‘The Confessional Is a Place of Victory’

BY JOSEPH PRONECHEN, NATIONAL CATHOLIC REGISTER

Father Mike Schmitz is the director of youth and young adult ministry for the Diocese of Duluth, Minn., the chaplain for Newman Catholic campus ministry at the University of Minnesota at Duluth and a popular speaker. As the chaplain, he makes the sacrament of reconciliation available every day and has written about this sacrament from his priestly perspective.

Why do you think people are afraid of the confessional or neglect it today?

First, it means admitting to someone that you’ve messed up. We live in a world afraid of showing weakness, a world where we’re afraid admitting we failed. Living in such a culture makes it hard and scary, admitting my performance didn’t measure up.

We have a tendency to really doubt our worth. But I have to admit my worth isn’t dependent upon my performance.

Then there’s a lot of suspicion and these fears — will the priest get mad at me or think poorly of me later on?

This is not about making you feel as bad as you can feel, but it’s about helping you be healed as much as you can be healed. The priest is there showing how. The Catechism shows the priest is the servant of the sacrament and meant to be a minister of healing.

Once people get that, then confession takes on a whole new dimension.

What do you say about those who think, “I don’t have to go to confession because I haven’t done anything really bad”?

There’s a misunderstanding of what sin is and who God is. Sin is a certain kind of decision, but most have a second grade understanding of that, like “Did you pull your sister’s hair?” Then the teenager thinks, “Hitler was bad, and I’m not as bad as that.”

When it comes to relationship, you can describe sin as this: You’re saying to God, “God, I know what you want me to do, but I don’t care: I want to do what I want to do.” There’s a certain sense of rebellion. It’s saying, “I will not serve — I have other things I want to do.”

Even if I put the word “rebellion” to that, people say, “No, I just don’t care.” The problem becomes not only you don’t know what sin is, but you don’t understand who God is. God is not just “some people” or “other people.” He’s not just some guy who I can or cannot obey.

If people understand that, they have a more mature understanding of what sin is.

Do most Catholics have this understanding?

Most Catholics in our culture have about a second grade level of their faith. I mean that not as an insult — that’s a description. Ask them: “What are the Ten Commandments?” The vast majority can’t name the Ten Commandments.

So the examination of conscience is still a second-grade exam — “Did I pull my sister’s hair or disobey my parents?” It should be: “How am I treating my co-workers? Do I tell white lies on daily basis? Have I harbored grudges or forgiven people? How do I treat my wife?”

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