A Pastoral Letter to the Priests of the Diocese of Phoenix
from the Most Rev. Thomas J. Olmsted
On the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation

January 25, 2013, The Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul

“The New Evangelization, therefore, also begins in the confessional, in the mysterious encounter between man’s endless plea … and the mercy of God.” In the midst of this Year of Faith and the renewed call to the New Evangelization, it is fitting to consider the experience of mercy that Christ offers in the sacrament of Reconciliation to us priests for our own sanctification and, through our ministry, to those whom we have the privilege to serve.

With this letter, I invite you to consider with me our priestly calling to serve our people by hearing confessions. Let us reflect on three things: our role as an apostle of mercy, second, our experience as a penitent, and third, our experience as a confessor.

Part 1 – Priest as Apostle of Mercy

Approaching the Apostles on the day of the Resurrection, Our Lord said “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you… If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” A sense of astonishment and awe must have filled the Apostles at that moment: Christ was sending them out with the power to do what only God could do: forgive the sins of others.

Equally astonishing is the fact that we ordained priests share with the first Apostles in the same sacred power through the sacrament of Holy Orders. Since the apostolic age, Christ has sent and still sends priests to sacramentally absolve sins in His name. This solemn responsibility continually makes available the gift of divine mercy offered by the Risen Lord, and makes present the proclamation that His mercy and life have the last word over sin and death. Through the sacrament of Penance, God bestows on His adopted children “peace and serenity of conscience with strong spiritual consolation.” Nourished by a joyful encounter with our Savior, penitents are renewed in their baptismal call to holiness and invited to live an increasingly vibrant and personal faith.

Preparing for the Eucharistic Encounter

The sacrament of Forgiveness is ordered to a worthy and fruitful reception of Holy Communion. Because the Holy Eucharist is the “source and summit” of the Christian life, every pastoral initiative leads to the Eucharist and draws power from it. All pastoral work depends on real and fruitful contact with Jesus Christ, without whom we can do nothing. Both Confession and the Eucharist provide this wondrous contact for us.

St. Paul did not hesitate to call the faithful to renewed holiness by pleading that they receive the Body and Blood of our Lord more worthily. It is the sacrament of Penance that reopens the door to the outpouring of grace that comes with a worthy reception of Holy Communion after this capacity has been lost through serious sin. In our own time, Blessed John Paul II asked us to “take great care to celebrate the Eucharistic Mystery with a pure heart and sincere love. The Lord recommends that we not become branches which are cut off the vine. Preach clearly and simply the right doctrine about the need for the sacrament of Reconciliation before receiving Communion when a person is conscious that he or she is not in God’s grace.” Only the sacrament of forgiveness allows the Eucharist, to the fullest extent, to take central place in our lives.

With this in mind, I encourage your prayerful consideration of strategies that will encourage the regular practice of the sacrament of Penance. Rather than being an option among many, this Sacrament is the only sure way Christ gave us to have mortal sins forgiven after Baptism. Any attempt to do “without the Church and the sacramental economy, is therefore deceptive and disastrous.” Conversely, Confession cannot fail to produce great fruit when it is promoted and practiced with renewed devotion and frequency.

Chief Promoters of Confession

We priests have the privilege and duty of promoting the sacrament of Reconciliation. Not only are we ministers of God’s mercy in the confessional, we are also called to be its chief promoters and catechists. Like St. John Vianney, Christ charges us to bring the good news of God’s infinite mercy to His people. Regular preaching and systematic catechesis about the sacrament is valuable, even essential today, for a number of reasons:

