Bishops call for return to confession

THREE leading bishops are urging Catholics to return to confession this Lent.

Archbishop George Stack of Cardiff, Bishop Mark Davies of Shrewsbury and Bishop Kieran Conry of Arundel and Brighton all refer to the Sacrament of Reconciliation in their current pastoral letters.

Marking the start of the season of penance, the letters echo Pope Francis’ plea last month for people to “be courageous and go to ­confession”.

Archbishop Stack said that lapsed Catholics would be welcome at confession and not judged, adding that everyone is flawed and in need of spiritual renewal.

“It might be that you were baptised Catholic but, for different reasons, no longer or rarely practise your faith. Come along. Everyone is very welcome and no one will judge you,” the archbishop writes. “No one is perfect and we all need the Sacrament of Reconciliation to strengthen and renew us.”

Bishop Davies gives an account of how he approaches the sacrament as a penitent, writing: “Confession is the moment when I have to put aside all illusions about myself and about the state of my Christian life. Confession is a ‘reality check’ when I recognise how far I still have to go in the Christian life and receive the grace to go forward.”

Meanwhile, Bishop Conry says that ­confusion over the nature of sin could be behind a “steep decline” in the numbers going to confession over recent decades, writing: “In the past there seemed to be great ­emphasis on sin as something that you ‘did’, or even thought of doing; many people ­confused sin with temptation and even now there is still confusion about what ­constitutes sin.”