Chai Brady
A Dublin priest who has been offering ‘carpark Confessions’ has said there has been a great response with dozens of people coming to receive the Sacrament.
Fr Pat McKinley of Springfield/Brookfield/Jobstown parish, who is the Vicar Forane over Tallaght Deanery, has been offering Confessions in the car park of St Mark’s church with another priest to help people access the Sacrament during the coronavirus pandemic.
Speaking to The Irish Catholic, Fr McKinley said: “The primary reason was to try to be visible: we weren’t expecting to get the response we got. The churches were largely closed, we wanted to try and create a sense that on one level the physical church might be closed but the Church isn’t closed and we’re still here and we’re available.
“We thought offering Confessions in the carpark would be a good way of doing that,” he said.
According to Fr McKinley, “the other element of it was that people want the Sacraments, they’re the lifeblood of the Church, normally so many people would go to Confession around Easter time, there were no Confessions available around Easter time because we were all trying to get our heads around how do we do this.
Safe distance
“We thought there was no reason why we couldn’t hear Confessions at a safe distance in a public place in the carpark and offer the Sacrament there and just see what the response would be.”
The carpark Confessions have been very successful so far, with dozens of people going. Both priests were kept busy for the whole time according to Fr McKinley.
“At least two people came to each of us last Friday who hadn’t been to Confession for years,” he said.
“One young woman said to me, ‘I haven’t been to Confession since I made my Communion’, she said she felt pushed across the yard to us, call that what you will, I call it Grace. She had stuff that was really weighing her down.”