You often ask me questions on sex, as common practice does not coincide with official doctrine, and I answer you in private, with delicacy in the matter and respect for each one. Now a Jesuit friend has sent me a past issue of the London Catholic weekly, The Tablet, in which Clifford Longley (15 March 2008, p.7) writes as follows:
‘Recent Vatican declarations about a “crisis” in the practice of confession are realistic and edifying. But if the time has come for the renewal of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, the Church has to stop thinking that all is well with its doctrine on sexual morals. Many priests with whom I have discussed the decline of confession in our days sum up the cause of the crisis in two words: ‘contraception’ and ‘divorce’. They say this even though they may accept the Church’s doctrine in those issues.
Le us take three observable facts.
1. The size of the family, as it can be observed every Sunday at mass. Half a century ago it was common to see a typical Catholic family in a bench, father, mother, and four children or more. That defined Catholics as against Protestants. Now there is no such difference. The Catholic family has come down to the same levels as the Protestant family, and it would be naïve to say that this is the result of the “natural” methods of abstinence and rhythm on the part of Catholics. This is due to contraceptives.
2. The sale of contraceptives is popular and universal, and it is not limited to non Catholics.
3. Observe the number of those who go to communion at mass. Compare the queues for communion on Sunday with the queues for confession on Saturday. Those going for confession are much fewer than those going for communion.
Taking together this three data, there is no need to have a degree in sociology to know what is happening. People tell themselves that contraception is not a sin but a necessity, and as such it is no obstacle for holy communion. But they don’t want to submit this conclusion to the test of confession not to risk a negative answer.
The topic of contraceptives has undermined the trust of the faithful in the discipline of the Church in a subtle way. It is probable that some of those who go to communion every week are in irregular marriages. They have divorced and have remarried without asking for the nullity of their first marriage, but they do not resign themselves to accepting the status of semi-excommunication this implies. If they have consulted a priest, many will have told them that ‘in the private forum’ they are subjectively without sin and consequently they should not considered themselves barred from communion. Others have reached the same conclusion by themselves. In the matter of contraceptives and divorce the norm seems to be, “do not tell, do not ask”. The faithful do not mention the point, and the priests do not ask about it. Priests are beginning to apply the same norm to Catholic homosexuals for the same reasons.
This is at the heart of the sacramental life of the faithful in England and in the greatest part of Western countries. Much of what we hear in Rome about the need to renew the Sacrament of Reconciliation has much sense, as its practice is being lost. Priests and people have to be re-educated in this matter. But if the broader context of the sex issue is not tackled, it is going to remain very doubtful whether concentrating exclusively on the rite of confession as such will be enough to revive it.’
Thus far the quotation from The Tablet.
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