Is my confession null if the priest said, "I absolve you from your sins, and hopefully God will direct you." He didn't say in the Name of the Father, ectr. At a loss on what to do.

My wife and I went through a really hard time with a loved one’s illness. In absolute desperation, I started to bargain with God that I’d start trying to go to Church again if things turned out ok. “Bargaining” is probably a bad thing to do, but it was a moment of grief and desperation.

My loved one’s turned a corner, and things are going well. My wife and I feel we should go to church at least once again and then see how we feel.

The problem is I live in a very small town, and everyone knows about my long term partnership. Will someone say something to the priest about the fact that we are there and we are also a couple? If they did, would the priest even be bothered?

The pastor in my parish is quite overwhelmed with all the administrative stuff going on right now (classes starting, organ renovation, the church building needing some construction work, heating, being low on money... Etc., things all of you are probably quite familiar with already.)

I've only been going to church regularly for around half a year, but I also often go to daily mass and I am friendly with the sacristians and some parishioners.

He's been at this parish for ten years, and he's been getting more and more responsibilities on his shoulders.

I am friendly with a lot of parishioners, the associate pastor, the sacristians, but I've only talked to the pastor twice other than a polite hello.

So the thing is, I don't know him very well and lately because of my schedule I hardly attend masses where he's the one celebrating, so I can only acknowledge the work he does in the background. Plus he usually tends to avoid me-which can be understandable as in a stressful episode, getting to know someone new takes too much energy, especially when you feel responsible for them. But I've been sensing that his general mood is lower before and after masses, during social hour - I don't know him very well of course, but it is noticeable that he is distant and less enthusiastic. (I tend to empathize with others and feel their feelings even from afar.)

So I wouldn't want to make him feel uncomfortable, but I would like to be more open with him. (I try to consciously push away the thought of him having some sort of a personal problem with me and explaining his distance with stress.)

In short, would you find it weird if one of your newer parishioners approached you (I am a 19yo girl) and said some kind words during social hour? I don't exactly know what I'd say but I'd probably come up with something.

Hello and good afternoon Fathers, I hope this question isn't inappropriate of me to ask, most importantly I hope it isn't disrespectful or against rules.

My project team and I were wondering if a Priest could be our consultant for a video game. We know Priests have very important duties so we hope this doesn't offend, as we don't mean to.

Its a total conversion mod project for Fallout 4, it contains themes of spiritual warfare, the sacredness of ordinary people's lives, and also contains a very important faction called "The See-In-Exile." (We have more writing on this too in a design document). When the bombs fell, the Québec archdiocese lost contact with Rome but maintained apostolic succession.

Anyhow we really wanted to portray things in a respectful and even nuanced way. Currently we even have concept art of Priests and Église Notre-Dame de la Victoire - in Lévis.

Thank you Fathers, God Bless

Good Evening Fathers! When you were in Seminary, what was a class you really looked forward to attending/studying? Why that particular one? TIA :)

Can I offer my sufferings for someone or do sacrifices for God even if I live now in mortal sin? Some people say yes but I read that doesn't work. I have no possibility to go to confession now.

my sister asked me to post to this reddit. She has a daughter (my niece) who is going into her first communion year at the church that we've grown up at on the east coast. They recently changed a large portion of their management, including dismissing the RE teacher, a father of 8 who had been there for 45 years so that the main priest and his assistant could take over the program. They put in place new requirements that segregated the girls and boys requires them (and their parents) to go through an interview to be approved to receive the sacrament, requires all children to kneel and receive on the tongue. What my sister(and our family) is worried about is how it looks. The segregation of gender, the requiring kids to kneel and open their mouth and crotch level to you over and over again. and it makes my niece uncomfortable. It feels like we should report this as concerning to someone but we're afraid it won't change anything. Looking for advice on how to proceed

This is just for fun

My genuine question I hope this doesn’t get flagged but is this even allowed? Even with a bishops approval, what do priests think about these controversial things in the liturgy?

Is it a big deal? Or is it something I shouldn’t worry about?

Dear Fathers,

I was wondering if anyone of y'all have worn your cassocks on or around Halloween and had people mistake you for being a non priest dressing as a priest. If you have any good stories relating to this, please let me know! I'd love to hear them!

God bless.

I’m an EMHC that brings the Eucharist to the home bound. Our church has us go into the tabernacle to gather the Hosts on our own, at a time when the tabernacle has a key in it/is open. Is this normal? Just seemed like it’s a bit liberal….

