Pastor doesn't believe disregarding essential form of sacrament is invalid

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timeandeternity

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I went to confession today, and the priest totally gave me an invalid absolution. Nothing at all like the regular prayer, and didn’t even include anything like “I absolve you.” It was something like, “For all your sins, past, present, and future (whaaat?!), Jesus forgives you.” Thankfully I don’t think I had any mortal sins to confess (though I never can be sure, due to my scrupulosity 😛 ). I called the pastor to inform him of this, and he said it wasn’t invalid, just illicit (which I know to be untrue, after who knows how much researching and reading canon law and the catechism) and that “Ecclesia Supplet” came into play (which is also untrue–this only applies to jurisdiction, not sacramental form). To save everyone lots of time arguing about this, here’s a great article by canon lawyer Ed Peters: canonlaw.info/2007/02/we-need-to-be-careful-with-notion-of.html

First of all, I didn’t say anything when the priest gave me an invalid absolution. I thought of asking him for a valid absolution, but didn’t, even though at the time I thought a couple of the sins I had confessed could be mortal. I also didn’t correct the pastor after he gave me misinformation, even though I was almost positive he was misinterpreting things. Were these mortal sins?

Also, what should I do about this? Call the associate pastor and talk to him about this? Call the bishop? Let it go?
 
You spoke the pastor without satisfaction, but before considering going to the Bishop, it may be best to approach the associate Pastor with all the facts. Don’t speak in general terms as the associate may also have learned to be lax in choice of words, but proffer all the research. Perhaps if the associate Pastor speaks to the Pastor he might reconsider how he approaches the Sacrament. There are probably many people who would be satisfied with the priest’s wording, not knowing enough to be concerned, but language free-wheeling does result in errors like ‘absolution’ for future sins. What’s that! A get-out-of jail-free card! No, that doesn’t work!
 
Knowingly providing an illicit Sacrament certainly constitutes confessory material, and may very well fall into grave matter on Father’s part. Don’t wait too long on this, as a lot of brother and sister Catholics still carry their sin on their souls.

This is just horrible, since he knew!
 
thanks guys. I’m going to email the associate pastor right now. I happen to know him fairly well, and I think he’s pretty orthodox, so hopefully this will work.
 
I think you should contact the bishop’s office. The parochial vicar most likely can’t do anything about it.
 
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