• First, by encouraging the sacrament of Penance, we promote authentic faith in Christ’s power to forgive, heal and renew His people. Jesus inaugurated his public ministry with a public call to conversion by crying out, “Repent, and believe in the Gospel!” This call to conversion reverberates whenever priests encourage the celebration of this sacrament.
• Second, promotion of Confession requires proper formation of the faithful about the reality of sin. “Sin is an offense against reason, truth, and right conscience; it is failure in genuine love for God and neighbor caused by a perverse attachment to certain goods. It wounds the nature of man and injures human solidarity.” The consequences of this proclamation are truly serious since “ignorance of the fact that man has a wounded nature inclined to evil gives rise to serious errors in the area of education, politics, social action and morals.”
• Third, preaching on the sacrament of Penance allows us to put forth an understanding of the sacramental economy in the life of the Church. By way of the sacraments, Christ reveals Himself to us and communicates the fruits of His paschal mystery along with the sacramental signs. Often we hear comments such as, “I can just go right to God without a priest;” or “Well, His love is unconditional, so I don’t need to go to confession;” or “The offer of forgiveness is not dependent on whether I confess to a priest, so it is an unnecessary step.” While these ideas may be well-intended, they are nonetheless incomplete ideas that disregard the loving plan of conversion and transformation that Jesus Himself has given us. Clear catechesis and personal invitation can inspire many to move beyond these false ideas to the firsthand experience of God’s infinite love.
• Fourth, promoting the sacrament of Penance helps to avoid two common misunderstandings. The first is the minimization of sin to such an extent that the faithful become unconcerned or unaware of the need to approach His mercy. The second is an exaggeration of sin’s power such that it hinders belief in the infinitely greater power of Christ’s love. Both of these errors discourage frequent confession. Only by proclaiming the reality of sin and the power of God’s mercy will we authentically invite the faithful to approach this sacrament with honesty, humility and confidence.
• Fifth, promoting the sacrament includes fostering frequent confession. This has long been “strongly recommended by the Church” and attested to by the lives of the saints. Frequent confession allows the Holy Spirit to inform us of areas of weakness that need particular attention. Over time, with conformity to the grace of Confession, we are able to see virtue increase and vice decrease.

Time and Place

Encouraging and welcoming penitents as well as accompanying them on the journey of conversion are a real measure of a priest’s pastoral charity. The most influential factor for renewing the sacrament of Penance is our commitment to offering sufficient opportunities for the faithful to approach the sacrament. The Church asks priests to provide the faithful the “opportunity to approach individual confession on days and at times established for their convenience.” Experience shows that merely offering the sacrament “by appointment” is insufficient. Merely offering an hour on Saturday afternoons rarely meets the needs of our faithful. In this regard, Blessed John Paul II wrote:

• Local Ordinaries, and parish priests and rectors of churches and shrines, should periodically verify that the greatest possible provision is in fact being made for the faithful to confess their sins. It is particularly recommended that in places of worship confessors be visibly present at the advertised times, that these times be adapted to the real circumstances of penitents, and that confessions be especially available before Masses, and even during Mass if there are other priests available, in order to meet the needs of the faithful.

It is worth noting that historically, Catholic churches have the venerable tradition of building beautifully ornate confessionals that are conspicuously placed in the church. More than merely offering a suitable place for confessions, the confessionals in our churches should be clear expressions of the importance of this sacrament in Christian life. Confessionals, according to Church law, are to provide a fixed screen for the sake of both the priest and the penitent.

Part II – Priest as Penitent

The precious gift of forgiveness from our Savior, we must remember, is also a gift for us priests As Blessed John Paul II said, “Despite being called to exercise the sacramental ministry, we have shortcomings of our own that need forgiveness. The joy of forgiving and of being forgiven go hand in hand.”

In our daily lives, we are reminded of our own need for the mercy that we offer to the faithful. How often do we gather and, in the words of the Salve Regina, acknowledge that we are “poor banished children of Eve” who send up to our Blessed Mother “our sighs, mourning and weeping in this vale of tears.” How easily we can relate to St. Augustine, who prayed, “I beg you to reveal myself to me as well, O my God, so that I may confess the wounded condition I diagnose in myself to my brethren who will pray for me.” We can at times feel the weight of our sins and be tempted to respond with the words of St. Peter who said, “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.” Nonetheless, Jesus exhorts him as He exhorts you and me, saying, “Feed my sheep.”

Humbly, we can acknowledge with St. Paul that “we have this treasure in earthen vessels, to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us.”

Frequent Recourse to Mercy

It follows that we priests, who regularly experience the mercy of God by going to Confession, grow in our capacity as Christ-like confessors. Having been encouraged ourselves, we are better able to encourage those who are in any affliction with the encouragement with which we ourselves are encouraged by God.

Our own frequent experiences of God’s mercy in confession help us to be understanding and patient with other penitents in their weaknesses. We then are able to speak convincingly of our Lord’s mercy, awakening in others a greater desire for conversion and sanctity.

As previous councils of the Church had done, Vatican II promoted frequent confession. Still today, the Church invites us to “hold in high esteem the frequent use of this sacrament. It is a practice which increases true knowledge of one’s self, favors Christian humility and offers the occasion for salutary spiritual direction and the increase of grace.” Therefore, “desiring closer union with God,