Can you have confession if the priest doesn’t speak your language?

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Michael1994

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I’m in the military and stationed in Korea. I live in a remote area where the people do not know English. I want to attend confession while I’m here but I’m certain the priest wouldn’t be able to understand me. Is the confession valid if the priest does not even know what I am saying?
 
I’m going to go out on a limb here and say “yes,” because you’re not actually confessing to a Korean priest; you’re confessing to Jesus. I could be wrong.

D
 
It’s just that shouldn’t the priest be necessary to offer words of wisdom/ what I need to do for penance ?
 
It’s not necessary for the sacrament to be valid. I have heard confessions in several languages I didn’t speak.

-Fr ACEGC
 
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Several years ago, a priest announced that he had brought in several priests to hear confessions after Mass, and not to worry, as they were all deaf and blind . . .

🤣 🤣
 
I don’t know about the confession, but I suspect the language barrier will make it difficult for the priest to assign a penance.
 
While it is not necessary, the priest may choose to shoo you away if he does not understand your language. I have seen this happen at a shrine where there were priests who spoke various languages. Some people would get in the Spanish-speaking priest’s line though they couldn’t speak Spanish, or couldn’t speak it very well, because it was a shorter line, and the priest told them to leave.

However, in that case the priest was aware that there were other English-speaking priests available for confession. In your case, the priest might be more understanding because he would realize you don’t have another option. It’s worth a try.
 
Or the priest who said right at the end of Mass: “I want everyone to go to confession this Lent,” and then he turned to his priest brothers who had concelebrated the Mass “and you are the first ones to go!”. The people in the pew laughed as one of the concelebrating priest replied: “Do we do it as we usually do? Swop places when we have confessed?” 🤣
 
Michael1994 said:
I’m in the military and stationed in Korea. I live in a remote area where the people do not know English. I want to attend confession while I’m here but I’m certain the priest wouldn’t be able to understand me. Is the confession valid if the priest does not even know what I am saying?
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Approach your chaplain. Even if your chaplain is not Catholic (which I’m assuming he’s not since otherwise this wouldn’t be an issue), one of the military chaplain’s obligations is to facilitate access to religion even if it’s not their religion.

If you approach your chaplain and say “hey sir/ma’am, I’m catholic and I would like to sit down with a priest, anything you can do to help me out?” they may be able to arrange something. Chaplains know each other and they may be able to ask a priest to visit. May not happen immediately, but it’s worth a shot.
 
The diocese should know is there is a priest who speaks at least basic English. Most of the younger priests understand some English as several of them learnt English as a second/third etc language in school or have done some of their studies abroard.

I have been to confession where I spoke my language and the priest his and I said my sins in a third language that was common to both of us. It can be done and you might have to travel to a different parish.
 
I believe that when there is no chaplain, either the CO or XO is repsopnsible for making such arrangements.

A CO’s legal responsibility for the spiritual welfare of those in his command goes back to the first Congress . . . (and no doubt prior to the constitutional period)
 
This is false and wrong and please do not contradict what a priest has already assured us. Confession in any language to any priest is valid, and does not need to be repeated. As for showing contrition, this can be done without using words. As for assigning satisfaction, this is not strictly necessary for validity; the penitent can use his discretion.
 
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Thank you. My mother tongue is French and it took me a few years to confess in English. The first time I was faced with the situation, I asked the elderly priest if it confessing in French was OK and he said yes. I don’t believe he was bilingual as he spoke to me in English after I had finished reciting my sins.

Over the years I’ve had to get used to confessing in English, as I haven’t has access to a French parish in 23 years. But I still recite the Act of Contrition in French because that’s how I learned it when I was 4 and it feels like my words and not script reading.
 
Anesti33 said:
This is false and wrong and please do not contradict what a priest has already assured us. Confession in any language to any priest is valid, and does not need to be repeated. As for showing contrition, this can be done without using words. As for assigning satisfaction, this is not strictly necessary for validity; the penitent can use his discretion.
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Thank you for stating this. As for assigning a penance, I’d like to think the priest could simply say “Ave Maria” or “Pater Noster” — penances are normally token in nature anyway, and do not necessarily correspond to the gravity of the sins confessed.

When in Poland, I have gone to confession in Polish, a language in which I am only 40-50% fluent, and that is being generous — my verbs are horribly weak. Somehow the priest and I managed to hack through it.
 
Okay okay, I’m sorry for not being super technically correct.

I have ABSOLVED people whose language I didn’t understand.

Please forgive my extreme imprecision in answering a question for someone. I’m sure everyone is more edified because they have the fullness of the technical knowledge and terminology, instead of a simple answer to the question, which is “sure, go to Confession to a priest who doesn’t speak your language.”

This right here is why I’ve left CAF on hiatus a few times. This right here is why I won’t be sorry to see it go. The armchair quarterbacks, I don’t care how qualified they are, nitpicking everything. Sometimes a simple answer is best, sometimes pastoral sensibility dictates that we not write a dissertation in order to help someone. Being more intellectually grounded myself, it’s a tendency I’ve had to learn to dial back at times because I find that not everyone can half l handle the highly precise, highly technical answers. We mustn’t water down or contradict. We must help people where they’re at and give answers that are useful.

So now I take my bow, now I’m done. Maybe in the future I’ll labor to be more pedantic. Or maybe I’ll just go out there and be a priest, which I’ve been doing for about four and a half years anyway.
 
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kapp19 said:
If you can find some dubium on the point, or an approved author suggesting the contrary; then I would stand corrected
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“Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them” (John 20:23)
 
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