Third Sunday of Lent
March 7, 2026 Bulletin Column Father De Celles
LENT. Our daily confessions have started out very well, as we’ve had a steady flow every day. But there’s still room for you! Please remember to come during Lent, and to come early avoiding the long lines during Holy Week—if for no other reason, out of charity to your priests.
Don’t be Afraid to Go to Confession! I know some people are afraid to go to Confession and so haven’t been in years. Some are afraid because they are embarrassed by their sins. But remember, you can confess behind the screen, so the priest won’t even know who you are (and we almost never recognize a voice).
Others are afraid because they think their sins can’t be forgiven. But remember, Jesus says: ““Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man…” As long as you are truly sorry for your sins and want to stop sinning, the priest, with the power of Jesus, will forgive you.
Some are afraid because they think the priest will be angry with them. But that’s just not true. In all my 59 years of going to Confession I’ve only had one truly unpleasant experience. Okay, priests have bad days like all of us, but even on a bad day priests won’t get upset with you. Priests love forgiving sins—the bigger the better. And just because a priest seems stern in the pulpit doesn’t mean he’s that way in the confessional. A father may sometimes be stern when he teaches his children to behave, but when an apologetic child comes to him in tears, that same father opens his arms tenderness. “A lion in the pulpit, a lamb in the confessional.”
Some think they will shock the priest by what they’ve done. As Ecclesiastes tells us: “what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.” I’ve heard over 25,000 Confessions in the last 23 years, and I have heard almost every sin imaginable—really. Nothing shocks me anymore.
And finally, some are afraid the priest will tell someone about their sin. This just doesn’t happen. In all my life I have never heard a priest reveal the sins of anyone in Confession. Priests are forbidden, under pain of automatic excommunication (that can only be lifted by the pope himself), from ever directly or indirectly revealing the particular sins of a particular penitent. This is called the “seal of Confession,” and extends even to revealing things that are not sinful that are discussed in the Confession. A lot of priests, including myself, pray and try to forget what they hear in Confession and avoid even admitting that a particular person came to Confession. (A great movie dramatizing this is Alfred Hitchcock’s “I Confess.”)
So don’t be afraid. Come to Confession! Soon!
Lenten Schedule. Make sure you take full advantage of all the special events in the parish during Lent, especially the opportunities for prayer and receiving the sacraments. I hope you have our parish Lenten Schedule posted prominently in your home. If not, there’s a link to it on the pop-up menu on our website: under “Important Announcements”…”2026 LENTEN AND HOLY WEEK SCHEDULE.”
In particular, I invite you to join me this Thursday, March 12, at 7pm in the Parish Hall as I continue my Lenten Series entitled, “The Mass Explained.”
This week my topic is: “The Rituals, Prayers and Symbols.” I hope to see you there.
OCIA and OCIC. Please keep in prayer those adults and children who are preparing to enter the Catholic Church and/or be baptized, confirmed and receive First Holy Communion at the Easter Vigil. Let us pray that they persevere in faith, and be open to all the graces God has in store for them. And may they be an example to the rest of us, reminding each of us of our own continuing need for personal conversion in the love of Christ.
IRAN. What should our reaction be to America’s attacks against the Iranian regime? Pope Leo stated last Sunday:
“I am following with deep concern what is happening in the Middle East and in Iran…. Stability and peace are not achieved through mutual threats, nor through the use of weapons, which sow destruction, suffering, and death, but only through reasonable, sincere, and responsible dialogue.
“Faced with the possibility of a tragedy of immense proportions, I make a heartfelt appeal to all the parties involved to assume the moral responsibility of halting the spiral of violence before it becomes an unbridgeable chasm. May diplomacy regain its proper role, and may the well-being of peoples, who yearn for peaceful existence founded on justice, be upheld. And let us continue to pray for peace.”
Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, issued a statement saying: “My brother bishops and I unite our voice with our Holy Father and make the heartfelt appeal to all parties involved for diplomacy to regain its proper role. We ask for a halt to the spiral of violence, and a return to multilateral diplomatic engagement…and pursue the common good over the tragedy of war.”
These statements are largely what you would expect and hope for from the Pope and Bishops: calling for an end to violence and return to negotiation. In general, I agree: we should avoid war and violence, and try to reach diplomatic agreements, as far as possible.
But if these comments are to be interpreted as a condemnation of the attacks on Iran, that would be a different thing, since in general it is not up to prelates to judge when war and violence are necessary. Moreover, and I can’t agree with the blanket statement that “Stability and peace are not achieved through…the use of weapons.” The Allied Forces’ use of weapons on the Axis Powers in World War II definitively established “stability and peace” in most of Europe for the last 81 years.
There can be no doubt that the Iran theocracy is an evil regime, and deserves to be replaced by a more benign government. And there is such a thing as a just war, and sometimes violence is the only recourse when discussion fails or is futile, or when one side ceases to dialogue in a truly “reasonable, sincere, and responsible” manner, as Iran apparently has. Sometimes to “pursue the common good” we must engage in “the tragedy of war.” And in America it is the President who knows the most about the situation, and who is made responsible by the people and by God himself to make this call, not Popes, bishops or priests.
So I join in the Holy Father’s call for prayers for peace and the people of Iran, and Archbishop Coakley’s invitation to offer “ardent prayers for peace in the Middle East, for the safety of our troops and the innocent.” I would add that we pray for President Trump, that he be granted the wisdom and courage necessary for making just decisions. Then, whether you pray for an immediate end of hostilities, or for an American/Israeli victory (whatever that may mean) I leave up to you and your conscience.
Oremus pro invicem. Fr. De Celles