Urgent Question

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holyfamily1

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This weekend, I sadly couldn’t go to my home parish and had to go to a different one. Here I went to confession and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. My question is, while at confession, at the absolution part the priest said, “may God the Father absolve you from all your sins and, I bless you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”

I confessed grave sin so, I am in dire need to know of my confession was valid.
When I went to Holy Mass I almost avoided receiving Holy Communion because I was questioning its validity.
 
“I absolve you” is required for valid form. So your confession was invalid. I don’t think that you are guilty of sacrilege, since you thought that your sin was forgiven. I’d also advise reporting that priest to the bishop, so that he can’t keep performing invalid confessions.
 
I believe you are still absolved from your sins. The formula of absolution is not meant to be some magical incantation. If repentance was genuine, and you obeyed the church in confessing to a priest, you should consider yourself forgiven. A little word here or there will not stand in the way of God imparting His grace to you. Consider how foolish it would be to think that God sees you coming to confess your serious sin sincerely, but refuses to absolve you from guilt as a result of a priest making a little semantic mistake. We don’t worship that type of God in Catholicism. If you have scruples about it, do what you feel like you need to do, though.
 
john330 said:
I believe you are still absolved from your sins. The formula of absolution is not meant to be some magical incantation. If repentance was genuine, and you obeyed the church in confessing to a priest, you should consider yourself forgiven. A little word here or there will not stand in the way of God imparting His grace to you. Consider how foolish it would be to think that God sees you coming to confess your serious sin sincerely, but refuses to absolve you from guilt as a result of a priest making a little semantic mistake. We don’t worship that type of God in Catholicism. If you have scruples about it, do what you feel like you need to do, though.
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The Church teaches dogmatically that correct form is required for sacramental validity.
 
holyfamily1 said:
This weekend, I sadly couldn’t go to my home parish and had to go to a different one. Here I went to confession and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. My question is, while at confession, at the absolution part the priest said, “may God the Father absolve you from all your sins and, I bless you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”

I confessed grave sin so, I am in dire need to know of my confession was valid.
When I went to Holy Mass I almost avoided receiving Holy Communion because I was questioning its validity.
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It wasn’t a valid sacrament due to defect of form. Since you intended to confess validly, however, you were ok to receive communion.

Confess it all again at your next opportunity !
 
FrStevenJones said:
It wasn’t a valid sacrament due to defect of form. Since you intended to confess validly, however, you were ok to receive communion.

Confess it all again at your next opportunity !
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Indeed, your sins were not held against you, but you should still mention them in the next confession and possibly mention what happened and also that you still received Communion. I am not saying it was wrong, but let the confessor know.

This recently happened to me as well.
 
Let us not forget that the priest is not forgiving you, he is there “in Christi Persona”. And yes, in the form we use in my native country the priest say “may God Him self forgive you your sins and I absolve you in the name of The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit”.

You did what you should do, you did confess and did it in good faith and I am almost sure it was a valid Confession.

And personally, I do not think you should report this priest to your diocese Bishop. It might have been just a mistake. If we are supposed to trust our priests I think it is only fair to let them trust in us. (As a friend did say, “respect the collar”.) Trust works both ways. What would you gain by reporting him? Nothing what so ever but you would hurt him and above all is reputation, which is a thing we all are right to. Human dignity is very important. That is something we should never take away from anybody.
 
Your Confession was valid. The person who said the absolution words are not a magic formula, and those who quote chapter and verse of the catachism to say that your confession was not valid are like the Pharasees in the New Testament who nit picked and insisted that every letter of Mosaic Law be observed and regaled the masses with great shows of piety.This is the very thing that Christ preached against.
What really matters is that you were truely contrite for your sins - regardless of what they were- and the Priest was sincere in giving you penance and absolution.
One question: What would you do if you had to confess in a foreign country to a priest with little or no English, and you couldn’t understand a word of the absolution? If you think that it would be invalid, then you are terribly misinformed about confession.
If a priest responds to this query, I am quite sure he would agree with me,
 
FrStevenJones said:
It wasn’t a valid sacrament due to defect of form
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. Since you intended to confess validly, however, you were ok to receive communion.

Confess it all again at your next opportunity !

Most Catholics don’t know exactly what the priest is supposed to say for the sacrament to be valid (or aren’t paying close enough attention because of their anxiety over going to confession), so they don’t realize when they are receiving an invalid sacrament and that they should confess their mortal sins again at their next opportunity.

It’s a good thing God’s grace and mercy are enough.
 