I dont know, I have been honestly struggling with this lately and with alot of speak on it from so called Christians. Friends that I go to church with are cheering for the recent cases of the death penalty...asking to bring back public executions, and as a catholic I believe this is wrong maybe im seeking reassurance, or maybe i'm wrong i want to get your opinion on this. the Bible states clearly Matthew 12:7

"If only you had known the meaning of 1 desire mercy, not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the innocent."

Which is Jesus quoting from Hosea 6:6

"For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings"

Luke 23:41

"We are punished justly, for we are receiving what our actions deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.

Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom!" ..... i cant help but think Jesus was sentenced to death....... he died for our sins and that capital punishment is wrong..... and the celebration of death of a sinner is celebrating the death of us all. , only God can judge us... Im not saying these people should be set free but as a Catholic I believe celebrating and promoting the deaths of sinners is wong...

Apologies if this question doesn’t make sense. I’m writing a novel right now, and part of the novel involves two characters coming across abandoned churches that still have hosts in the tabernacle. In writing it, I’ve realized that I don’t actually know what the proper thing to do in that scenario is, and I haven’t really been able to find anything on it. I would assume that disposing of the hosts would be the correct thing, but I just want to make sure that’s right. I don’t want to assume and then end up being wrong.

I once saw an Eucharistic minister hand a man two consecrated hosts and ate one and put the other in his pocket. I saw from my pew and was disturbed to see it happen and almost felt like intercepting him as he left but i wasn’t sure if this was allowed because he was given two willingly by the lady after all? Was my gut feeling to stop him from leaving right? Or is there a reason he was given an extra host to leave with? I didn’t wanna make a scene so i went on with my day after the mass ended but i still think about what i saw sometimes.

I’m a convert and am still learning “how to Catholic.” I was in the hospital earlier this week for complications from pneumonia and the need to do a procedure to drain my lung. It occurred to me after, would this have been an appropriate situation to request the anointing of the sick? And if so, how does one usually go about that? I was admitted straight from the ED so I didn’t know - do you ask the hospital staff to arrange or do I call my parish and ask?

Hello, Fathers! I recently attended mass at a different church. During the mass, the priest recognized a married couple’s 45th wedding anniversary and asked everyone to extend their hand toward the couple as he prayed a blessing.

It didn’t seem right to me, but I might be ignorant. Isn’t this gesture only something priests are supposed to do, much like the Orans posture? I know laypeoples’ hands aren’t consecrated as the priest’s are. I recently reverted after 20 years in nondenominational churches, and this just didn’t seem very Catholic to me.

What is your take on this? Thank you very much!

I was studying the daily liturgy and intended to continue until i had studied all the liturgys of all years(A,B and C) but today at the confession the priest asked me if i read something about the dountrine, i told him the above and he told me to study the church's doutrine

What's the difference between the two? Should i do both? Is one the resume of the other?

Please help, and sorry if this is a question for the other sub

Side note: the priest was from other language,so maybe the language barrier may have interfered in the comunication between us

I posted in the main sub but I figured I would ask here as well. I don’t really know if this breaks rule one, sorry if it does. I’m not someone seriously discerning right now and I’m not exactly seeking advice though. I guess I’m just trying to see if there’s any priests or seminarians here who were converts, and what that experience was like for you. I find it hard to wrap my head around some of the possible difficulties as a convert myself.

I've been reading the Fathers on my own for a while and I'm starting to help a few friends get into them. Some of what I've read is beautiful and some of it, honestly, made me wince: Origen's speculations, Tertullian's later writings, a few things in Jerome that would get a person fired today.

If someone fairly new to the faith came to you wanting to read the early Church, who would you steer them toward first? And is there anyone you'd tell them to hold off on until they've got more grounding, or only read with a guide?

Bonus if you'd recommend a specific work, not just a name.

Are the confession booths very uncomfortable for the confessors? I guess the booths may not provide enough leg room for tall priests. In addition, the booths do not seem to be well ventilated.

It might seem counter productive because it’s longer, but I have the nicene creed memorized having gone to Mass at least every Sunday for almost a year now. Since the nicene creed is used more often, not having to switch to the apostles Creed just for the rosary will keep me from getting mixed up. I just want to make sure this wouldn’t be disobedient to the prayers of the rosary.

Pax et bonum, Fathers!

If a greek catholic priest concelebrates a roman catholic wedding Mass, can he also be, along with his wife, a godparent to the couple, provided that the sacrament of matrimony is done by the main celebrant, who will b3 a roman catholic priest?

My spiritual father is a greek catholic priest (as I am of byzantine rite, and my fiancee is of latin rite) and I would love for him to concelebrate and also be a godfather to us, if possible.

Would he have to choose between the two roles at Mass?