Q: My teenager wanted to go to confession after Mass, so he went to the sacristy to ask the priest. Inside, Father was just hanging around, laughing and joking with the altar servers. When my son asked for confession, he was told to come back at the time when confessions are heard, and that he should check the schedule if he doesn’t know when that is!
Don’t we Catholics have the right to receive the sacraments from our priests? How could the priest violate my son’s rights like this? What should we do? –Francesca
A: In “When Can a Priest Refuse to Absolve a Penitent in the Confessional?” we looked at a case in which a person went into the confessional and confessed his sins, but the priest wouldn’t grant absolution. The situation described by Francesca is certainly related, but it’s not identical: in her son’s case, the priest wouldn’t even hear the confession to begin with. Can a priest do that? Continue reading