Fr. Z's Blog

From a reader…

QUAERITUR:

Long-time listener, first-time caller, as it were. I’ve followed your blog for years, and it has been a great source of knowledge and spiritual wisdom for me.

I went to confession today in a cathedral. As always, I kept it brief and succinct but this time, the priest cut me off after 30 seconds, as he was clearly on a schedule. As a result, I missed several sins out and was unable to confess them before absolution. My question is, if this is the case, does the absolution carry for all the sins I had to miss (mortal and/or venial) or should I find another priest and confess the sins I missed?

From the onset, thanks for that intro, which made me think of the late, great Rush Limbaugh and his “open line Fridays”.

You stated that “he was clearly on a schedule”.  I’ll make a guess that he had to say the upcoming Mass and time was getting short.

Sensible priests want to hear the confessions of as many penitents as reasonably possible.  Hence, perhaps he thought you were a “rambler”.   A lot of people, especially those who have not made a good examination of conscience before hand, can fall into rambling, a bit aimlessly.   A confessor ought to interrupt rambling and help the poor person out of their self-torture and get to the point, which is the point of relief, unburdening.   Another reason for rambling could be embarrassment.   It is best in the confessional just to SAY IT.

As for your situation, I don’t know if you were rambling or not.  Sometimes I think penitents aren’t aware that they are offering up all sorts of extraneous, needless information.   That examination of conscience I mentioned helps to prevent that.

Also, you can confess a LOT of sins in both kind and number in 30 seconds.  Sure, sometimes you need to explain something about circumstances, but that can be important and needed.  That said, most of the time, you don’t need to add circumstances.  Just say what sins you committed and how many times (or how often… to the best of your ability… again examination of conscience beforehand!!!).  It doesn’t have to take a long time.

Do you have to confess the things you didn’t get a change to say?

Technically, not really… all of your sins were forgiven with the absolution, not some of them.   This applies also to things you sincerely forget about and didn’t actually confess.   That said, if you remember something, sure, bring it up the next time you go to confession.  We should confess all the mortal sins of which we are aware or which we remember that are unconfessed later on.  “Father, the last time I went to confession, I forgot to confess…X”.  In your case, “Father, the last time I went to confession, the priest was pressed for time and I didn’t get to confess A, B and C, which I do now.”  Meanwhile, you sincerely intended to confess your sins and, when you received absolution all your sins were absolved, not some of them.

From a reader…

QUAERITUR:

In Confession recently, a visiting priest went off script during the absolution and concluded with “I do absolve you in the name of the Father…”

Do you think this is valid? I trust in God’s mercy but left the confessional doubting the validity. Should I let the pastor know about ? Or the vicar general for the region? I am furious to think of souls left in sin by a priest playing fast and loose with our most sacred rites! Pray for the priest to be a better one!

A couple things first.

First, good for you for going to confession.  I hope this is a regular part of your life, along with a frequent and thorough examination of conscience.

Next, the confessor was a “visiting priest”.  That means that it could be hard to bring the issue up with him directly.  If the priest is from a neighboring parish, it wouldn’t be hard to find him.  However, if he was just at your parish that weekend to preach for a mission somewhere, then there isn’t a high chance of engaging him.

To the point: If what you report he said is accurate, then, yes, the form was valid. 

The introduction of “do” would not change in any significant way the sense of the form of absolution.  As a matter of fact, the Latin absolvo can be translated as “I absolve” or “I do absolve” or “I am absolving”.

The priest should NOT use his own translation, however.

That said, priests … how many times have I typed this?… should STICK TO THE APPROVED FORM!

FATHERS!   Review occasionally the form of absolution.

Anecdote.

I was at supper with a priest and I remarked that, on my way there, I saw a bad car accident site being cleaned up.  It must have been very bad, because there was a burned out car involved.  I couldn’t see any injured person at the time so I didn’t stop, but it made me think of the form for Anointing and of the Apostolic Pardon at time of death.  I started to repeat them – in Latin – to check my memory.   That lead to the priest and I talking about the changes to the English translation of the form of absolution which took effect a while back.  Since I don’t use English at all, I wanted to double check what the change was and he launched into the form.  And he got it wrong.   Mind you, this is an excellent, diligent, 100% reliable priest I’m talking about, and he left something out, even on repetition.  He was a little horrified when I mentioned it.  Mind you, he left out some little element of the long form that would not have had any impact on the validity of the absolution.  Nevertheless, he got the form, as a whole, wrong.   This just goes to show that priests should, from time to time, refresh and keep a copy of the form in the confessional, and a copy of the form for anointing and the pardon handy when going around.

FATHERS!   This goes for celebration of Mass as well.  STICK TO THE BOOK!   That means, LOOK AT THE BOOK!  That’s why it is on the altar.