"Pretty Much a Dead Letter in Catholicism Today"

I think it is Amy Welborn who needs to ask, far too often when reading "Catholic stories" in the MSM, "don't you have any other names on your rolodex?"

The NYTimes has a terrific article on one priest's efforts to promote, and one parish's revival of the Sacrament of Confession, (and no, Mr. Freedman, that is not a less "formal" name for the practice than "Reconciliation.")

So, wonderful things are happening, the diocese has an initiative too, parishioners rightly point to the love affair our society is having at present with the secular versions of it, and who does the journalist drag out for a quote?

“Confession as we once knew it is pretty much a dead letter in Catholicism today,” * the Rev. Richard P. McBrien... wrote in an e-mail message.

Father McBrien... added in a subsequent e-mail message that “the practice at the Stamford parish is an anomaly, not a sign of anything else” and at best “part of a small minority” of churches.

How could there be a revival of the practice, asked Fr Kael, er.... I mean, Fr McBrien, nobody I know does it.

Anyway, well done Msgr. DiGiovanni.

* Some might beg to differ with McBrien.
F'rinstance, another priest, named Pope Benedict or something like that, is said to receive the sacrament weekly, and says, "We are losing the notion of sin. If people do not confess regularly, they risk slowing their spiritual rhythm."