George_Stegmeir said:
Your Confession was valid. The person who said the absolution words are not a magic formula, and those who quote chapter and verse of the catachism to say that your confession was not valid are like the Pharasees in the New Testament who nit picked and insisted that every letter of Mosaic Law be observed and regaled the masses with great shows of piety.This is the very thing that Christ preached against.
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The form of the sacraments is important. Take for instance the words of consecration. “This is my body” is valid, while “this is his body” is invalid.
If a priest responds to this query, I am quite sure he would agree with me,
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A couple posts above Fr. Jones said it would be invalid.
 
The Byzantines say something similar to this.

“May the same God, who through the Prophet Nathan forgave David when he confessed his sins, who forgave Peter when he wept bitterly, the prostitute when she washed his feet with her tears, the publican, and the prodigal son, through me, a sinner, forgive you both in this life and in the next and enable you to appear before his awe-inspiring tribunal without condemnation, he who is blessed for ever and ever. Amen.”

However, if Father Jones say that it wasn’t valid, then I guess it wasn’t valid.

I would also agree with devoutchristian. Maybe you should tell the bishop, so he stops giving invalid absolutions.
 
That can’t be right! If a priest do a mistake due to any given reason when you confess a mortal sin and then think that “OK, that was that, I can receive The Communion again” and with a merry mind walk up the aisle to the Altar on Sunday Mass. That is not very mercyful in my mind. The way I see it is that who ever in good faith who confess and are given a understanding that he/she is absolved is absolved, if not in human eyes but for sure in the eyes of God.

God is love, and I don’t think He mind if someone use, again, for any reason, the wrong words. And do we know in what language this confession was done? If it was in German the form is different, as it would be in most languages. A language is a language and they tend to differ. What matters is that a) you confess, b) the priest give you or give not, a penace, c) he absolve you from your burden.
 
Thank you everyone!

Still a little confused if I am still in a state of mortal sin.
 
FrStevenJones said:
It wasn’t a valid sacrament due to defect of form. Since you intended to confess validly, however, you were ok to receive communion.

Confess it all again at your next opportunity !
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I would like Fr to answer this one…

So, what happens to those who fail to realize that their confession isn’t valid due to lack of form and so do not confess everything again? Is it a correct presumption that the person is still in a state of mortal sin? Or do these mortal sins fall under the “sins I’ve forgotten and therefore have not confessed” category? Can this affect where one spends eternity???
 
This is the kind of thing that makes my non-Catholic friends and relatives shake their heads in wonder.
 
Catholic_Wife said:
I would like Fr to answer this one…

So, what happens to those who fail to realize that their confession isn’t valid due to lack of form and so do not confess everything again? Is it a correct presumption that the person is still in a state of mortal sin? Or do these mortal sins fall under the “sins I’ve forgotten and therefore have not confessed” category? Can this affect where one spends eternity???
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It would be the same as if one forgot a sin.
 
Catholic_Wife said:
I would like Fr to answer this one…

So, what happens to those who fail to realize that their confession isn’t valid due to lack of form and so do not confess everything again? Is it a correct presumption that the person is still in a state of mortal sin? Or do these mortal sins fall under the “sins I’ve forgotten and therefore have not confessed” category? Can this affect where one spends eternity???
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If you know you didn’t receive absolution, you must confess again.

If you don’t know, then you’ve done your duty to confess, in good faith. So this would not be held against you by the Lord. He knows you don’t know!
 
George_Stegmeir said:
Your Confession was valid. The person who said the absolution words are not a magic formula, and those who quote chapter and verse of the catachism to say that your confession was not valid are like the Pharasees in the New Testament who nit picked and insisted that every letter of Mosaic Law be observed and regaled the masses with great shows of piety.This is the very thing that Christ preached against.
What really matters is that you were truely contrite for your sins - regardless of what they were- and the Priest was sincere in giving you penance and absolution.
One question: What would you do if you had to confess in a foreign country to a priest with little or no English, and you couldn’t understand a word of the absolution? If you think that it would be invalid, then you are terribly misinformed about confession.
If a priest responds to this query, I am quite sure he would agree with me,
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Actually, I take exception to that!
 
BettyBoop416 said:
This is the kind of thing that makes my non-Catholic friends and relatives shake their heads in wonder.
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Yes. This is a ridiculously legalistic conversation. And no, you are not still in a state of mortal sin. God is a God of love and mercy.

The formula of absolution was defined at Trent as a prescription for the Latin Church only. The reason they did so was to make sure that all sorts of odd things were not added into the formula. This is not dogma. Confession is, but the precise wording takes different forms in each Catholic rite. Greek Catholics use a different form. If it were dogma, then how do other rites use a different form? The point is you repented of your sins. God loves you, and doesn’t want you to stay hung up on them. Continue to live the Christ life and trust in God’s forgiveness
 
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