My first brush with Catholic guilt came at my first confessional. Inside a wooden box, I got down on both knees, closed my eyes, entwined my fingers in prayer and said, "Bless me Father, for I have ...

A few days ago one of my younger children, a 7-year-old daughter, celebrated her first Confession. It was beautiful. She is the ninth in the family. Along with two of her siblings, she attends our ...

IN AN INTERVIEW with a Jesuit magazine in 2013, Pope Francis declared, “The confessional is not a torture chamber, but the place in which the Lord’s mercy motivates us to do better.” This is not how ...

My Catholic first Communion was circa 1962. I was 7-years-old, but my first confession was the stepping stone, which brings back dress rehearsals and the sins of omission. We second-graders had to ...

The Roman Catholic Church urges its faithful to confess their sins to a priest at least once a year, and insists that they do so before receiving Communion if they have committed a mortal sin. In ...