Breaking the seal of confession, exceptions?

[FrDavid96]

So for the sake of accuracy in the story, it seems that it would be best for the penitent to make his confession and then make the request AFTER absolution has been granted so he (the bishop) is not obligated to protect the information (which is a key component of the story).

Interesting how the penitent seeks absolution, and the seal of confession is absolute. Thank you for the clarification.

Just to be clear: no.

The Seal belongs to the priest as well. (The Holy See clarified this a few years ago in regard to a civil lawsuit filed against a priest).

Even if the penitent seems to request it, the priest can never be sure that the request is being made freely, so he still cannot violate the Seal.

 

[FrDavid96]

I think if a penitent says to a priest: “I give you permission, after my confession, to recall it, and to tell my son that…” it would be ok. You can get some ideas by reading the relevant canon law and/or canon law blogs. Plenty come up on Google.

No. Still can’t do it.

 

[FrDavid96]

No worries…While I haven’t quite decided on all of the finer details of the scene, I plan to write it in such a way where the seal is not broken…not even to the reader

Just make the revelation after the Confession has been completed.

 

[FrDavid96]

I’m trying to avoid blatant violations of canon law (not sure if that’s the proper term) and stray no further than “minor inaccuracies”.

That’s going to be difficult because Canon Law as we now know it, did not exist the same way in the 14th century.

You can use the general principles of today’s laws and they’ll typically be the same; but try to avoid any outright references to Canon Law (like automatic excommunication) because the laws varied by place and time.

 

[JamesV]

Which is why I plan to have the penitent give the priest a sealed letter…my logic is that the contents were not made known during the confession and therefore aren’t protected under the seal.

 

[OldCAFMember]

JamesV:

I wonder what the odds are of a local priest being able/willing to sit down with me one day and answer some of my questions so I can ensure accuracy…

Just because someone is a parish priest doesn’t make them a expert on historic religious practices.

I would suggest reading literature written at the time period and place that your fiction is based, and getting a handle on the period. A priest can advise you what’s happening now, or perhaps up to 50 years ago when he was a kid, but wouldn’t be a first person source for English Catholics in Victorian times or 17th Century Lithuanian Catholics.

The OP’s story takes place in the 14th century, which places it just ahead of the invention of the printing press, one of the key events that ended the medieval period. So there really is no literature written at the time period.

 

[Augustinian]

The OP’s story takes place in the 14th century, which places it just ahead of the invention of the printing press, one of the key events that ended the medieval period. So there really is no literature written at the time period.

Huh? Of course there is literature from the period- less because of your observation, but certainly some.I think in my house right now, I have a volume called “medieval source book” with copies of stuff written during that epoch, Dante and St. Thomas also wrote during that time frame among others

 

[TheLittleLady]

Your character is wealthy, I assume. Because paper was very rare and expensive in the 14th Century. Paper was used for very important documents, a regular Joe would not have a stack of writing paper for jotting down his thoughts. Signed, Sealed, Delivered: How Messages were sent in the Middle Ages - Medievalists.net

Also, you understand that in the 14th Century only a small fraction of the population were literate. Literacy - Our World in Data

Writing a letter was not as easy as it is now, be careful not to spoil the story with historical inaccuracies. Orson Scott Card’s novel “Enchantment” has a modern person whisked back to the 10th century and one of the plot points is how difficult it is to get paper. You are moving 300 years on from that setting, but, don’t fall into the trap of making modern assumptions.

 

[JamesV]

Technically speaking, all literature at that time period was written…quite literally

 

[JamesV]

Your assumption is correct.

 

[johnnykins]

FrDavid has the easiest solution. The penitent completes confession, is absolved and THEN (or later) says to the confessor…“Would you do me a favor…blah blah blah…”

 

[FrDavid96]

I wonder what the odds are of a local priest being able/willing to sit down with me one day and answer some of my questions so I can ensure accuracy…the original question in this thread has already been answered, but I keep coming up with new ones, most recently regarding relics.

Go ahead and post the questions.

 

[Arkansan]

Explicit (but not presumed or implied) permission of the penitent excuses from the confessional seal, although care must still be taken to avoid any scandal to the faithful. So this bishop should probably not mention that the information was communicated in confession.

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