Confession problem

[guiltyofdoubt]

I went to confession on Good Friday, and there were two confessionals going. So I go into one and do my confession. The Priest is from Poland with a heavy accent, and this is in the USA. However, I could understand him fully. He DID NOT give me the words of absolution. He did give me a penance and said Go in Peace.

I went to my car, and realized I had not heard that I was absolved, though I had done my penance before I left. I went online trying to find out if the confession was valid, and the info I found seemed to indicate it was not. I started panicking, because the time period for confession was about to end, and I needed to do this before Easter Vigil when I joined the Church.

I rushed back in and luckily was able to get into the other confessional with the Pries I actually prefer to be my confessor, and told him what happened, and he did say I should re-confess, and he DID give me the words of absolution and another penance.

So luckily, the “problem” ended up being minor, still I think its a very big deal that one could go to confession and not get absolved…whether by accident or whatever. I was truly repentant, and did say the Act of Contrition…both times.

 

[LilyM]

I went to confession on Good Friday, and there were two confessionals going. So I go into one and do my confession. The Priest is from Poland with a heavy accent, and this is in the USA. However, I could understand him fully. He DID NOT give me the words of absolution. He did give me a penance and said Go in Peace.

I went to my car, and realized I had not heard that I was absolved, though I had done my penance before I left. I went online trying to find out if the confession was valid, and the info I found seemed to indicate it was not. I started panicking, because the time period for confession was about to end, and I needed to do this before Easter Vigil when I joined the Church.

I rushed back in and luckily was able to get into the other confessional with the Pries I actually prefer to be my confessor, and told him what happened, and he did say I should re-confess, and he DID give me the words of absolution and another penance.

So luckily, the “problem” ended up being minor, still I think its a very big deal that one could go to confession and not get absolved…whether by accident or whatever. I was truly repentant, and did say the Act of Contrition…both times.

Perhaps he said them quietly while you were saying your Act of Contrition? Priests sometimes do, if so it ought to have been loud enough that you could hear it.

Either way, very inconvenient. But don’t judge too harshly, priests are human and can make mistakes, especially when busy and distracted and possibly having to use a language that they are not totally fluent in. I’m sure God is very merciful to those who make mistakes innocently.

 

[Blue_Rose]

Similar thing happened to me but my priest did my entire confession in Polish and I had no idea what he said. I didn’t reconfess though, I trust it was valid.