I forgive you instead of I absolve you

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Sean

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I went to confession a couple days ago and the priest who heard it was a busting priest from Africa and his English is not great but when he absolved me he said may God forgive you instead you may God absolve you.
2 questions
  1. Was I absolved of my sins
  2. I had comitted a mortal sin and went on to receive communion 3 times after I went to confession did I commit a mortal sin each of those times
 
Not to worry! Your confession was valid. God is not hung up so much on semantics as he is on the intent of the Sacrament. Absolution is a juridical act of the Church, and thus it is not expressed as “forgiveness” although forgiveness is a major part of it.
absolution |ˌabsəˈlo͞oSHən|
noun
formal release from guilt, obligation, or punishment.
• an ecclesiastical declaration of forgiveness of sins: the priest administered absolution.
ORIGIN Middle English: via Old French from Latin absolutio(n-), from the verb absolvere (see absolve) .
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In any event, the Priest was acting in persona Christi - with the authority of Christ.
 
What rite may be a valid question. I’m assuming Latin rite
Sean said:
I went to confession a couple days ago and the priest who heard it was a busting priest from Africa and his English is not great but when he absolved me he said may God forgive you instead you may God absolve you.
2 questions
  1. Was I absolved of my sins
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My understanding is that you were not.

Fr. @edward_george1 or Fr. @InThePew can you confirm?
Sean said:
I had comitted a mortal sin and went on to receive communion 3 times after I went to confession did I commit a mortal sin each of those times
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That depends. If you believed your confession was valid and somthing since you last received Holy Communion led you to doubt you did not commit a sin. If you always suspected that it was invalid then receiving was grave matter.
 
I had a priest from Africa once that told the parish he once worried about hearing confession as his English was not the best.
But that fear went away when he realized sin is sin regardless of the native tongue of the sinner.
 
@Sean Articles for you to read:-

Form of absolution was just “I absolve you of your sins.”

When the priest confessor doesn’t use the proper Form of Absolution. “Sacraments have matter and form. The matter of the Sacrament of Penance (Reconciliation) is the telling of the sins. The form is the absolution spoken by the validly ordained priest who has faculties. If the priest does not say a valid form of absolution, then the Sacrament of Penance has not been celebrated. Some other sort of grace-filled moment might have taken place, but it won’t have been the Sacrament of Penance.”

My advice is to go to confession again, tell this priest briefly what happened, reconfess those mortal sins (and yes, past already forgiven sins are valid matter for the sacrament), any current sins. Ask this priest if those communions were sinful, during this confession.

I had a weird experience at one confession (Saturday morning), knew it wasn’t right, so went to a different parish for their afternoon scheduled Confession, explained what happened and reconfessed my sins, and all under the proper form of the sacrament, with the proper form of absolution.
 
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I should have just asked the priest to say the proper form I just did not want to come off as rude he is not the type to do this purposely he does the Latin mass I serve it with him he’s a nice guy I like to just say my sins straight forward do my act of contrition get absolved say thank you to the priest and do my penance and serve mass
 
Did your priest make you say the act of contrition and after he said “May God forgive you” did he give you a penance?

Also at my parish, it’s run by Institute of Christ the King, so the priest says the absolution in Latin, and he finishes saying “go in peace your sins are forgiven.”

I would agree with others that your confession is valid, the priest is always acting in persona Christi. Saying “May God forgive you” sounds to me that you are forgiven.

If you have any major doubts, just ask your regular confessor when you can!
 
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Yep he made me say my act of contrition told me to say 5 hail Mary’s on the feast of her immaculate heart August 22
 
Did the priest also invoke the Holy Trinity? (Sorry, should have asked this earlier)
 
Yep he said pretty much everything else correctly except forgive instead of absolve
 
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Well considering also English isn’t this priest’s first language, and given what you’ve already said. In my opinion your confession was valid.

But I would encourage you to simply ask your regular confessor at your parish when you can if you have any lingering doubts.
 
Sean said:
2 questions
  1. Was I absolved of my sins
  2. I had comitted a mortal sin and went on to receive communion 3 times after I went to confession did I commit a mortal sin each of those times
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I’ll deal with question two first since that’s the easiest - you went to confession, with full intent to confess those sins and did in fact confess them (presumably with contrition and resolve not to sin again) so you have done all that is and could be expected of you. Whether the priest did what he should have done isn’t (for the purposes of question 2 at least) really your problem.

Question one is harder - the correct formula is “I absolve you…” and, to some extent it’s semantics whether and to what extent “forgive” and “absolve” mean the same thing. That said, the Church prescribes a particular formula for a reason (just as with the words of institution at mass) and expects it to be followed precisely. To a considerable extent, this is because of the importance of the sacrament and to indicate it’s not something to be taken casually. However, just as with the act of consecration, absolution isn’t the action of the priest himself but rather of Christ working through him. Can Christ “work the work” so to speak without the need for specific words? Sure. Does he though is another question. Basically, the Church wants to avoid a sort of minimalist, “anything goes” approach when it comes to such important matters as the real presence and forgiveness of sins and so takes a very strict approach when it comes to the proper words to be used.

Tldr - are you forgiven? Going out on a theological limb (and at the risk of it being sawn off), I’d say yes. We entrust ourselves always to the Lord’s mercy. Should you “re-confess” - no, but if it’s troubling you certainly feel free to bring it up at your next confession.
 
People should stop offering their opinions. This is a important question and if your opinion is wrong, you are likely culpable for any error you lead future penitents into who may happen to be reading this
Given that this is the internet, that is a terrifying thing to consider.

Fr. @edward_george1 could you please clear up the question and importance of valid sacramental form?
 
Socrates92 said:
People should stop offering their opinions. This is a important question and if your opinion is wrong, you are likely culpable for any error you lead future penitents into who may happen to be reading this
Given that this is the internet, that is a terrifying thing to consider.

Fr. @edward_george1 could you please clear up the question and importance of valid sacramental form?
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Socrates92, perhaps you did no realise that InThePew is, in fact, a priest?
 
InThePew said:
I’ll deal with question two first since that’s the easiest - you went to confession, with full intent to confess those sins and did in fact confess them (presumably with contrition and resolve not to sin again) so you have done all that is and could be expected of you. Whether the priest did what he should have done isn’t (for the purposes of question 2 at least) really your problem.
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Thanks for clarifying this, Father. I was disturbed by some of the answers suggesting that the penitent needs to be concerned with whether his confessor is using the right words and if the penitent does have a concern then he’s not allowed to receive Holy Eucharist despite having gone in good faith to confession. Obviously if the priest does something really crazy in the confessional, like burst into a Broadway show tune instead of saying a prayer, then somebody might reasonably think they need to confess again. But half the time when I confess, the priest is saying the words of absolution in a whispered mumble behind the screen, sometimes while I am saying the act of contrition. I cannot possibly hear every word the priest says, much less police it to be sure it’s correct, as that’s above my pay grade.
 
No I was not aware of him. I also did not see his reply before posting. Thank you Fr. @InThePew for your answer.
 
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