While quickly going over the headlines I see this – Vatican laments drop in confessions

A Vatican official is lamenting that many faithful no longer confess their sins, and says some confuse a psychologist’s couch for a confessional booth.Archbishop Mauro Piacenza has told Vatican Radio the sacrament of penance has been experiencing a “deep crisis” for decades. Piacenza, an official for the Vatican office on clergy, says fewer people distinguish between good and evil, and as a result don’t go to confession.

The archbishop said in the interview Tuesday that if faithful don’t have a sense of sin, they might “confuse” confession with “the couch of a psychologist or a psychiatrist.”

This story, while all of three paragraphs, raises so many questions I am having a hard time even starting. Let me try but please hang with me was I get to my ultimate point.

Point #1 – How does the Vatican know confession is down?

Your first reaction may be “Well, the priests say they spend less time doing confession…” But that doesn’t mean confessions are down, maybe the priests who perform confession have become exceedingly efficient in doing so? What is they are seeing *more* people in less time?

Working under the assumption that confession is down, however; does that imply the Church is auditing/counting each individual who goes to confession? Are the masses being tracked, and if so, to what end? Better yet, do they even know they are being tracked?

Point #2 – Why is it a bad thing?

What if people are going less because the time commitments in life mean they have to bunch up all the thoughts for one confession a week, not three?

The Archbishop makes this sound like a lack of confession is a bad thing – what if it is not? What if confession is down because Catholics, or those in the Catholic Church that would seek Confession, have become better people because of their faith?

Less sin would require less confession, no?

Point #3 – Does the church want people to be sinners?

Assuming point number two – the “better people” part – is not that case and people are not becoming “better” people, does that mean the Church would not want them to improve who they are?

Would it make sense that a group that espouses God’s love would wish for other to grow become of that love? If they are not growing – emotionally or spiritually – wouldn’t it be safe to say the Church isn’t doing something right in their teachings or simply trying to limit their teachings so that people never find true enlightenment, thereby creating a cyclical “sinning class”

Point #4 – Confession and Therapy are not the same!!

I, personally, know of no one who goes to confession to address mental health issues, nor do I know of anyone who sees their psychologist to ask forgiveness from god for their sins.

Again, there is no evidence that people are making this leap, rather it appears as if the Archbishop is making an unsubstantiated claim based… well… on nothing – hence unsubstantiated.

Point #5 – The church is now, vaguely, suggesting people do not seek help for mental health issues OR that a lack of confession causes mental health issues.

If you and have individual who is desperately seeking assistance for their actions/thoughts/feelings, who in God’s name cares if they go to a Psychologist first before going to confession?

It’s about the mental health and well being of that person, not about a process or tradition for an organization dating back to the Roman Empire. The Church, the one all about God’s love, should be supporting the person first.

Furthermore, the Church needs to remember without the support, without that person, there is no Church. If a sinner who didn’t seek help – in one form or another – ended up committing suicide the Church would only chastise their actions, disavowing any previous association, and claim that person is now in hell.

So, in the end…

You have a member of the leadership chastising people for not going to Confession but, he assumes it’s a negative. In the same breath, this individual links sinning to mental heath and provides no basis for the statement.

It’s irresponsible. It’s dangerous.

Picture this – you have a devoted believer of the Catholic faith who a mental health concern and goes to a Psychologist but, after hearing this, feels guilty for doings so and then, as a result, they go to confession but stop their therapy. Now, the issues that was being addressed with a trained therapist, is suddenly left needed some form of attention.

They think “oh, but the confession will take care of that” but the emotions and feelings continue to grow, not understanding simply saying “I swore today” isn’t helping the person address the fact that there very well may be a dangerous medical condition at play. Confusion and frustration sets in. Now this individual who was addressing the root cause (or attempting to) is worse off and, possibly, a risk to themselves or the world around them.

How does this help anyone? Really?

This has nothing to do with Religion, Faith, God…  it has to do with how of touch, and how unrealistic, the Catholic Church has become.