Invalid Confession? Now What?

[SeekingHisPlan]

I was out of town this weekend, and needed to go to confession, so I went at the Cathedral in the city I was visiting. A visiting priest there presided over the strangest confession I have ever experienced.

In addition to preaching what later seemed like a good quarter of his homily, nearly verbatim (this with me kneeling there, waiting to be absolved) the priest

-did not ask me to make an act of Contrition
-did not assign a penance
-absolved me thus: `Now I am going to ask God to forgive your sins" and then after a short prayer, he said, "And may God forgive your sins, in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen. God bless you and go in peace."

So, was that confession valid, and if not, what do I need to do about it? Do I have to go to confession again and repeat everything I said in the first one? Do I need to confess having received Eucharist twice since that confession?

[cappie]

The act of contrition does not determine validity, the interior disposition of true contrition is necessary though.

The penance does not relate directly to validity.

Both of these are part of the sacrament and should not be omitted, but do not affect the validity

"The form of the Sacrament of penance, wherein its force principally consists, is placed in those words of the minister "I absolve thee, etc."; to these words indeed, in accordance with the usage of Holy Church, certain prayers are laudably added, but they do not pertain to the essence of the form nor are they necessary for the administration of the sacrament" (Council of Trent, Sess. XIV, c. 3).

The words "Ego te absolvo..." are absolutely essential to the validity of the sacrament. The priest must say, "I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father…”.

In this case God would certainly restore a sincere penitent to the state of grace in spite of the priest's omission. But this would not remove the obligation of confessing a mortal sin again and receiving absolution. It would not be necessary in the case of venial sin.

I would suggest that you go to confession at your earliest convenience and tell the priest what has happened. He will guide you.

Edited May 14, 2009 by cappie