Padre Pio Prayer Group, Lancaster, PA

Padre Pio is sometimes called “the Saint of the Confessional,” because of the time he spent in the confessional helping people through the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation, more commonly called “Confession.” Padre Pio would spend up to eighteen hours a day hearing confessions and still, the line of people waiting for a turn to enter his confessional could be several weeks long.

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As the catechism states, “Sin is before all else an offense against God, a rupture of the communion with Him.” For this reason we need to confess our sins, perform our penance and, through this, be reconciled to the Church.

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Confession has always been with us. When God asked Adam “where are you?” or the murderer Cain “Where is your brother?” God already knew the answers. He was looking for them to offer a confession of what they had done. The Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation dates back to the very earliest times of the Church. Jesus, of course, could forgive sins. He gave this responsibility on earth to the apostles, and through them all priests, telling Peter that “whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” St. John emphasized the need for Confession writing that “if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”

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In the early church, those who committed grave sins were obliged to perform penance publicly, sometimes for years, before they were permitted Reconciliation with the Church. Eventually, to allow people to take the steps necessary for reconciliation without public humiliation, the Church allowed the sacrament to be addressed privately between the priest and the penitent as it is today.

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Some people believe that they only need to go to the confessional if they have grave or “mortal” sins to address. However, the confessional is also the place to address the build-up of venial sins, since they still come between man and God. As Padre Pio once said referring to the build up of venial sins, “even if a room is closed, it is necessary to dust it after a week.”

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Padre Pio’s work in the Confessional astonished many a penitent. If they could not remember how long it had been since they had been to confession, Padre Pio would accurately tell them, even if their confession was to some other priest in another part of the world decades before. If someone did not willingly confess a sin or had truly forgotten a sin that needed to be confessed, Padre Pio would remind them of what they had forgotten, giving specific dates, locations and events.

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The penance given by the priest will be commensurate with the gravity of the sins confessed and seeks the penitent’s spiritual good. It can be a prayer, an offering, service to someone, etc. Since Padre Pio had the gift of reading souls, he would choose a unique penance that would best help each individual. Sometimes he required the penitent to take a pilgrimage to the nearby Monte

Sant'Angelo, a grotto basilica dedicated to St. Michael. In one case, he required the penitent man, a person who had fought against the Church and mistreated his family, to attend the last Mass in his parish church every Sunday for a year. That may seem minor, and maybe gave the man the opportunity to sleep in on Sunday! However, at that time, the Church required fasting on Sunday until after Mass. The last Mass was in the late evening. This meant that the man had to fast every Sunday until late in the evening, not being able to partake of meals with his family, and with their probably knowing the reason for his action, adding a lesson in humility.

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We should always approach the confessional only after making a true examination of our conscience. Padre Pio was even known to throw people out of his confessional quite publicly if they approached the sacrament without making an attempt to be prepared. He could read their souls, could see that they were not taking their confession seriously, and that the only way to make them understand was to refuse them the sacrament. The shock usually drove them to a true examination of their consciences and they eventually returned to Padre Pio, or another priest, to make a true confession.

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Confession, penance and Reconciliation is a true gift from God. It offers the opportunity to be forgiven for our actions that we truly regret and be returned to God’s grace.

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At these meetings of the Padre Pio Prayer Group, the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation – which Padre Pio strived to provide daily - is always made available. It is an opportunity to relieve your soul of its burdens and to return fully to the grace of God.