Don't make the Vatican sad--go to Confession :)

Vatican laments drop in confessions
Jun 2 11:41 AM US/Eastern

VATICAN CITY (AP) - A Vatican official is lamenting that many faithful no longer confess their sins, and says some confuse a psychologist's couch for a confessional booth.

Archbishop Mauro Piacenza has told Vatican Radio the sacrament of penance has been experiencing a "deep crisis" for decades. Piacenza, an official for the Vatican office on clergy, says fewer people distinguish between good and evil, and as a result don't go to confession.

The archbishop said in the interview Tuesday that if faithful don't have a sense of sin, they might "confuse" confession with "the couch of a psychologist or a psychiatrist."

He says the Vatican plans to publish this year a kind of handbook on confession to drum up enthusiasm among Catholics toward the sacrament.

Rediscover Confession Urges Pontiff

Take the Pope's advice!

Click on the title of this post to bring you to the article covering the Pope Benedict XVI's reflection on yesterday's Gospel reading.