Another confession seal question

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He_Man said:
when Priests have to trick and/or find ridiculous workarounds, it would seem they aren’t truly honoring the intent of the seal. Instead, they are looking for technicalities.
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Agreed. The priest may be obeying the letter of the law but not the spirit of the law and God will know this.
 
Sir_Knight said:
Yes, I disagree. If your understanding is correct, then [1] why do priests not have the same understanding of it as you do? [2] Where are they getting this much more restrictive understanding of canon law?

I have supplied two references from PRIESTS (one in print and one online) who have this understanding. I welcome you to do the same and provide references from PRIESTS who support your understanding of the canon.
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I already conceded that you’ve got the priestly references to beat me. And I already said that I’m no canon lawyer. All I’m saying is that the plain text doesn’t seem to support your position.

I’ll try to dig up some other priestly opinions. Right now I’m restricted to online digging, but here’s a priest who is with me:
greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=008oZv Search for “Father Chris LaBarge”. He says “The wine is an easy one, since as already been suggested it can be disposed of inconspicuously.”

Jimmy Akin says, “For a violation of the seal to occur the priest must, in one way or another, disclose both the identity of the penitent and the sin that was confessed.” (jimmyakin.typepad.com/defensor_fidei/2006/10/parental_advice.html) Sounds like he’s on my side. He’s not a priest, but he knows his stuff.

That’s all I’ve got time for right now.
 
Fine, one more thing.

“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.”

Yes, I agree with that. The question is whether swapping out the poisoned wine constitutes breaking the seal.

You claim that the spirit of the law is to not act on information from the confession. I say the spirit of the law is to not disclose the sins of a penitent. Who’s right? I dunno.

I would be willing to bet that if I called 10 random priests right now and offered them this poisoned wine scenario, all 10 would say that they would swap it out. But I don’t have the time or inclination to do so.
 
NaturalEnquirer said:
Fine, one more thing.

“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.”

Yes, I agree with that. The question is whether swapping out the poisoned wine constitutes breaking the seal.
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I agree. How would swapping out the poison wine betray the identity of the penitent? Yet, it is given by many as an example of something that they can NOT do because it violates the seal of confession. How is that?
NaturalEnquirer said:
You claim that the spirit of the law is to not act on information from the confession. I say the spirit of the law is to not disclose the sins of a penitent. Who’s right? I dunno.

I would be willing to bet that if I called 10 random priests right now and offered them this poisoned wine scenario, all 10 would say that they would swap it out. But I don’t have the time or inclination to do so.
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And you may be right but all 10 of them might be breaking the seal with that answer.
 
Sir_Knight said:
I agree. How would swapping out the poison wine betray the identity of the penitent? Yet, it is listen by many as something that they can NOT do because it violates the seal of confession. How is that?
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Beats me. Common misunderstandings are not uncommon. 😉
Sir_Knight said:
And you may be right but all 10 of them might be breaking the seal with that answer.
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And it’s possible that your sources are wrong, and that this act would not be breaking the seal. So where does that leave us? To whom do we go for an authoritative answer?

Good thing we’re not priests! 😃
 
NaturalEnquirer said:
And it’s possible that your sources are wrong, and that this act would not be breaking the seal.
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The fact that this position has be published in book format and it was never challenged with a retraction (Fr Stravinskas has several books in print), leads me to believe that they are not mistaken.
NaturalEnquirer said:
So where does that leave us? To whom do we go for an authoritative answer?
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To a Bishop or the Vatican.
 
A bishop, archbishop and a cardinal are considered successors to the apostles and have apostalic authority. Doesn’t mean that they can’t be wrong on something but it’s less likely that they are. Of course, the final answer would be from the Vatican.
 
anonon said:
Confess your sins anonymously, online at iconfessmyself.blogspot.com
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You’re kidding, right? As far as I can tell, nothing online has a guarantee of anonymity (i.e., never send anything online that you wouldn’t want published).

Also, this is not sacramental confession, which is our only assurance of God’s forgiveness. Thank God for giving us this assurance through His Catholic Church!
 
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