During the Christmas Mass, the priest addressed the faithful and said, “Think of each sin of yours” and then he absolved everybody. But what does it mean?

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Good evening, Father. First, Merry Christmas.

Now I ask you this question.

During the Mass, the priest addressed the faithful and said, “Think of each sin of yours” and then he absolved everybody. But what does it mean?

Is individual confession not required?

A friend of mine says that it is valid because initially it was so done. Then, does it have the same validity nowadays?

Thank you.

The Priest’s answer

Dear,

1. Collective absolution of sins is valid and lawful only in danger of death and on the condition that the grave or mortal sins are then confessed in an individual confession.

2. The case you mentioned presents an abuse by the priest, so the absolution he gave is invalid, and illicit as well.

Objectively, that deed constitutes a grave sin.

3. In fact, individual confession is the only ordinary form to remit sins.

This is because the sacrament of penance or confession has a double purpose: medicinal and judicial.

The priest in fact must know what he absolves, he must know which evils affect the penitent in order to give the appropriate medicine.

4. It may happen that the priest cannot absolve.

In instituting the sacrament, Jesus did not say to forgive sins to everyone without distinction, but he pronounced these precise words: “Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained” (Jh 20:23).

That means the priest must express an evaluation to help the penitent. That is his precise and grave duty.

5. In the mentioned case, there could have been some, among the present ones, with no disposition to repent of their own sins or no intention to change their lives.

6. If he simply said to think about their sins, did he give each one the individual opportunity to think and repent of their sins?

7. We should also remember that the power to absolve sins is not automatic for a priest, but requires jurisdiction, that is, the authorization to absolve sins.

Such authorization can be tied to his position, for example being for the parish priest, or because it is granted upon request as in my case, for example, because I am a priest but I do not lead a parish.

The authorization can be removed, as in case of suspension a divinis, or in any case it can have limits.

In our case, the limit is about extraordinary cases, for example when a multitude is in danger of life.

Except in such cases, the priest is not authorized to give a collective absolution and, for this very reason, it is not just illicit but invalid.

What the priest did is grave by itself and he would also have the duty to repair the harm caused to those faithful.

8. He could not do so even during the coronavirus time.

On March 20, 2020, in the most crucial period of the coronavirus pandemic, Msgr. Krzysztof Nykiel, regent of the Apostolic Penitentiary, when asked: [tr.] “In this emergency, can a telephone or email be considered as a suitable instrument for confession in exceptional cases? Can one confess, in some cases, without the mediation of the priest, internally and directly with the Lord?”, so he replied: [tr.]  “Sacramental Confession cannot take place by telephone or email or with other means of communication, for reasons related to the protection of the sacramental seal and above all, the physical presence of the penitent is required.

By such means of communication, however, the priest can possibly provide useful spiritual advice to the faithful, console or reassure of hope, but not impart sacramental absolution.

As for the possibility of confessing internally, without the intervention of a priest, the Church has always reiterated that ‘The individual and integral confession of sins with individual absolution constitutes the only ordinary way in which the faithful who are conscious of serious sin are reconciled with God and with the church.’  (Reconciliatio et paenitentia, 33).

In moments of specific gravity, when there is absolutely no condition for approaching the sacrament of Penance in the usual form of personal confession, the Church itself provides for the possibility of receiving the Lord’s forgiveness in the form of the so-called votum sacramenti, that is, by expressing the sincere desire to receive the sacrament of Reconciliation and proposing to celebrate it later, as soon as possible.

It is always up to the diocesan bishop to determine if the situation prevents receiving sacramental absolution in the ordinary form, and individual confession in that time of emergency could be replaced by an act of perfect contrition, possibly expressed with a prayer formula (I confess to Almighty God. Act of sorrow…), or by words which the penitent can express in that moment, and performing, when possible, a penitential gesture (fasting, prayer vigil or almsgiving), until the future celebration of the sacrament in the usual form” (cf.https://www.vaticannews.va/it/vaticano/news/2020-03/confessione-riconciliazione-coronavirus-24-ore-signore.html).

9. As we can see, collective absolution was neither provided for this case.

Instead, he might have raised a feeling of sincere repentance for sins with the intention of confessing them as soon as possible.

In this case, reached by the grace of God, they could take Holy Communion.

I wish you every good and I bless you.

Father Angelo