{"id":8443,"date":"2011-11-06T15:58:32","date_gmt":"2011-11-06T21:58:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/?p=8443"},"modified":"2016-09-30T17:36:01","modified_gmt":"2016-09-30T21:36:01","slug":"but-whos-counting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2011\/11\/but-whos-counting\/","title":{"rendered":"But who’s counting? — UPDATED"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

A commenter in another post noted that his parish keeps track of how many confessions are heard on any given weekend, and then publishes the tally in the Sunday bulletin.<\/p>\n

Color me surprised.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>This is something new to me.\u00a0 Parishes routinely announce other sacraments \u2014 baptisms, weddings, even confirmations \u2014 but I\u2019ve never heard of one keeping a count, and actually publishing the number of confessions.\u00a0 The weekly collection?\u00a0 Sure.\u00a0 Confession?\u00a0 No.<\/p>\n

I asked a priest in my parish what he thought;\u00a0 he furrowed his brow and wrinkled his nose and uttered one word that summed it up for me:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy??\u201d<\/p>\n

I just don\u2019t know.\u00a0 Do they think this encourages people to go?\u00a0 Do they see this as a moral barometer?\u00a0 It just strikes me as odd \u2014 and, in a way, it\u2019s an exercise that reduces the sacrament to mere numbers on a page.\u00a0 It\u2019s a little like publishing the number of people who receive communion on Sunday. And it may well be misleading, anyway; people will often go to confession wherever and whenever they can, depending on when it is convenient\u00a0 \u2014 or where they can find a priest who doesn\u2019t know them personally.\u00a0 (I\u2019ve heard that this is one reason why cruise ships are popular places for confession.)<\/p>\n

I\u2019m curious to hear what others think.\u00a0 Have you heard of this practice before?\u00a0 Do you think it encourages more frequent celebration of the sacrament?<\/p>\n

Discuss.<\/p>\n

UPDATE: <\/strong>The pastor who does this left the following comment on another thread:<\/p>\n

This is a practice that was instituted by the former pastor of Holy Rosary. I always look upon it as a great tool and something that, in its way, could be used to persuade priests, who might not have confessions very often, to do a bit of re-evaluation. No one has ever made any objection to its inclusion in the bulletin. It\u2019s there with Mass attendance and with collection totals. I look with pride on it, actually. It tells me that confession IS useful and that people, despite the \u201coh, there\u2019s no such thing as sin\u201d that we hear these days, WANT to go to confession.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A commenter in another post noted that his parish keeps track of how many confessions are heard on any given weekend, and then publishes the tally in the Sunday bulletin. Color me surprised. This is something new to me.\u00a0 Parishes routinely announce other sacraments \u2014 baptisms, weddings, even confirmations \u2014 but I\u2019ve never heard of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sacraments"],"yoast_head":"\nBut who's counting? -- UPDATED<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A commenter in another post noted that his parish keeps track of how many confessions are heard on any given weekend, and then publishes the tally in the\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2011\/11\/but-whos-counting\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"But who's counting? 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