13/11/2022
CONFESSIONAL SEAL IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.
1. WHAT IS CONFESSIONAL SEAL?
In the Catholic Church, the Seal of Confession (also known as the Seal of the Confessional or the Sacramental Seal) is the absolute duty of priests not to disclose anything that they learn from penitents during the course of the Sacrament of Penance (confession).
In layman's terms, a priest is never expected to disclose what he was told during confession.
2. WHAT HAS ECUMENICAL COUNCILS SAYS ABOUT CONFESSIONAL SEAL?
Canon 21 of the Fourth Council of the Lateran (1215), binding on the whole church, laid down the obligation of secrecy in the following words:
"Let the priest absolutely beware that he does not by word or sign or by any manner whatever in any way betray the sinner: but if he should happen to need wiser counsel let him cautiously seek the same without any mention of person. For whoever shall dare to reveal a sin disclosed to him in the tribunal of penance we decree that he shall be not only be deposed from the priestly office but that he shall also be sent into the confinement of a monastery to do perpetual penance".
According to Gratian, Let the priest who dares to make known the sins of his penitent be deposed." Gratian goes on to say that the violator of this law should be made a lifelong, ignominious wanderer.
3. ACCORDING TO THE CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches in paragraph 1467:
Given the delicacy and greatness of this ministry and the respect due to persons, the Church declares that every priest who hears confessions is bound under very severe penalties to keep absolute secrecy regarding the sins that his penitents have confessed to him. He can make no use of knowledge that confession gives him about penitents' lives. This secret, which admits of no exceptions, is called the "sacramental seal", because what the penitent has made known to the priest remains "sealed" by the sacrament.
Pope Pius x in his catechism taught that "the confessor is bound by the seal of confession under the gravest sin and under threat of the severest punishments both temporal and eternal."
4. EVEN UNDER DEATH THREAT.
Priests may not reveal what they have learned during confession to anyone, even under the threat of their own death or that of others. Punishment for breaking the seal of the confessional is conferred by the severity of the violation: "a confessor who directly violates the seal of the confessional," that is: explicitly connects a sin to a penitent, "incurs a latae sententiae excommunication.
A latae sententiae penalty is a penalty that is inflicted ipso facto, automatically, by force of the law itself, at the very moment a law is contravened. That is , immediate excommunication.
5. PRIESTS WHO DIED BECAUSE OF CONFESSIONAL SEAL.
John of Nepomuk, Mateo Correa Magallanes, Fernando Olmedo Reguera and Pedro Marieluz Garces are martyrs of the seal of the confessional in the Catholic Church, choosing to die rather than violate the seal.
