Florida Catholic | Sacrament of Penance: ‘For I have sinned’

‘For I have sinned’

Experts at liturgical symposium strive to correct misunderstandings regarding the sacrament of penance.

ANA RODRIGUEZ-SOTO | FLORIDA CATHOLIC MIAMI BUREAU EDITOR

Published: 03.07.08

More On Penance

The Code of Canon Law speaks about the sacrament of penance in Book 4, Title IV which begins HERE

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The Catechism of the Catholic Church also speaks about the sacrament of penance.

MIAMI GARDENS | Father Jesus Bohorquez never thought he would hear his pastor’s confession.

But he and Msgr. Kenneth Schwanger, pastor of St. Jerome Parish in Fort Lauderdale, did just that one Saturday morning in Advent, when they scheduled a communal penance service followed by individual confessions.

“Nobody came,” Father Bohorquez recalled.

So the two priests went ahead with the service and heard each other’s confessions afterward.

Father Wilfredo Contreras’ experiences at St. Brendan Parish in Miami’s Westchester neighborhood and at St. John Bosco in Little Havana, where he served previously, have been completely different.

The lines for confession before all the weekend Masses are so long that people know they need to get there early, Father Contreras said. “They’re communities that are very aware of sin.”

On the other hand, that poses a problem for the priest.

“You have only 30 minutes. There’s a line outside with more than 20 people,” Father Contreras said, so in the interest of saving time, not everything might be done in strict accordance with the new Rite of Penance issued by the Vatican in 1974.

That is not unusual, said Benedictine Father Ephrem Carr, professor at the Pontifical Institute of Liturgy in Rome. One of the problems today is that “the new Rite of Penance has never been fully implemented by most clergy and parishes.”

Father Carr was one of two keynote speakers, both Benedictines from the Pontifical Institute, who spoke Feb. 23 at the fifth annual liturgical symposium co-sponsored by the institute, St. Thomas University and the archdiocesan Office of Worship.

His Spanish-language counterpart was Father Juan Javier Flores, president of the institute. Together they spoke to more than 100 people, mostly students in the lay ministry program.

Prior to their talk, Msgr. Terence Hogan, rector of St. Mary Cathedral and archdiocesan director of the Office of Worship, explained why he had selected the sacrament of penance as the topic of this year’s symposium.

Two years ago, the archdiocese’s presbyteral council carried out a study among priests and laity in the archdiocese. The results came through “very loud and clear,” Msgr. Hogan said. “There are a lot of cultural differences within our understanding of this sacrament.”

Along with those differences, according to Father Carr, is the bigger problem of people misunderstanding the purpose and meaning of the sacrament. The first misconception is that confession is a private matter between the sinner and God or the penitent and the priest.

“We do hurt ourselves and we hurt others (when we sin). And we cannot heal ourselves,” Father Carr said, any more than we can self-medicate for physical or psychological ailments.

Because serious sin always harms the entire community of believers, “reconciliation is with God and with the church. Reconciliation cannot be a private thing between God and me.”

Another misconception held by many people these days is that “it’s only a venial sin,” Father Carr said.

But “venial sins are important. Venial sins are worth going to confession for. Venial sins can be a source of infection in our lives … a poison affecting one’s Christian life all the time.”

He cited some examples of venial sins, including egotism, neglecting the needy, destroying others through words and harboring prejudices.

“One of the problems with the sacrament of confession is our sense of sin. Too often it becomes trivialized,” Father Carr said. “We miss the real sinfulness in our lives.”

That is why the church teaches that prayer prior to confession is essential.

“We have to be ashamed of doing wrong. It’s not something that happens once you step into confession,” Father Carr said.

The church also teaches that the sacrament of penance “doesn’t end in the confessional,” he added. “It continues with the life that we choose to lead afterward.”

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