News Corp is a global, diversified media and information services company focused on creating and distributing authoritative and engaging content and other products and services. Dow Jones. By Rob Taylor and Francis X. Rocca Close Francis X. Rocca Biography FrancisXRocca fxrocca francis. Priests say they won't break the seal of confession, but what does that mean? Catholic priests say they will not abide new laws that mean clergy must report child abuse revealed to them in the confessional.
Both South Australia and the ACT will make the change to compel priests to give information from confession. Here's a look at how confession works now, and whether a law could change the way the Catholic Church runs it. The world's 1. The current code of canon law states: "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.
Any priest who breaks the seal of confession is subject to the church's most severe penalty — automatic excommunication, revocable only by the Pope. Confession — also known as reconciliation — is done in a confessional box, or simply a confessional, usually in a church.
The confessor can come face-to-face with the priest or remain anonymous behind a curtain. Under the Catholic Church, to gain absolution — and therefore to then be able to take holy communion again and avoid eternal damnation — a person needs to be contrite about their sins and do penance. Often, the priest would advise the person to tell the police about their crime or to tell the priest about it outside the confessional, which would then require the priest to report it.
Bishop O'Kelly said child sex abuse was "not a common crime" and no one had ever confessed it to him in his 46 years as a priest. The sacramental seal is inviolable. Quoting Canon It is a crime for a confessor in any way to betray a penitent by word or in any other manner or for any reason" No. A priest, therefore, cannot break the seal to save his own life, to protect his good name, to refute a false accusation, to save the life of another, to aid the course of justice like reporting a crime , or to avert a public calamity.
He cannot be compelled by law to disclose a person's confession or be bound by any oath he takes, e. A priest cannot reveal the contents of a confession either directly, by repeating the substance of what has been said, or indirectly, by some sign, suggestion, or action.
A Decree from the Holy Office Nov. Just as an aside, a great movie which deals with this very topic is Alfred Hitchcock's "I Confess," which deals with a priest who hears a murder confession and then is framed for the murder.
As a priest, I was in agony during much of the movie. However, a priest may ask the penitent for a release from the sacramental seal to discuss the confession with the person himself or others. For instance, if the penitent wants to discuss the subject matter of a previous confession a particular sin, fault, temptation, circumstance in a counseling session or in a conversation with the same priest, that priest will need the permission of the penitent to do so.
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