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Just to be clear, Confessions on Good Friday are NOT forbidden…. duh!
I have been meaning to post about the confusion that has reigned for years in some places about hearing confessions on Good Friday.
Hopefully what follows might be of use if you hear that priests are refusing to hear confessions during the Sacred Triduum because they claim that it is forbidden to do so.
Many of you belong to parishes where priests still won’t hear confessions on Good Friday and Holy Saturday.
Some priests, liturgical experts and even diocesan liturgy offices wrongly claim the rubrics of the Missal or “Sacramentary” forbid the sacrament of Penance.
However, this claim is absolutely incorrect.
Here is what the texts really say.
The previous 1970 and 1975 editions of the Missale Romanum (the Novus Ordo) said of Good Friday and Holy Saturday (BTW… the language of this rubric goes backto Pope Innocent III):
Hac et sequenti die, Ecclesia, ex antiquissima traditione, sacramenta penitus non celebrat… On this and the following day, the Church, from a most ancient tradition, does not at all celebrate the sacraments.
However, since this is in the Missal (the book for MASS), sacramenta refers only to Holy Mass and not the other sacraments.
The Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments (CDWDS) clarified this in its official publication Notitiae (1977 – no. 137 (Dec) p. 602.
In the 2002 edition of the Missale Romanum at paragraph 1 for Good Friday all doubt is removed.
The above cited text has been amended to say (the change with my emphasis):
Hac et sequenti die, Ecclesia, ex antiquissima traditione, sacramenta, praeter Paenitentiae et Infirmorum Unctionis, penitus non celebrat…On this and the following day, the Church, from a most ancient tradition, does not at all celebrate the sacraments, except for (the sacraments of) Penance and Anointing of the Sick.
Priests can and should hear confessions during on Good Friday and on Holy Saturday.
Who can forget the image of the late Pope hearing confession in St. Peter’s Basilica on Good Friday?
Here is a bonus tip, speaking of confessions. Some liturgists simply freak out at this idea:
It is both permitted and recommended in some circumstances for confessions to be heard during Holy Mass on other days of the year! Want proof? Try the CDWDS document Redemptionis Sacramentum 76 and also the Congregation’s Response to a Dubium in Notitiae 37 (2001) pp. 259-260.
I just posted an entry about hearing confessions during Holy Mass.
My experience of the Church in Poland is that hearing confession during Mass
Comment by Jonathan Hearn — 7 March 2008 @ 1:38 pmis a normal everyday activity. Indeed, it is during the Mass that we may
receive the grace for a good confession.
The former bishop of Dallas put a stop to simultaneous Mass and confession at the downtown “businessman’s chapel,” where it had been the practice for many (25?) years. There used to be at least short lines every single day; long lines during Lent and on First Fridays. Now there is virtually nothing. And there is no tradition of two priests there anymore so that even if permission were restored by the present bishop it is unlikely that the previous practice would return.
In large Mexican cathedrals there are so many hours for confession every day that it would be almost impossible to have different hours for Mass especially as practically all churches close for dinner from about 2:00 to 5:00 p.m.
Comment by Daniel Muller — 7 March 2008 @ 1:50 pmHow odd! I have never heard of not going to confession on Good Friday. We had confessions heard on Good Friday in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. As well, some churches had confessions heard during the first part of Mass.
Comment by M.J.Ernst-Sandoval — 7 March 2008 @ 2:05 pmWay, way back there in the 1950’s Confessions were heard at all the masses, starting with the 5:00 am low Mass and continuing, except on Sundays. This was in the days of dinosaurs and Harry Truman.
Comment by Tim McCarthy — 7 March 2008 @ 2:18 pmThere are some who freak out, as you say. I’ve met them. They’re the same ones who don’t like to hear confessions on any day of the year.
Comment by Fr Renzo di Lorenzo (TRILOGY) — 7 March 2008 @ 2:47 pmIn my two parishes, we have confessions at one from 10-11:30 am, and then at the other, 5-6:30 pm. On Holy Saturday, we have confessions at the usual times, again morning at one parish, afternoon at the other.
Actually, I’d rather do it then than earlier in Lent, because while I’m tired by this point, I’m not as busy on Good Friday and Holy Saturday as I have been throughout Lent.
Comment by Fr. Martin Fox — 7 March 2008 @ 3:10 pmIn my former parish church, the priest refused to hear confessions on Good Friday (unless you approached him as a special favour). He also had a full Mass for a time on Good Friday. He would not hear confessions during Mass and told us that this was wrong. He put sand in the holy water stoup during Lent. In his Eucharistic chapel, he forbad a crucifix and said that it was wrong to put a crucifix over the tabernacle. But this was a very liberal parish and every abuse imaginable occurred there. I raise it only to point out that these were common ‘liberal’ positions. I used to wonder when I was young where they all came from.
P.K.T.P.
Comment by Peter Karl T. Perkins — 7 March 2008 @ 3:37 pmMy experience of the Church in Poland is that hearing confession during Mass
is a normal everyday activity.
I offer a first-hand confirmation of the fact, having observed it and made use of for many years.
Comment by Mar — 7 March 2008 @ 4:20 pmAs a weekly penitent, the high holy days are when I cannot get to confession
Comment by magdalen — 7 March 2008 @ 4:57 pmas they are not offered. The pastor refuses people who ask him for
confession outside of the Saturday afternoon time and then pays retired
priests to hear the confessions of his people on Saturday afternoon.
He is presently on yet another two week vacation.
Here is Steubenville you cannot find a single parish (even at FUS) that offers confession on Good Friday or Holy Saturday. I had never heard of such a thing prior to moving here.
Comment by