**Many parishes introduced group Confession as a substitute for individual Congession. By the time the Bishops layed down the law on that, Catholics had abandoned individual Confession. Now, my Pastor complains that he is lonely on Monday nights.**
I don’t think a Sunday goes by that our priest does not mention forgiveness, penance, confession, the times we have failed to love God and love our neighbor.
Needless to say — our pastor is not lonely during the confessions before Mass or after Mass on Wednesday evening. (He had to add time for Confessions!)
I pray that your parish may do the same kind of turnaround. In fact for the Lenten Reconciliation Service — our Church was absolutely packed.
The seven priests who came to help with Confessions had their jaws hit the floor when they saw the multitude.
Submit a petition to your parish office for the prayers of the faithful. If you go to daily Mass, don’t hesitate to pray for an increase in Confessions or that all parishioners may receive the Eucharist worthily. (I have done both!)
I did not mean that my current church practiced group confession and group forgiveness, but I once belonged to a parish in another state that did.
However, my current parish does have a group reconciliation at Easter with individual confessions afterwards. That is packed, but many parishioners leave it right there.
I think that many Catholics miss the anonymity of the old time Confessional. We don’t even have one at our parish, and you always know your confessor — there’s no chance of confessing to a stranger any more, with the shortage of priests that we currently have.