Question

Dear Father Angelo,

My parish priest “absolved” me, after my confession of sins, saying no word but only drawing a sign of the cross in the air. When I asked him why he didn’t say any words he replied that he said them inside him. And he asked me: do you think a priest who loses the use of the word can no longer celebrate Mass? And he argued that it is possible.

According to what I have always known, that is impossible and the confession was invalid, so I repeated the confession with another presbyter.

I’m sure he didn’t even whisper the words of the absolution because I was standing in front of him.

I ask you for an authoritative opinion about the matter and perhaps, possibly, explicit references from the teaching of the Church in this regard.

Thanks,

God bless you.

Answer

Dear friend,

1. The sacraments are signs that Jesus Christ uses to communicate to us His divine life, His grace.

Of course, the Lord is not tied to those signs and He can give us His grace whenever He wants and how He wants.

But ordinarily He makes use of those signs which He himself instituted.

2. The sacraments are a composition of material elements or gestures and words.

Jesus Himself used precise words to forgive sins.

With the paralytic He did not settle for raising His hand and blessing him, but He said to him: “Your sins are forgiven” (Lk 5:20).

Likewise, He said to the sinner: “Your sins are forgiven” (Lk 7:48).

3. That priest raised his hand over you and blessed you. But was that an absolution or a blessing?

The signs must be determined in their meaning by the words.

4. In this regard, St. Augustine commenting about the words of Jesus “You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you” (Jn 15: 3), observes: “Why does He not say You are clean through the baptism wherewith you have been washed, but through the word which I have spoken unto you, save only that in the water also it is the word that cleanses? Take away the word, and the water is neither more nor less than water. The word is added to the element, and there results the Sacrament (accedit verbum ad elementum et fit sacramentum), as if itself also a kind of visible word” (Tract. 80, Joan 3).

5. That priest left out the words that are ad validitatem for the sacrament and, in their place, he drew a sign of the cross that is required by the rite, but not ad validitatem.

The absolution would have been effective even without drawing the sign of the cross.

6. Regarding the priest who is unable to speak, it must be said that if he does not pronounce the required words he does not consecrate.

To say that the consecration has taken place, it is not sufficient to place himself in front of the bread and wine and internally express the intention.

The words are required, even if they cannot be heard due to an injury to the vocal cords.

That uttering the words – even if it is not heard – is enough for a sacrament to be valid.

7. The sound of the words is important, but it is not ad validitatem.

St. Thomas writes: ‘As Augustine says (Tract. IXXX super Joan.), the word operates in the sacraments “not because it is spoken”, i.e. not by the outward sound of the voice, “but because it is believed” in accordance with the sense of the words which is held by faith. And this sense is indeed the same for all, though the same words as to their sound are not used by all. Consequently, no matter in what language this sense is expressed, the sacrament is complete’ (Summa Theologiae, III, 60, 7, reply 1)

8. St. Thomas further says: ‘If he who corrupts the pronunciation of the sacramental words—does so on purpose, he does not seem to intend to do what the Church intends: and thus, the sacrament seems to be defective’ (Ib., reply 3).

But here in your case the words weren’t even spoken.

9. The formula prescribed by the Rite of Penance is as follows: “God, the Father of mercies, through the death and the resurrection of his Son, has reconciled the world to himself, and sent the Holy Spirit among us for the forgiveness of sins; through the ministry of the Church may God give you pardon and peace, and I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen”.

The essential words ad validitatem are the following: “I absolve you”, and probably also “from your sins” (cf. Trent, sess. 14,3).

10. Therefore that priest intended to dismiss you, but in fact he did not absolve you.

To absolve you he should have uttered those words that have divine power in them.

So, sorry to say, that priest prevented the sacrament from communicating grace and committed a sacrilege.

I wish you every good and I bless you.

Father Angelo

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