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Question Title Posted By Question Date
Is all communication in the confessional confidential? Ron Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Question:

Hello Brother,

I do not ordinarily read blogs, but I just went through some elsewhere on the web on the subject of the Seal of Confession that confused me. There were several confidently-written blogs that stated that if the penitent was not seeking absolution for his sins, just merely bragging and taunting, that the communication between he and the confessor would not be protected under the Seal. Is this true?

Also, I read in another blog that in a case where the penitent committed a capital crime the priest would give as penance the condition that the penitent must turn herself in and ask forgiveness from the victims before receiving absolution. If the penance was not completed then the confession would not be protected under the Seal. Are these true?

As the title in this submission states, I guess I am asking if any and all communication from the penitent to the priest in a confessional is protected under the Seal, whereby the confessor is prohibited from revealing any information gained in the sacrament, whether the confession be genuine or not, or whether the sacrament be completed or not. Are there any exceptions, especially in regards to what the priest can report to his superiors to stop a crime from being committed or to try to save a person's life?

Thank you very much for your time in these questions. God Bless you in your work.



Question Answered by Bro. Ignatius Mary, OMSM(r)

Dear Ron:

There is no situation in which the Seal of Confession may be broken. It does not matter if the penitent was not seeking absolution, fails to complete an assigned penance, makes a bad or fraudulent confession, leaves the confession incomplete by leaving in the middle, or whatever. The Priest may never break the Seal of Confession under any circumstance. What is said in the Confessional box remains in the Confessional box.

A priest cannot break the Seal of Confession, even to prevent a murder. A Priest cannot break the Seal to reveal information to another priest, his bishop, or even the Pope. There are no exceptions to the Seal. There have been movies about this, such as the 1953 Hitchcock movie, I Confess, with Montgomery Clift.

Canon Law states:

Can. 983 ß1 The sacramental seal is inviolable. Accordingly, it is absolutely wrong for a confessor in any way to betray the penitent, for any reason whatsoever, whether by word or in any other fashion.

In addition, any Priest who deliberately violates the Sacramental Seal is automatically excommunicated:

Can. 1388 ß1 A confessor who directly violates the sacramental seal, incurs a latae sententiae excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See; he who does so only indirectly is to be punished according to the gravity of the offence.

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary


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