Quoted below is from the Catechism of the Catholic Church without the footnote [1]:
1438 The seasons and days of penance in the course of the liturgical year (Lent, and each Friday in memory of the death of the Lord) are intense moments of the Church's penitential practice. These times are particularly appropriate for spiritual exercises, penitential liturgies, pilgrimages as signs of penance, voluntary self-denial such as fasting and almsgiving, and fraternal sharing (charitable and missionary works). [Emphasis added.]
Quoted below without footnotes from the same source cited above are definitions of terms used by the Catholic Church [2]:
ARTICLE 4
THE SACRAMENT OF PENANCE AND RECONCILIATION
1422 "Those who approach the sacrament of Penance obtain pardon from God's mercy for the offense committed against him, and are, at the same time, reconciled with the Church which they have wounded by their sins and which by charity, by example, and by prayer labors for their conversion."
I. WHAT IS THIS SACRAMENT CALLED?
1423 It is called the sacrament of conversion because it makes sacramentally present Jesus' call to conversion, the first step in returning to the Father from whom one has strayed by sin.
It is called the sacrament of Penance, since it consecrates the Christian sinner's personal and ecclesial steps of conversion, penance, and satisfaction.
1424 It is called the sacrament of confession, since the disclosure or confession of sins to a priest is an essential element of this sacrament. In a profound sense it is also a "confession" - acknowledgment and praise - of the holiness of God and of his mercy toward sinful man.
It is called the sacrament of forgiveness, since by the priest's sacramental absolution God grants the penitent "pardon and peace."
It is called the sacrament of Reconciliation, because it imparts to the sinner the live of God who reconciles: "Be reconciled to God." He who lives by God's merciful love is ready to respond to the Lord's call: "Go; first be reconciled to your brother."
It is interesting to note that Section 1438 quoted above does not mention confessions explicitly as part of one's spiritual exercises, but it could be implied by these words "penitential liturgies" that were obviously written not for the not-so-educated Catholic such as this blogger to understand. Yet, the Catholic Church can be clear if when it wants to be, such as defining "fraternal sharing" in parenthesis "(charitable and missionary works)". Can the Catholic Church be more crafty? Perhaps the Catholic Church needs to be crafty since it is fully aware of its limitations.
According to catholic-hierarchy.org, the number of Catholics and the total number of priests in the United States number 64,621,000 and 44,906 respectively. When priests are limited to diocesan priests, the number falls to 30,207. [3] Using the larger number of priests, the ratio of Catholics to priests in the United States is about 1,400 to 1. How many parishes can accommodate 1,400 confessions every Friday according to Section 1438 above? The ratio of Catholics to priests is even more dramatic in Brazil, 8,630 to 1, arrived by dividing 145,446,000 Catholics by 16,853, the total number of priests. [4]
The Catholic Church is not stupid and compromised between the need for confessions and the impracticalities of confessions before receiving the Holy Eucharist at Mass with the following section in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, quoted without footnotes [5]:
1457 According to the Church's command, "after having attained the age of discretion, each of the faithful is bound by an obligation faithfully to confess serious sins at least once a year." Anyone who is aware of having committed a mortal sin must not receive Holy Communion, even if he experiences deep contrition, without having first received sacramental absolution, unless he has a grave reason for receiving Communion and there is no possibility of going to confession. Children must go to the sacrament of Penance before receiving Holy Communion for the first time. [Emphasis added.]
This blogger wonders whether every single Catholic who lines up to receive Holy Communion after Mass has had his or her sins absolved, or whether those who line up are simply unaware of having committed any mortal sin and consider themselves sinless since their last ("at least" yearly) confession as per Section 1457 above and therefore finds himself or herself to be in the good grace of God to receive the Body of Christ.
The Catholic Church is right about one thing: that after consecration of the bread and wine, they are transubstantiated into the Body and Blood of Christ, and the Catechism of the Catholic Church is quite clear on this, quoted without footnotes below:
1376 The Council of Trent summarizes the Catholic faith by declaring: "Because Christ our Redeemer said that it was truly his body that he was offering under the species of bread, it has always been the conviction of the Church of God, and this holy Council now declares again, that by the consecration of the bread and wine there takes place a change of the whole substance of the bread into the substance of the body of Christ our Lord and of the whole substance of the wine into the substance of his blood. This change the holy Catholic Church has fittingly and properly called transubstantiation."
1377 The Eucharistic presence of Christ begins at the moment of the consecration and endures as long as the Eucharistic species subsist. Christ is present whole and entire in each of the species and whole and entire in each of their parts, in such a way that the breaking of the bread does not divide Christ.
This change, called transubstantiation, that takes place at the Altar of Sacrifice at every Catholic Mass is not to any degree subject to any sort of limitation [6]; it is only the delivery of the consecrated bread and wine to those Catholics between confessions who remain in the good grace of God or who think that they are in the good grace of God that the Catholic Church could run into practical limitations.
[1] http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p2s2c2a4.htm
[2] Ibid.
[3] http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/country/sc1.html
[4] Ibid.
[5] http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p2s2c2a4.htm
[6] In a previous post, this blogger questioned the ability of a priest who has betrayed Christ to consecrate bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ. In the extreme case where a priest had become Satanic, is he able consecrate during Mass and desecrate the uneaten Holy Communion when he participates in a Satanic ritual?
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