Cardinal Timothy Dolan

Adult converts to Catholicism regularly cite three things about Catholicism that they find attractive: the sacrament of Confession, the pope and devotion to Mary, said New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan.

“Those three things, guess what, were kind of de-emphasized” after the Second Vatican Council, Dolan said Oct. 15 during a brief meeting with English-speaking reporters at the world Synod of Bishops on the new evangelization.

In his formal talk to the synod, the cardinal had said a renewed appreciation for the sacrament of Reconciliation is essential for the Church’s new evangelization.

He told reporters that “it seemed to be a truism after the Second Vatican Council that the council did away with the sacrament of Penance, which, of course, is not true.”

Instead of renewing the sacrament as the council wanted, he said, “we just gave up and we said, ‘Well, that ain’t going over,’ so we stopped trying.”

Dolan said the sacrament of Reconciliation is actually attractive to many people, especially the young.

“They will often say that the Church seems impersonal to them, a little faceless nameless,” he said.

“Well, boy, you can’t find a more personal sacrament than Penance. I mean this is one on one.”