If one sins habitually, is there true repentance? If there is no true repentance, can a confession be genuine? If true repentance is not possible for a sinner, then does one who goes to confession make a mockery of it?
"Msgr. Richard Lavalley [is a] pastor of St. Francis Xavier Parish in Winooski, [Vermont, USA]." [1], [2] An article entitled Priests offer tips for Catholics long absent from the confessional dated February 16, 2013, published by Catholic News Agency, referring to Msgr. Lavalley, inspired this entry. It is quoted in part [3]:
Lavalley, ordained in 1964, still remembers a confession from his first year as a priest. He was hearing confessions from students at the parish grade school, and one boy was among the last to be brought in.
"This kid's behind the screen. He's not talking to me. He's just breathing. 'Do you want to go to confession?' (No response.) 'Do you want to tell me what your sins are?' 'No.' 'Why?' 'Because you know what my sins are.' 'How?' 'Because I did them before.' "
Just like that boy, Lavalley told CNS, penitents are habitual sinners.
"Everyone's a habitual sinner, and so am I," he said. "It's not about sin, it's about mercy and about God's love."
Lavalley remembers himself as a grade-schooler making comparisons among the priests in his parish about which ones handed out sterner or lighter penances.
But he recalled one experience with a priest that "made me the confessor that I am. He was so kind and so wonderful, and I never forgot the penance he gave me. He said, 'Can you say the name of Jesus once? I'll say it for you.' And he did it without sarcasm.
"That changed my life."
What troubles this blogger is the habitual sinning. If one is unable to repent one's sins for good, then what is the point of confessing the same sins over and over, just like the boy, who probably was truly regretful for having committed sins, but sat in silence in the confessional, and felt that it was redundant to confess the same things he had done before, and that he knew he would do again?
On the flip side, how often and how long does a priest actually occupy the confessional, especially on Sunday when one Mass seem to be scheduled soon after another has ended? How can all penitents attending Mass who wish to confess before receiving Holy Communion can actually confess within the time after one Mass has ended and before the next one begins?
There are priests on You Tube who speak of confession, citing the Bible, but they do not tell people that a priest would be available to hear confession at any time that is reasonable from anyone wishing to confess. Perhaps saying the Confiteor [4], [5] at Mass ought to be enough, but it is not said at all Masses. Saying the Confiteor ought to be mandatory at all Masses, but if this is enough, it would circumvent the need for an individual confession and a personal absolution of the penitent.
This may be harsh, but for any priest to find himself good enough to lecture Catholics on You Tube on the need to go to confession, he ought to learn first from the one true confessor, the Curé d'Ars, St. Jean-Marie-Baptiste Vianney, who "spent ordinarily from sixteen to eighteen hours daily in the confessional, in winter with his feet on an unheated stone floor; and the rest of his time in preaching, prayer, and teaching catechism in the church." [6]
In other words, Catholics who do not go to confession are not the only ones to blame, the priest himself ought to bear half the responsibility, at least. Returning to the saint, Jean-Marie-Baptiste Vianney, Curé d'Ars, the following is quoted in part from a website cited under footnote [7]:
From the year 1827, there began the famous stream of pilgrims to Ars. People went to Ars from all parts of France, from Belgium, from England and even from America. The principal motive which led all these crowds of pilgrims to the priest of Ars was purely the desire for him to hear their confession and to receive spiritual counsel from him. They were driven to his thronged confessional by the longing to meet once and for all the priest who knew all about the reality of the soul. The priest of Ars possessed the ability to see the human soul in its nakedness, freed of its body. This grace is only rarely bestowed on men. He never put his nose into the spiritual affairs of other people. He was entirely free from inquisitiveness. Like St. Francis de Sales, he had the gift of "seeing everything and not looking at anyone." In confessing people this holy man, who had a fundamental knowledge of sin, strove after one thing only – to save souls. This was his ardent desire, and for the sake of it he suffered all the tortures of his daylong confinement in the confessional. This great saint heard confessions from 13 to 17 hours a day, and could tell a penitent's sins even when they were withheld. In order to save souls one must be possessed of that holy love of men which consumed the priest of Ars. He would often weep in the confessional and when he was asked why he wept, he would reply: "My friend, I weep because you do not weep."
Where is today's equivalent of the Curé d'Ars?
[1] https://www.ncronline.org/news/spirituality/priests-offer-tips-catholics-long-absent-confessional
[2] http://www.sfxvt.org/faculty-staff/monsignorlavalley
[3] https://www.ncronline.org/news/spirituality/priests-offer-tips-catholics-long-absent-confessional
[4] http://www.preces-latinae.org/thesaurus/Basics/Confiteor.html
[5] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlt98XPa5Po; and https://youtu.be/6g6fbGZOgW4?t=63
[6] http://sanctoral.com/en/saints/saint_john_vianney.html
[7] https://olrl.org/lives/vianney.shtml
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