About Confession.....

[brownjt]

You got it in the end of your post. The priest is in persona Christe - in the person of Christ. Christ himself forgives your sins through the absolution of the priest - but only if all of the form and matter of the sacrament is present, whether or not the priest knows this.

For instance, to receive absolution, you must make an integral confession - that is, you must confess all of your mortal sins, and not deliberately leave some out (because you are embarrassed, usually). Note that sins you have forgotten are absolved anyway - an integral confession involves all the mortal sins you can remember at the time.

But the priest in the confessional doesn’t know (unless blessed with a special grace like Padre Pio) if your confession is integral. He grants you the form of absolution (the words “I absolve you of your sins in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit”) but no absolution obtains because the “matter” - an integral vocal confession - is invalid.

Likewise, the state of grace of the confessor is not relevant to the confession. Any validly ordained priest, with proper faculties from the local ordinary (ie. the local bishop) can grant absolution. The idea that the state of the soul of the priest enters into the sacrament is a very old, and thoroughly dismissed heresy. The relevant “state of soul” is not the priest’s, but the penitents (contrition, integral confession, intent to do satisfaction (ie the penance the priest gives)) and Christ’s. The priest’s soul doesn’t enter into the sacrament.

Do we want an a presit like that to administer the churches sacraments? Before I go and confess to the priest and before I accept the Eucharist, I expect him to have “come clean” spiritually as well. But by the grace of God, Jesus I am sure delivers the forgiveness and the reconciliation to the confessor anyway - that is power of Christ over satan.

 

[TheDoctor]

1 John 1:9 (King James Version)
9If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
So does this verse mean only to a priest and not through private prayer?

Hi Hoxbar and welcome to the Forums!

There is little I can add to the lucid information given so far, but to me one of the real graces of the sacrament is the power of knowing.

See, if I just confess to God I may think that I am forgiven for my sins, but I am not really ever sure. How do I know He heard me? How do I know I was sincere? How do I know I was honest enough? How do I know what He wants me to do? How do I know what advice He can give me to keep me from sinning in the future? How do I really really know He forgives me?

I know all of these things for certain when I leave the confessional.

 

[mercygate]

Do we want an a presit like that to administer the churches sacraments? Before I go and confess to the priest and before I accept the Eucharist, I expect him to have “come clean” spiritually as well. But by the grace of God, Jesus I am sure delivers the forgiveness and the reconciliation to the confessor anyway - that is power of Christ over satan.

Detail of language here: The person who offers his confession is the “penitent.” The person who HEARS the confession is the “confessor.” (Don’t ask me why.) This is not to be confused with the title “confessor” given to certain Saints, like Edward the Confessor, for whom the title means “person who proclaimed the faith.”

It is a violation of canon law for a priest to celebrate Mass with grave sin on his conscience. Priests go to confession just like everybody else.

That said, if we waited for a sinless person to come around and hear our confession, we would die before we could come to the sacrament. My confessor, when I was an Episcopalian, used the form that included the priest’s invitation: "Now, in the presence of Christ, and of me, his minister, an unworthy sinner, confess your sins with a humble and obedient heart to Almighty God . . .

One frequently hears people objecting to the idea of confessing to someone “more sinful than I am.” But what kind of an attitude is that? We are not there to judge the priest; we come to receive the mercy of Jesus Christ.

I have heard of priests who have turned from their sins because a penitent has humbly confessed to them the very sins that they, themselves have committed. It must be humbling.

 

[LilyM]

It is a violation of canon law for a priest to celebrate Mass with grave sin on his conscience. Priests go to confession just like everybody else.

They do go to confession, where it is possible.

But under canon 916 (or 917? I forget and have no time to look it up) it is NOT a violation for a priest to celebrate Mass if he is in a state of mortal sin but has no opportunity to confess beforehand, as long as he makes an Act of Perfect Contrition and resolves to confess as soon as possible afterwards.

 

[mercygate]

They do go to confession, where it is possible.

But under canon 916 (or 917? I forget and have no time to look it up) it is NOT a violation for a priest to celebrate Mass if he is in a state of mortal sin but has no opportunity to confess beforehand, as long as he makes an Act of Perfect Contrition and resolves to confess as soon as possible afterwards.

Right. I know the canon – but the point is that it IS a mortal sin for a priest to celebrate Mass with grave sin on his conscience when he DOES have the opportunity for confession. Let’s hope there are not many priests with grave sins to confess (and I’ll bet there are NOT all that many).