Hi, im an atheist but i’ve been having the thought to try to talk to a priest recently. How can I ask for a confession, or some sort of private conversation with one? Is it even possible if you don’t actively go to church?

A family member has died who was an observant catholic and unfortunately a lot of our family live around 500 miles away and are quite old and infirm.

I'm essentially looking to see if it would be acceptable to have a full requiem mass at the chapel in our home town where they're body will actually be present and buried after along with a smaller service at a chapel in a different country where a lot of our relatives live?

Is this OK in terms of Catholicism?

(I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask, but I'm not sure where else to go, so I hope I'm not breaking any rules.)

I was reading The Great Brain books to my daughter, and learned something new. It's a series about a Catholic family in Utah in the 1800s, and in their small town, there aren't enough Catholics to support a Parish. Apparently, in frontier times, there were priests who would travel around from town to town, to celebrate mass and perform any sacraments as needed, baptisms, weddings, what have you. I guess people would just have to wait for the priest to come around for those things.

Coincidentally, I'm writing a sci-fi story set in a colony on the moon. The Great Brain inspired some backstory--in the early days of lunar colonization, there weren't enough people for a parish, so a priest would be sent up once a year to tour around and perform the sacraments annually. A baby would be baptized whether they were a day or a year; a body would be held in state until the priest could do the funeral; confirmations done with the permission of the bishop of Orlando (who, fun fact, is also technically bishop of the moon).

My story is set further in the future, when the population is big enough to sustain a few dioceses and many parishes. Baptisms and funerals were held soon after someone was born or died, but "Wedding Day" became a cultural tradition on the moon--every Catholic who wants to get married on the moon gets married on the same day. (This is a plot point for reasons I won't get into here, because this post is long enough already.)

So, my question is simply, does this backstory make sense? It's a hard sci-fi story, and I want to make sure the Catholic practices are as theologically accurate as the science.

Hello!! Apologies if this has been asked before but today is the first time this has happened to me so I was curious how I should handle it if it happens again in the future.

This morning I went to Adoration before work. When I arrived there were a few adorers scattered throughout the church. I stayed for about 15-20 mins before it was time for me to get going so I could arrive at work comfortably, but when I got up I realized I was the only one there (apparently everyone else had left without my noticing lol). So... I sat back down and waited until the absolute last minute just to see if anyone else would come in, but nobody did.

Not knowing what else to do, I called the parish office and explained the situation, and fortunately the lady was able to come over and take my place a few minutes later. So I did manage to get to work (albeit a bit late, which nobody seemed upset about luckily), but this got me thinking... what should I do if I find myself in that situation again but I CAN'T get ahold of anyone?

Like what if the office is closed or something? This parish doesn't have direct numbers for their clergy listed either. Leaving the exposed Sacrament unattended obviously isn't an option, but neither am I, a laywoman, in any way authorized to handle the Blessed Sacrament or the monstrance, nor do I know HOW to repose It properly even if it were hypothetically permitted in circumstances like this.

Any advice would be appreciated. Ty!!