hoping to get the same momentum going at several other parishes across the Diocese.
“I would love to have the same thing happen for Berks, especially because many of the young adults who were part of the conversation that happened after the young adult retreat, which is really what sparked this idea, were from the Berks Deanery,” she said.
“Eventually it would be great if we could have a different parish offering evening confessions on different nights during the week so that there are plenty of opportunities to seek reconciliation anonymously whenever someone might find themselves in need of the sacrament.
“We are so grateful to our priests who have been receptive to this idea. Our intention is never to place more work on their already full plates, but they carry a tremendous value to the laity by providing access to the sacraments.
“We are so grateful to the priests who have been receptive to the discussion of taking on an extra hour in the confessional so that more people can experience God’s mercy and grace.”
