Penance and Reconciliation
The sacrament by which the sins committed after Baptism are forgiven — through contrition, confession to a priest, absolution, and a penance accepted from the priest's hand.
The acts of the penitent: contrition (sorrow for sin and resolve to amend), confession (of all mortal sins committed since the last good confession), and satisfaction (accepting and fulfilling the penance assigned).
A bishop or priest, validly ordained and possessing the faculty to hear confessions. The seal of the confessional binds the confessor absolutely — under no circumstances whatsoever may he reveal anything heard in confession.
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.
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.
Any baptized Catholic. The Church teaches that all the faithful, after attaining the age of discretion, are bound to confess their grave sins at least once a year; the precept binds especially before the reception of Communion or in danger of death.
- ✦Reconciliation with God by which the penitent recovers grace
- ✦Reconciliation with the Church
- ✦Remission of the eternal punishment incurred by mortal sin
- ✦Remission, at least in part, of temporal punishments resulting from sin
- ✦Peace and serenity of conscience, and spiritual consolation
- ✦An increase of spiritual strength for the Christian battle
[Jesus] said to them again: Peace be to you. As the Father hath sent me, I also send you. When he had said this, he breathed on them; and he said to them: Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained.
On the evening of the Resurrection, the Risen Christ appeared to the Apostles in the Upper Room, breathed on them, and conferred on them the power to forgive sins in His name. This power, passed through Apostolic Succession to bishops and priests, is the foundation of the sacrament.
In the earliest centuries, this sacrament was generally celebrated only once in a lifetime, after a long public penance for grave sin. The form of frequent, private auricular confession — with absolution conferred in the same act — emerged from the Celtic monasteries of the 6th–7th centuries and was extended to the universal Church.
The Council of Trent (1551, Session XIV) defined the doctrine of the sacrament against the Reformers: that Christ instituted Penance as a true and proper sacrament; that absolution given by a priest is a judicial act and not merely declarative; and that integral confession of all mortal sins, in number and kind, is necessary for the validity of the sacrament except where physical or moral impossibility excuses.
The penitential rite of the Mass — the Church's communal confession to almighty God and the whole company of heaven.
The penitent's prayer of sorrow — said before sleep, before confession, and at the moment of death.
St. Ignatius's five-step daily review of the soul — the prayer he ranked above almost every other spiritual practice.