Dear Father,

I was going through your web-site and again felt the need to contact you with regard to your homily on confession and in particular the statement at the end:"Carl Jung speculated that the confession of sins accomplishes much of what psychiatry does."

The reason that this struck such a chord is because of my experience which I would like to share.

I am a member of a family of eight and our father died in 1987 when we were all very young.My mother consequently scrimped and scraped on her own until we were all adults and just when her life was becoming a little easier, she was struck down with breast and bone cancer. I nursed my mum for the last year of her life and after her death felt as though my life too had ended.

My doctor subsequently sent me to a counsellor who was more interested in exploring my psyche that helping my feelings of desolation and so I turned to my Priest.

The feeling of relief, caring and understanding that I received in the confessional was incomparable. My confessor taught me to accept that my parents would be happy together after purification and that we had been parted for just a while. He also reconciled me with my feelings towards my brothers and sisters by whom, during my mum's illness, I felt abandoned.

I would therefore like to make 2 points in this message. Anyone who feels alone or unhappy, I urge to return to the sacrament of reconciliation. It is a truly wonderful and life altering experience to give a good confession. Secondly, I have read at read at great length various pieces on birth control and over population on this site,and may I add that if I had a mother and father who had practised chemical birth control, I would not be part of a close, well balanced ever expanding family who are a never ending support to one another, especially when both parents are taken so young. I have to say that I come from a poor industrial area on the West coast of Scotland and that my parents did not have a lot of money. What we did have however was love.

I think therefore, that what my parents achieved is a fine advertisement for the Catholic way of life, don't you?

Best Regards,

Lesley-Anne.

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