{"id":243,"date":"2012-11-16T02:48:21","date_gmt":"2012-11-15T15:48:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/library.sydneycatholic.org\/uncategorised\/2012\/ask-a-priest-can-a-priest-break-the-seal-of-the-confessional-106686\/"},"modified":"2012-11-16T02:48:21","modified_gmt":"2012-11-15T15:48:21","slug":"ask-a-priest-can-a-priest-break-the-seal-of-the-confessional-106686","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/library.sydneycatholic.org\/library\/2012\/ask-a-priest-can-a-priest-break-the-seal-of-the-confessional-106686\/","title":{"rendered":"Ask a Priest &#8211; Can a Priest Break the Seal of the Confessional?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight:bold;\">Can a priest break the seal of confession (i.e. reveal sins that someone has confessed) if he is forced by law?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration:underline;\"><span style=\"font-weight:bold;\">Answer<\/span><\/span>:<br \/>\nThere are no exceptions to the seal of confession and whatever civil law may say about this matter a priest is bound to maintain the seal.<\/p>\n<p>This position is made clear in Canon Law <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vatican.va\/archive\/ENG1104\/__P3G.HTM\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"http:\/\/www.vatican.va\/archive\/ENG1104\/__P3G.HTM\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">here<\/a>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Can. 983 \u00a71. The sacramental seal is inviolable; therefore it is absolutely forbidden for a confessor to betray in any way a penitent in words or in any manner and for any reason.<\/li>\n<li>\u00a72. The interpreter, if there is one, and all others who in any way have knowledge of sins from confession are also obliged to observe secrecy.<\/li>\n<li>Can. 984 \u00a71. A confessor is prohibited completely from using knowledge acquired from confession to the detriment of the penitent even when any danger of revelation is excluded.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>And also <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vatican.va\/archive\/ENG1104\/__P54.HTM\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"http:\/\/www.vatican.va\/archive\/ENG1104\/__P54.HTM\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">here<\/a>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Can. 1388 \u00a71. A confessor who directly violates the sacramental seal incurs a latae sententiae excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See; one who does so only indirectly is to be punished according to the gravity of the delict.<\/li>\n<li>\u00a72. An interpreter and the others mentioned in ? can. 983, \u00a72 who violate the secret are to be punished with a just penalty, not excluding excommunication.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In any case this demand by some politicians is simply a distraction from the real issues. As one commentator pointed out we don&#8217;t know of a single case where maintaining the seal of confession facilitated acts of abuse.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight:bold;\">This question was posted in Xt3&#8217;s &#8216;Ask a Priest&#8217; group. You can join the discussion by visiting the <a href=\"..\/..\/library\/view.php?id=11517&#038;categoryId=55\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"..\/..\/library\/view.php?id=11517&#038;categoryId=55\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">original thread<\/a> &#8211; you must be logged into Xt3. Or, to see more Ask a Priest questions, <a href=\"..\/..\/group\/view.php?id=237\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"..\/..\/group\/view.php?id=237\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">click here<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration:underline;\"><span style=\"font-weight:bold;\">Further Reading<\/span><\/span>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"..\/..\/library\/view.php?id=11567&#038;categoryId=17\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"..\/..\/library\/view.php?id=11567&#038;categoryId=17\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Should Priests Break Their Vow and Disclose What They Hear in Confession?<\/a> &#8211; ABC Interview with Bishop Anthony Fisher<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.catholiceducation.org\/articles\/religion\/re0059.html\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"http:\/\/www.catholiceducation.org\/articles\/religion\/re0059.html\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Seal of the Confessional<\/a> &#8211; An article from the Catholic Education Resource Center by Fr. William Saunders<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"..\/..\/library\/view.php?id=11570&#038;categoryId=37\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"..\/..\/library\/view.php?id=11570&#038;categoryId=37\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Interview with Fr. Tony Percy, Rector of the Seminary of the Good Shepherd in Sydney<\/a> &#8211; Audio interview explaining what the Sacrament of Confession is really all about.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<span style=\"font-weight:bold;\">Can a priest break the seal of confession (i","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":244,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.sydneycatholic.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.sydneycatholic.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.sydneycatholic.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.sydneycatholic.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.sydneycatholic.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/library.sydneycatholic.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.sydneycatholic.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.sydneycatholic.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.sydneycatholic.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.sydneycatholic.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}