A couple of weeks ago, we made a small adjustment – ad experimentum – to the scheduling of the priests for confessions. On weekdays at the 7 am Mass, and at all confessions on Sundays, the current praxis remains unchanged. However, on weekdays at all Masses other than the 7 am Mass, instead of the celebrant hearing confessions before Mass and being relieved by a second confessor during Mass, we are having the second confessor simply arrive thirty minutes before Mass, and continue to hear confessions until Mass until the line of penitents is finished, always remaining, however, until after Mass has begun. A typical Thursday would look like this:
| 6:30 am | Fr. Curtis hears confessions |
| 7 am | Fr. Curtis says Mass |
| 11:30 am | Fr. Franco hears confessions (continuing during Mass) |
| 12 pm | Fr. Lopez says Mass |
| 5:30 pm | Fr. Lopez hears confessions (continuing during Mass) |
| 6 pm | Fr. Franco says Mass |
The advantages of this system are severalfold:
- The celebrant will usually be afforded more opportunity to pray before his Mass.
- The priests will make fewer, though longer, trips to the confessional.
- The priests will be more at liberty occasionally to do an evening house blessing (and both of the vicars have expressed interest in doing so).
- Penitents will not experience a delay between the celebrant leaving the confessional and the relieving confessor arriving.
- Penitents confessing shortly before Mass will not feel rushed (because the priest does not need to leave in order to begin Mass on time).
- It should be easier to make sure Mass begins on time.
When I first arrived here, we had fewer weekday Masses and the number of penitents was generally much lower. I am hoping that this small adjustment will contribute to the overall sustainability of priestly ministry here at the parish. However, if unforeseen difficulties arise we may go back to the older praxis. We should be in a position to make a good evaluation after a few months.
