Editing Absolution (section)

===Latin Church===
[[File:When was your last confession.jpg|thumb|Traditional [[confessional]] from [[Sicily]].]]

Absolution is an integral part of the [[Sacrament of Penance (Catholic Church)|Sacrament of Penance]], in all Catholicism.<ref name="Catholic"/> To [[Validity and liceity (Catholic Church)|validly]] receive absolution, the penitent must make a sincere sacramental confession of all known [[mortal sin]]s not yet confessed to a [[priest]] and pray an [[act of contrition]] (a genre of prayers) which expresses both motives for sorrow and the resolve to not sin again. The priest then assigns a [[penance]] and imparts absolution in the name of the [[Trinity]], on behalf of [[Jesus Christ]], using a fixed sacramental formula.{{Citation needed|date=January 2023}}

The formula of absolution used in the Pauline Missal, the Ordinary Form of the [[Roman Rite]], is as follows:

{{Blockquote|God, the Father of mercies, through the death and 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.}}

During a Spring 2021 meeting, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops made some adjustments to the text to make it a more accurate translation of the original Latin. After the USCCB changes they were approved by the Vatican's Dicastery (then-Congregation) for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments in April 2022. The changes took effect on Ash Wednesday 2023 (February 22) and became mandatory on Divine Mercy Sunday 2023 (April 16).<ref name="Christian">{{cite news |last=Christian |first=Gina |date=2023-02-04 |title=New Translation Tweaks To Sacrament Of PEnance Take Effect This Lent |url=https://www.osvnews.com/2023/02/04/translation-tweaks-penance-take-effect-lent/ |work=OSV News |access-date=2023-02-14|ref=none}}</ref> The new text is follows:

{{Blockquote|God, the Father of mercies, through the death and resurrection of his Son has reconciled the world to himself and poured out the Holy Spirit for the forgiveness of sins; through the ministry of the Church may God grant 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.<ref name="Christian">{{cite news |last=Christian |first=Gina |date=2023-02-04 |title=New Translation Tweaks To Sacrament Of PEnance Take Effect This Lent |url=https://www.osvnews.com/2023/02/04/translation-tweaks-penance-take-effect-lent/ |work=OSV News |access-date=2023-02-14|ref=none}}</ref>}}

There is a separate form used for the lifting of [[excommunication]]s and [[interdict]]s in the Pauline Missal; in the older form, the lifting of excommunications and interdicts is part of the same formula as that of the absolution. The older form approved for the [[Roman Ritual]] after the Council of Trent, the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, is as follows:

{{Blockquote|May our Lord Jesus Christ absolve you; and I, by His authority, absolve you from every bond of [[Excommunication in the Catholic Church|excommunication]] ([[Suspension (Catholic canonical penalty)|suspension]]) and [[interdict]], in as much as I am able and you require. Thereupon, I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son, ♱ and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.}}

Both forms start with a deprecative absolution in the third person subjunctive, and then conclude with a first person indicative declarative absolution. This highlights the priest's God given authority as father, physician, teacher, and especially as judge with the power to bind and loosen.

The older prays that Christ absolve, then the priest absolves by Christ's authority and in the name of the three persons of the Holy [[Trinity]]. The newer prayer implies that "God the Father" or Trinity absolves when the priest prays that God might give pardon and peace, without using the word absolve, through the ministry of the Church.

====Ancillary Formulas====

This formula is preceded by two short prayers similar to those used at Extraordinary Form of the Mass after the [[Confiteor]].  First the priest prays, "May almighty God have mercy on you, and having forgiven your sins, lead you to eternal life. Amen." followed by "May the almighty and merciful Lord grant you indulgence, absolution, and remission of your sins. Amen." Both of these can be omitted for a just reason.

Another prayer which was prescribed, but could be omitted for a just cause in the pre-1970 Ritual is a short prayer for the spiritual well-being of the penitent which some priests still use when using the absolution approved by Pope Paul VI: "May the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the merits of the Blessed Virgin Mary and of all the saints and also whatever good you do or evil you endure be cause for the remission of your sins, the increase of grace and the reward of life everlasting. Amen." This prayer shows the concepts of [[Merit (Catholicism)|merit]] and the [[Communion of Saints]] in the greater context of [[Grace (Christianity)|grace]] as understood in Catholic theology.

====Funeral Rites====
{{See also|Absolution of the dead}}
The Roman Rite has other prayers for forgiveness which are not considered sacramental absolutions. For example, the [[absolution of the dead]] is a series of prayers said after the [[Requiem Mass]], that is the Funeral Mass. The prayers are in the form of a collect (with a short ending when the body is not present). The absolution of the dead does not forgive sins or confer the sacramental absolution of the Sacrament of Penance. Rather, it is a series of prayers offered and united with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, beseeching God that His Son's perfect sacrifice and prayers be accepted to aid the deliverance of the person's soul from suffering the temporal punishment in [[Purgatory]] due for sins which were forgiven during the person's life. The absolution of the dead used in the [[Tridentine Mass]] is:

{{blockquote|Let us pray. God, to Whom it is proper is always to have mercy and to spare, we humbly entreat You for the soul of Your servant N., whom You have commanded today to go forth from this world: that You would not deliver him (her) into the hands of the enemy, nor forget him (her) forever, but command him (her) to be taken up by the holy Angels, and to be led to our homeland of paradise, so that since he (she) had believed and hoped in You, he (she) may not undergo the pains of hell, but may possess eternal joys. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, Who lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, forever and ever. Amen.}}

When the body is a not present, a different absolution prayer used is:
{{blockquote|Let us pray. Absolve, we ask, O Lord, the soul of Your servant N., so that dead to the world he (she) live for You: and whatever through the frailty of the flesh he (she) committed through human interaction, wipe away by the forgiveness of Your most merciful piety. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.}}

====Non-sacramental absolutions====

Prayers of absolution with various prescribed wordings may also be offered by priests to groups of people outside of a mass.

Each Nocturn of the Office of [[Matins]] of the pre-[[Liturgy of the Hours]] Roman Breviary contains a short absolution the prescribed psalm.