How confession works now

01The basics

What confession is

Zacchaeus comes down “with joy.”⁷ Standing in front of everyone, he promises to give half his goods to the poor and to repay anyone he has wronged four times over.⁸ Jesus answers: “This day is salvation come to this house.”⁹

Confession is the sacrament where you tell your sins to a priest and receive God’s pardon and peace.¹ Only God forgives sins, and Jesus gave this power to men to exercise in his name.¹⁰

“When he had said this, he breathed on them; and he said to them: Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them: and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained.”

So what actually happens when you walk in? Fewer steps than you might fear.

02The walk-through

What happens, one step at a time

If it has been years, or you have never been, you do not need to remember any of this. Just say, “It has been a long time. Can you help me?” The priest will guide you through it.

<b>1. Greeting:</b> the priest greets and blesses you.¹⁴

<b>2. A reading:</b> sometimes a short passage from the Bible is read, to help you look at your life honestly.¹⁴

<b>3. Your confession:</b> you tell the priest your sins, in plain words.¹⁴

<b>4. A penance:</b> the priest gives you something small to do, often a prayer, an offering, or an act of kindness.^14,15

<b>5. Absolution:</b> the priest says the words of forgiveness, ending, “I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”¹⁶

<b>6. Go in peace:</b> a prayer of thanks, and the priest sends you off with a blessing.¹⁴

But what if you are not sure you are sorry enough? Or you cannot remember everything?

03The heart of it

Sorrow, not perfection

What the Church asks is contrition: real sorrow for the sin, together with the resolution not to sin again.¹⁸

You bring the serious sins you are aware of after an honest look at your life. If you try to confess all the sins you can remember, you place all of them before God’s mercy.¹⁹

The Catechism gives a simple reason for saying them out loud: “if the sick person is too ashamed to show his wound to the doctor, the medicine cannot heal what it does not know.”¹⁹

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all iniquity.”

And the fear underneath all of that: what will the priest think, and will he tell anyone?

04The promise

The seal, and the priest

Every priest who hears confessions is bound, under very severe penalties, to keep absolute secrecy about what you confess. This secret admits of no exceptions, and it is called the sacramental seal.²

The Church asks confessors to show “respect and sensitivity toward the one who has fallen.” The confessor is not the master of God’s forgiveness, but its servant.²²

In this sacrament the priest fulfils the ministry of the Father who waits for the prodigal son and welcomes him home.²³

“And rising up, he came to his father. And when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him and was moved with compassion and running to him fell upon his neck and kissed him.”

Zacchaeus climbed a tree just to catch a glimpse. Jesus was the one who stopped.