Pope Francis hears the confession of a priest. (CNS photo/Vatican Media) 
Fr Eugene O’Neill
Few things are calculated to raise the hackles of hardworking priests in parishes more than being told how it should be done by fellow clerics with fewer years in the Lord’s Vineyard under their belt.
I once turned to an older colleague – a man of depth, wisdom and vast experience – at the end of a presentation by the dynamic pastor of a successful parish, a talk I had personally enjoyed, and asked him how he would sum up the speaker’s central point? Mischievously, he replied: “I run a better parish that you: learn from me!”
So, it is with hesitation that I accepted the Editor’s invitation to share a recent experience from my own parish in inner-city Belfast. I offer it tentatively, as someone who has learned hugely from the pastoral endeavour of esteemed colleagues witnessed at first-hand about what works and what does not; and also, that what is successful in one place, may bomb elsewhere.
Anonymity
St Patrick’s on Donegall Street, Belfast, is the biggest and most prominent Catholic church in the Belfast city centre and the parish which it serves combines both an indigenous population and a large transient population of workers who commute into the city each day. Soon this mix will include almost 20,000 university students and staff from the campus of Ulster University being completed beside the church.
Like so many city-centre churches, it is a centre for confessions. People seem to prefer the anonymity of not attending the sacrament in their own parishes. We hear confessions for several hours each weekend, and by request, after our daily Masses.
However, for the last years, the parish team have been reflecting on what seems to be the dying out of Christmas and Lenten penance services in Belfast – both the falling numbers and a sense that we were going through the motions for fewer and fewer people. At one service, I heard the confessions of only five people. Quite a change from 20 years ago when one would have expected to be listening without a break for an hour or more.
In response, the parish team at St Patrick’s tried a number of experiments over 18 months. In Lent and Advent, we had better advertising of the availability of Confession and more references both at Mass and in parish social media. Eventually we dropping the penance service entirely and concentrating on having Confession available after each Mass in the weeks before Easter and Christmas. Numbers increased but only slightly.
We reflected and in early Advent we took soundings amongst parishioners. Two common themes emerged which surprised us: parishioners told us that they were too busy to stay after Mass on Sundays, and we learned that many people were too embarrassed to go because they had forgotten the practicalities of what to say.
So, in response we tweaked our approach. We decided to make a big deal of Confession as a way of experiencing the innocence of the coming of Jesus at Christmas more deeply and designated the Sunday before Christmas as ‘Christmas Confession Sunday’ advertising it all through Advent. Each member of the parish team preached about the sacrament, what it does and how to go practically for the week previous and on the day itself. The bulletin was used for practical Confession information; and – most significantly – Confessions were heard during each Mass – an option that Pope Francis has mentioned in recent writings. Clearly this is easier in a multi-priest church like St Patrick’s, but it can still be done with organisation even in a single-priest parish.
What happened? We were astounded at the response. There was a huge upswing in attendance. On that Sunday before Christmas, over the course of five Masses, 15 hours of confessions of a quality and depth that I have rarely experienced as a priest. And a sense of gratitude by parishioners that came as a great encouragement to the team. So much so that we have now permanently abandoned – at least in this urban parish – penance services, however rich and uplifting they are elsewhere, and designated the Sundays before Christmas and Easter as our ‘Confession Sundays.’
It was a throw of the dice, an experiment, but it caught the mood and worked. With only slight alterations to what was already happening, by observing, listening and adapting, we in St Patrick’s had found a way of offering the Sacrament of Reconciliation that chimed with our parishioners work and family rhythms and the demands on their time.
We made an act of faith in that Catholics still basically want to experience the freedom that Confession gives when they understand it as such. We made this message the centre of our communication. And we adapted our approach to fit with their lived experience. We had no expectations of success but approached our experiment with faithful curiosity, ready to learn and adapt again.
What have we learned? In parish life, it is impossible ever to feel fully prepared or adequately resourced. Carefully worked out pastoral plans have their place but can sometimes become an end in themselves, absorb huge energy in the production, and end up with little practical happening. It is better to experiment; to risk the new; to dare to fall flat; to reflect on success and failure; to adapt and move on; and try again. To trust that the Holy Spirit is constantly at work prompting one to take risks.
When I shared this experience with a venerable and senior colleague, he quoted something a famous vicar general of yesteryear said to him as a young priest: some priests try nothing and are never wrong; some priests try many things – half the time they are wrong but half the time they are right.
That has been our experience. It’s worth remembering.
