187 Q. What is the Sacrament of Penance?  A. Penance is a Sacrament in which the sins committed after Baptism are forgiven.

One who has never been baptized could not go to confession and receive absolution, nor indeed any of the Sacraments.

188 Q. How does the Sacrament of Penance remit sin, and restore the soul to the friendship of God?  A. The Sacrament of Penance remits sin and restores the friendship of God to the soul by means of the absolution of the priest.

“Absolution” means the words the priest says at the time he forgives the sins.  Absolve means to loose or free.  When ministers or ambassadors are sent by our government to represent the United States in England, France, Germany, or other countries, whatever they do there officially is done by the United States.  If they make an agreement with the governments to which they are sent, the United States sanctions it, and the very moment they sign the agreement it is signed and sanctioned by the authority of our government whose representatives they are, and their official action becomes the action of the United States itself.  But when their term of office expires, though they remain in the foreign countries, they have no longer any power to sign agreements in the name and with the authority of the United States.

You see, therefore, that it is the power that is given them, and not their own, that they exercise.  In like manner Our Lord commissioned His priests and gave them the power to forgive sins, and whatever they do in the Sacrament of Penance He Himself does.  At the very moment the priest pronounces the words of absolution on earth his sentence is ratified in Heaven and the sins of the penitent are blotted out.

It may increase your veneration for the Sacrament to know the precise manner in which absolution is given.  After the confession and giving of the penance, the priest first prays for the sinner, saying:  “May Almighty God have mercy on you, and, your sins being forgiven, bring you to life everlasting.  Amen.”  Then, raising his right hand over the penitent, he says:  “May the Almighty and merciful Lord grant you pardon, absolution, and remission of your sins.  Amen.”  Then he continues:  “May Our Lord Jesus Christ absolve you, and I, by His authority, absolve you from every bond of excommunication and interdict, as far as I have power and you stand in need.  Then I absolve you from your sins, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.  Amen.”  At these last words he makes the Sign of the Cross over the penitent.  In conclusion he directs to God a prayer in behalf of the penitent in the following words:  “May the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the merits of the Blessed Virgin Mary and of all the saints, and whatsoever good you may have done or evil you may have suffered, be to you unto the remission of your sins, the increase of grace, and the recompense of everlasting life.  Amen.”  Then the priest says, “God bless you,” “Go in peace,” or some other expression showing his delight at your reconciliation with God.