Commentary on our times?

A friend of mine recently returned from a ten-day business trip to Europe, during which he spent several days in Zurich, Switzerland, and Mainz, Germany. We talked about how a-religious Europe had become over the last decades, and I was dismayed to hear him say how disgustingly open the pornography had become in cities like Zurich in my ancestral homeland of Switzerland.

While in Zurich, he said, he had sought the opportunity for sacramental confession before Mass, but was told a priest was unavailable. Disappointed, he chalked the matter up to bad scheduling on his part, and moved on to his business appointments in Mainz, Germany -- only to run into the same difficulty there: no priests available for confession! Finally, he told me, he spotted a priest in the middle of a busy street, got his attention, and managed to communicate to him his story about how he had been unable for several days to find a priest to hear his confession. This priest drew him aside adjascent to a kiosk vending tournist articles and heard his confession then and there. O tempore!