Confiteor
The Confiteor (pronounced [konˈfite.or]; so named from its first word, Latin for 'I confess' or 'I acknowledge') is one of the prayers that can be said during the Penitential Act at the beginning of Mass of the Roman Rite in the Catholic Church.
These three forms were quite short, and contained only one "mea culpa"; the Dominicans invoked, besides the Blessed Virgin, Saint Dominic.
[1] To what is here taken from the Catholic Encyclopedia one can add the text of an elaborate (but ungrammatical) form of the Confiteor found in the Paenitentiale Vallicellanum II, which has been attributed to the 9th century:[3] Confiteor Deo et beatae Mariae semper virgini, et beato Michaeli archangelo et beato Iohanni baptistae et sanctis apostolis Petro et Paulo omnibus sanctis et tibi patri mea culpa (III vic.)
peccavi per superbiam in multa mea mala iniqua et pessima cogitatione, locutione, pollutione, sugestione, delectatione, consensu, verbo et opere, in periurio, in adulterio, in sacrilegio, omicidio, furtu, falso testimonio, peccavi visu, auditu, gustu, odoratu et tactu, et moribus, vitiis meis malis.
I confess to God and to blessed Mary ever-Virgin, to blessed Michael the Archangel and blessed John the Baptist and to the holy apostles Peter and Paul along with all the saints and you Father: through my fault (thrice) I have sinned by pride in my abundant evil iniquitous and heinous thought, speech, pollution, suggestion, delectation, consent, word and deed, in perjury, adultery, sacrilege, murder, theft, false witness, I have sinned by sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch, and in my behaviour, my evil vices.
In the original Tridentine Roman Missal, promulgated and published by Pope St. Pius V in 1570, this prayer included the phrase dimissis omnibus peccatis vestris/tuis ("forgive you all your sins");[4][5] but in 1604 another Pope, Clement VIII, revised the original Tridentine Roman Missal of 1570, and, among other changes, removed the word omnibus ("all") from this prayer.
Ideo precor beatam Mariam semper Virginem, omnes Angelos et Sanctos, et vos, fratres [et sorores], orare pro me ad Dominum Deum nostrum.
Ideo precor beatam Mariam semper Virginem, beatum Michaelem Archangelum, beatum Ioannem Baptistam, sanctos Apostolos Petrum et Paulum, omnes Sanctos, et vos, fratres, orare pro me ad Dominum Deum nostrum.
[9] In the Tridentine editions of the Roman Missal, if a priest celebrated Mass in the presence of the Pope or a cardinal, or of a nuncio, a patriarch, a metropolitan archbishop or a diocesan bishop within their own jurisdictions, he changed "et vobis, fratres", "et vos, fratres" (and you, brethren) into "et tibi, pater" and "et te, pater" (and you, Father) when reciting his own Confiteor.
[10] Until 1969, therefore, the Confiteor was spoken (not sung) twice at the beginning of Mass, after the recitation of Psalm 42/43, once by the priest and once by the server(s) or by the deacon and subdeacon.
The Tridentine Roman Ritual also required recitation of the Confiteor before administration of Extreme Unction and the imparting of the Apostolic Blessing to a dying person.
The Ritual's prescription that a penitent should begin their confession by reciting at least the opening words of the Confiteor was not generally observed.
As stated above, Pope John XXIII's 1960 Code of Rubrics and his 1962 edition of the Tridentine Roman Missal, use of which was authorized under the conditions indicated in the 2007 motu proprio Summorum Pontificum, and restricted under the conditions of 2021 motu proprio Traditionis Custodes, removed the recitation of the Confiteor immediately before the distribution of Holy Communion to the people.
The official English translation is: "May almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us our sins, and bring us to everlasting life."
Tridentine editions of the Roman Missal included a second prayer of absolution, said by the priest alone: "Indulgéntiam, absolutiónem, et remissiónem peccatórum nostrórum tríbuat nobis omnípotens et miséricors Dóminus" (May the Almighty and merciful God grant us pardon, absolution, and remission of our sins).
The following is a common text, similar to the 2010 ICEL translation: Most merciful God, we confess that we are by nature sinful and unclean.
