Fake priest unmasked after 18 years

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Think of all the people who thought they were receiving Christ who just received bread. Think of all the penitents who sincerely confessed their sins but never received absolution.

If the diocese says the weddings he celebrated will still be considered valid, I assume the bishop will be applying radical sanation across the board?
 
No, the ministers of marriage are the two who are marrying, so the marriages will be fine. The baptisms, of course, are valid because anyone can perform baptism as long as they have the intention of accomplishing what the Church wants.
 
Yes, but validity still depends on observing canonical form… which includes the presence of a duly authorized priest or deacon. I have to assume radical sanation is what’s at play here.
 
This isn’t the first time this has happened, and probably won’t be the last. Someone did this in the U.S. years ago, acting as a “priest” at some parish, but I believe he was caught after only a few months.
 
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The interesting question that probably noone (except me) wants to ask is: Howcome he could “fake” it so well that it went unnoticed for 18 years? (And in the end it still wasn’t anything about his conduct that gave him away; it was only forged documents.)
 
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I’m trying to figure out how his forged documents went unnoticed all these years and were suddenly discovered!
 
I wonder about the confessions… Would the penitents be sinning by taking communion in their state (since they got no real absolution)? And would they have to re-confess all the sins they can remember? What a crappy situation, I wonder what drove him to do such a stupid harmful thing.
 
Validity. If a Catholic attempts marriage outside of the Church (that is, without canonical form), it is both illicit and invalid.
 
Yes, but what you describe is not what happened here. The married couples were attempting to marry in the Church, not out of the Church.
 
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