Even though the world is facing a pandemic that may limit many people’s ability to celebrate the sacraments, particularly those people who are in isolation, quarantining or hospitalized with Covid-19, confession by phone is still most likely invalid, said Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, head of the Apostolic Penitentiary.

In an interview Dec. 5 with the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, the cardinal was asked whether a phone or other electronic means of communication could be used for confession.

“We can confirm the probable invalidity of the absolution imparted through such means,” he said.

“In fact, the real presence of the penitent is lacking, and there is no real conveyance of the words of absolution; there are only electric vibrations that reproduce the human word,” he said….

The above comes from a Dec. 7 story in Crux.