Encourage Individual Confession, Pope Urges Reminds Prelates of Norms for General Absolution

VATICAN CITY, NOV. 7, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI is asking priests to rigorously observe the Church's norms on the sacrament of penance, in particular, those affecting general absolution. The Pope said this today when addressing the bishops of Switzerland, who are in Rome concluding their five-yearly visit, which began in February 2005 and was interrupted when Pope John Paul II's health deteriorated in his last days. Referring to "the crisis the sacrament of reconciliation is going through" in Switzerland, the Holy Father urged the prelates "to relaunch in your dioceses a penitential pastoral program which encourages individual confession." "Ask your priests to be assiduous confessors," the Pontiff advised, "generously offering the faithful appropriate times for personal confession; encourage them, themselves, to approach this sacrament frequently." Benedict XVI said: "Exhort the faithful to frequent the sacrament of penance regularly, which enables one to discover the gift of God's mercy and pushes one to be merciful as he is toward others." Confession "helps us to form our conscience, to fight against our evil inclinations, to allow ourselves to be healed by Christ, to progress in the life of the Spirit," the Holy Father said quoting the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The Pope invited priests "to observe rigorously the Church's norms concerning collective absolution ... which calls for truly exceptional situations for one to be able to take recourse to this extraordinary form of the sacrament of penance." The Bishop of Rome added that the conditions for granting general absolution and the concept of "grave necessity" are clarified in John Paul II's 2002 letter "Misericordia Dei."