While it’s possible to be overheard from a confessional, every effort is usually made to prevent that. There is a wall and a door separating the priest and the penitent from others waiting outside, and these barriers tend to muffle the sounds of the voices. The priest inside of a confessional tries to keep his voice down, and if the penitent speaks loud enough to be overheard, that doesn’t break the seal, as the seal is on the priest, not the penitent.
With the arrangement being described here, those waiting to confess are in the same open space as the priest and penitent. There are no walls or doors separating them, and it’s much easier for those waiting to overhear the confession. No real effort is being made to prevent that.
Even with the music playing that is supposed to mask the voices, as the OP has pointed out, it often stops playing during the confession, and there’s a delay in restoring it. They don’t position the CD player to create a true sound barrier between the confessions and the waiting penitents, and it’s still quite possible for others to hear the confessions.
There is an obligation to make a good faith effort to protect the seal, and I don’t see a good faith effort being made here, from what the OP has described.
Moreover, the OP has complained about this improper confession practice, and it has fallen on deaf ears.
There are ways to protect folks from the virus without violating the fundamental rights of the penitents to have their confessions kept private, and the sacred trust that is supposed to be maintained between priest and penitent – and God. It is being assumed, or hoped that waiting penitents can’t hear these confessions, but simply assuming or hoping it isn’t any guarantee it can’t happen. This sounds quite disrespectful, to me, and it also appears that this priest doesn’t care.
