The Prayer of Absolution Will Change for US Catholics in 2023. Here’s How
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The Catholic bishops of the United States in 2021 voted in favor of the new translation of the prayer, with 182 votes in favor, 6 against, and 2 abstentions. The Vatican’s Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments approved the translation in April 2022, according to a USCCB newsletter shared online this week.
New translation of the prayer of absolution incoming next year.
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God, the Father of mercies,
through the death and resurrection of his Son
has reconciled the world to himself
and poured out [Latin: effudit] the Holy Spirit among us for the forgiveness of sins;
through the ministry of the Church may God grant [Latin: tribuat] you pardon and peace,
and I absolve you from your sins
in the name of the Father, [sign of the cross] and of the Son,
and of the Holy Spirit.And here’s what the prayer was before:
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, [sign of the cross] and of the Son,
and of the Holy Spirit.
It isn’t going to change for me. I use Latin.
The Latin for the post-Conciliar form:
Deus, Pater misericordiarum, qui per mortem et resurrectionem Filii Sui mundum Sibi reconciliavit et Spiritum Sanctum effudit in remissionem peccatorum, per ministerium Ecclesiae indulgentiam tibi tribuat et pacem. Et ego te absolvo a peccatis tuis in nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti
The new form is more accurately translated.
One good thing about this tinkering might result.
In putting a spotlight on the form of absolution, it could happen that a lot of priests who are screwing around with the words of absolution will correct themselves or be required to correct themselves through pressure from above and from laity alike.
People hearing about the changes to the words of absolution might pay close attention to what the priest actually says and, hopefully, query priests when they stray.
One can hope.
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I’m fairly sure I already know the answer, but hearing it from you would be good. If a priest unintentionally used the old form, or one changed weird but not the other, the absolution would still be valid, right?
It would certainly be valid as that pious bit that leads up to the business part of the form is not really of the essence for the sacramental form, the “ego te absolvo…” part. Also, there is a thin line between “grant” and “give”. They sort of mean the same thing, but one is more specific and the other more generic. Similarly, the “sent” and “poured” has a kind of generic and specific relationship.
So, yes, it would be valid, no question.
Thank you Father!
I personally like the new translation better, so do some of my friends I shared this with. We have to admit though, that your article titled scared us for a minute lol.
In the meantime, I was wondering if at sometime you could post what you believe to be the most accurate translation of the Latin?
New translations, even when an improvement, should be carefully weighed.
Does the increase in accuracy outweigh the impression given that translations and teachings are constantly in flux, even about little things?
For me, this seems to not be the case here.
Fr. Z, what about this. We attend a diocesan TLM where the words of absolution are said in English. Is it even done, to ask for absolution in Latin. Does it “matter”, between the Latin and the English? The Latin matters a lot for the Holy Mass, but it seems pushy to ask them for absolution in Latin unless it matters. We’re grateful to this fine priest, for the TLM.
Sorry, one more thing. Should a penitent be noting the words of absolution and call out a departure from the form if it happens? That would be really hard, maybe impossible, but apparently the words matter a lot. Thank you.
Juridically a judge would GRANT a pardon after hearing a suit in a tribunal. If a pardon is GIVEN, what is given is the physical document of pardon upon which the granted order of pardon is written.
At least that is how my pedantic brain understands such things.
Personally, I’d like to see the MAY dropped. Grammatically it is not necessary and injects a degree of doubt into the process. You don’t want the scrupulous hearing may as if God may, He may also not, and then they decide that they have to do the whole confession over.
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To my mind, the reason for the change of “give” to “grant” is because more priests use the second word already.
Re: absolution in the older form, it’s supposed to be in Latin, but it’s possible that the priest is merely repeating aloud what he said quietly.