There's obviously a disconnect here...we're now into the culmination of the penitential season of Lent, racing towards the Triduum...and how many parishes have confession scheduled for this week?

The disconnect (isn't it always down to the paperwork?) seems to be the misguided notion that the Missale Romanum forbids heading confessions during this week.

Some priests, "liturgical experts", and even diocesan liturgy offices wrongly claim the rubrics of the Missal or “Sacramentary” forbid the sacrament of Penance.

However, this claim is incorrect.

Here is what the texts really say.

The previous 1970 and 1975 editions of the Missale Romanum said of Good Friday and Holy Saturday (BTW… the language of this rubric goes back to Pope Innocent III):

Hac et sequenti die, Ecclesia, ex antiquissima traditione, sacramenta penitus non celebrat…

On this and the following day, the Church, from a most ancient tradition, does not at all celebrate the sacraments.

However, since this is in the Missal (the book for the MASS), sacramenta above refers only to Holy Mass and not the other sacraments.

The Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments (CDWDS) clarified this in its official publication Notitiae (1977 – no. 137 (Dec) p. 602.

In the 2002 edition of the Missale Romanum at paragraph 1 for Good Friday all doubt is removed:

Hac et sequenti die, Ecclesia, ex antiquissima traditione, sacramenta, praeter Paenitentiae et Infirmorum Unctionis, penitus non celebrat…

On this and the following day, the Church, from a most ancient tradition, does not at all celebrate the sacraments, except for (the sacraments of) Penance and Anointing of the Sick.

Who can forget the image of the late Pope hearing confession in St. Peter’s Basilica on Good Friday?

So, while it is acknowledged that your local priest may be a bit stretched thin at this time, it's the lack of 'hands on deck' that may be driving this, rather than a prohibition of the sacrament during Holy Week and the Triduum.

As a point of interest, the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in DC has EXTENDED confessions Friday and Saturday from 10AM to 4PM!

From Fr. Z:
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Jesus Christ, God and Savior, gave us the Sacrament of Penance, of Reconciliation.

This is the ordinary means by which He desires us to seek forgiveness for our actual, post-baptismal sins.

There is no sin that any limited little mortal can commit which is so bad that God cannot forgive it.

Christ gave His own power to forgive sins to the Church He established, the Catholic Church.

Priests exercise this ministry in the Church, acting by virtue of their ordination, as "another Christ" (alter Christus).

When you confess your sins to a priest and he gives you absolution, you sins are taken away… not merely covered over or set aside. They are no more. You may remember them in sorrow, but they no longer harm your relationship with God.

Mortal sins break your saving friendship with God. Mortal sin places you at risk of eternal separation from God and the happiness of heaven….forever.

Confession and absolution repairs that rupture and returns you to a state of friendship with God.

Awareness of mortal sin should drive you to a confessional.

In our weakness we will sometimes put off going to confession. Perhaps fear or embarrassment keeps us away. Time slips by. Days become weeks become months become years.

Then you die and go to your judgment.

So … maybe the priest is not friendly or the confession schedule is a little narrow…. so what? A better confessor is some distance away… so? It is a little hard… not convenient… too much to do…. And?

What is a moment of embarrassment, what is an interruption of your oh-so-important routine compared to the eternity of heaven or of hell?

You do not know the moment when your reckoning will come, friends.

Have you fallen into the trap, willingly or innocently, of going to "general absolution" without making a confession of your sins in the proper way?

The Sacrament of Penance heals your soul, strengthens you against sin, and – simply on the basic level of peace of mind – works wonders.