Confession

[Mattjolley]

I was just discussing Confession and the friend I was chatting with said he just walked into the room and sat opposite the Priest, and the Priest blessed him and then asked him how long it had been.

He said he had no time to make the sign of the cross, and say ‘bless me father’, the only sign of the cross was the Priest’s blessing over his head. Does that suffice?

I told him it did because its the words of absolution that actually matter!

 

[PhilotheaZ]

Yes, that suffices. The “form” you are accustomed to — Sign of the Cross, “Bless, me, Father,” etc., is good but not essential. (Just like it’s best to eat a meal sitting at a table with napkin, knife and fork, but you still get “fed” eating a sandwich on the run! Sorry, it may be a bad analogy, it just popped into my head.)

The essential parts of the sacrament:

• Contrition on the part of the penitent (sorrow for sins and the intention to avoid sin in the future). The priest ordinarily asks the penitent to pray an Act of Contrition out loud, but even this is not essential to validity of the Sacrament, as long as the penitent is sorry for sins.
• Confessing sins verbally to a priest (all mortal sins must be confessed in number and kind).
• The words of absolution spoken by the priest: “I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
• Performing the penance assigned by the priest.

If these are all present, you are good to go!

 

[Br.Rich_SFO]

I was just discussing Confession and the friend I was chatting with said he just walked into the room and sat opposite the Priest, and the Priest blessed him and then asked him how long it had been.

He said he had no time to make the sign of the cross, and say ‘bless me father’, the only sign of the cross was the Priest’s blessing over his head. Does that suffice?

I told him it did because its the words of absolution that actually matter!

A priest is supposed to follow the Rite as it is in the book. Some simply don’t.