Pornography is an epidemic. Social science data and the experiences of priests counseling parishioners reveal the ubiquity of pornography in our society. The accessibility, affordability, and anonymity of Internet pornography has exposed … [Read more...]
Helping Penitents Overcome Pornography Use Within the Sacrament of the Penance
August 23, 2024 by Fr. Justin A. Freeman
The Sacrament of Reconciliation, the Needed Sacrament
May 7, 2021 by Deacon James Stagg
Do you often look out over your congregation assembled for Mass, and wonder where and when the majority go to Confession? Do you, bishop . . . priest . . . deacon . . . inform your parishioners regularly that they have an obligation to … [Read more...]
Questions Answered – May 2021
May 7, 2021 by Fr. Brian Mullady, OP
Question: Why do priests hear confessions during Mass? Doesn’t this detract from the spiritual involvement in all the aspects of the sacrifice? Answer: The questioner seems very upset that two sacraments are going on at the same time and … [Read more...]
Questions Answered – November 2020
November 13, 2020 by Fr. Brian Mullady, OP
A Scrupulous Conscience Question: I suffer from OCD and scrupulosity. What is the best thing to do about confession? I keep making General Confessions and I still have many doubts. It is ruining my spiritual life. My confessor said never … [Read more...]
Today’s Disbelief in the Existence of Personified Evil
The World, the Flesh, and the Devil
August 28, 2020 by John Boyle
In my vocation as a coach, I have regular contact with youth and young adults, and they often confide their troubles to me. I have met many who have struggled with temptation, fallen into sin, and become enslaved by sinful habits. Their … [Read more...]
The Confessional Prudence of St. Alphonsus Liguori, Doctor and Patron of Confessors
March 20, 2020 by Fr. Sean O'Brien
During my priestly training, I had the privilege of studying moral theology at a university governed by the sons of St. Alphonsus, and in this environment, I grew to know and to love this saint, a doctor of the Church and patron of … [Read more...]
The Heart of a Priest
St. John Vianney
January 26, 2020 by Fr. Frederick L. Miller, STD
Father Patrice Chocholski is the successor of St. John Vianney as the pastor of the Parish of St. Sixtus in Ars, France. In July of 2018, Fr. Patrice brought the relic of the heart of St. John Vianney to the United States on a pilgrimage … [Read more...]
A Sweet Remedy for Our Troubled Times
The Practice of Confession According to St. Francis De Sales
July 26, 2019 by Br. John Paul Puschautz, CSJ
In these tumultuous times in the world and in the Church, we need more than ever to plunge into the mystery of God’s infinite mercy in the Sacrament of Reconciliation and to be inspired by the witness of the saints. What better place to s … [Read more...]
Our Lady of Good Help, the New Evangelization, and the Priest
June 30, 2019 by Fr. Frederick L. Miller, STD
Allow me to begin by making two confessions: I arrived at the Monastery of the Holy Name of Jesus in Denmark, Wisconsin, on Friday afternoon. I am an old friend of the nuns and try to visit them at least once a year. Two of the nuns, … [Read more...]
Saint John Bosco
Spiritual Father and Friend of Penitents
June 18, 2019 by Fr. Charles H. Lana
In the two-thousand year history of the Catholic Church, there have been many priests who have distinguished themselves as renowned confessors. These priests are important models for confessors today to be effective ministers of mercy. This … [Read more...]
A God with Skin
Recapturing the Incarnational Nature of the Sacraments
January 1, 2019 by Mark C. McCann
And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth. (Jn 1:14) Since her beginning, the Catholic Church has been an incarnational institution, a B … [Read more...]
The Necessity of Confession and Its Seal
November 30, 2018 by Fr. John M. McDermott, SJ
Any Catholic reading the report of Australia’s Royal Commission of Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse must be appalled by the multiple instances of child abuse in ecclesial institutions perpetrated by priests, religious, and l … [Read more...]
Renewal and the Penitential Life
October 2, 2018 by Monsignor Jeffrey A. Ingham
Wherever we may look for solutions to the present tension and confusion, we must realize that the solution will begin with the Eucharist, return to the Eucharist, and be formed by the Eucharist. Whatever secular processes may be deemed … [Read more...]
My Side of the Confessional
A Scrupulous Penitent’s Plea to Confessors
December 12, 2017 by Monica Lyons Montanaro
For months, I had been mustering the courage to go to confession. I had faced the terror of Hell to marshal my sins. I had waited in the empty church for half an hour, palms in a cold sweat, rehearsing my lines. It had been three months and … [Read more...]
Encountering Christ’s Love in the Sacraments
September 27, 2017 by Douglas G. Bushman, STL
In every way, the sacraments are about God’s love, fully revealed in Jesus Christ. In them, Jesus makes Himself present as the one who loves us “to the end” (Jn 13:1). In each Sacrament, He says: “I love you; I have given my life for you (Jn … [Read more...]
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