Breaking the seal of confession for future sins?

[james_neville]

Hi I was wondering if a priest is told of a gravely evil act that the person is going to perform in the future, does the seal of confession apply?

And secondly, if the priest does not grant absolution, does this mean that the seal is not in effect?

I have been struggling with this concept with all the sex abuse hitting the media and people asking questions. I find it hard to believe that if Jesus heard that someone was in danger of an evil act, a child is about to be raped by a priest that he would stand by and do nothing here on earth to prevent Evil from occuring, as such i am trying to see why the church sees fit not to do anything to help this

 

[Joan_M]

Hi I was wondering if a priest is told of a gravely evil act that the person is going to perform in the future, does the seal of confession apply?

Yes, the seal of confession does apply.

And secondly, if the priest does not grant absolution, does this mean that the seal is not in effect?

No. The seal of confession is in effect whether or not the priest grants absolution.

I have been struggling with this concept with all the sex abuse hitting the media and people asking questions. I find it hard to believe that if Jesus heard that someone was in danger of an evil act, a child is about to be raped by a priest that he would stand by and do nothing here on earth to prevent Evil from occuring, as such i am trying to see why the church sees fit not to do anything to help this

**God gave us free will. He wants us to do His will, but will not take back our free will if we are going to sin. What is most important for us is to get to Heaven.

It seems, from your last sentence that you think that Jesus did not know that these sins were going to happen! Jesus is God. He knows everything. And those sins did take place.

The seal of confession is inviolate. Priests are bound to protect it, even if they were to lose their lives if they do not break it.

If there was no seal on confession, or if it was permissible for the priest to violate it for some specific sins, how many people do you think would avail themselves of the Sacrament? Not many! **

 

[JerryZ]

Hi I was wondering if a priest is told of a gravely evil act that the person is going to perform in the future, does the seal of confession apply?

And secondly, if the priest does not grant absolution, does this mean that the seal is not in effect?

I have been struggling with this concept with all the sex abuse hitting the media and people asking questions. I find it hard to believe that if Jesus heard that someone was in danger of an evil act, a child is about to be raped by a priest that he would stand by and do nothing here on earth to prevent Evil from occuring, as such i am trying to see why the church sees fit not to do anything to help this

A priest cannot absolve you of a “future sin” that is intellectual dishonesty and trying to use the sacrament of reconciliation for something it is not designed to do.

We have to REPENT first of the sin commited! How can you ask forgiveness for a future sin if you are repentent? You would have not commited it in the first place.

 

[Brendan]

As JerryZ noted, a priest cannot absolve someone of a ‘future sin’.

One thing to note is that the sin occurs when the person commits to performing the sinful act, not when the sinful act is done. The magnitude of the sin increases with the accomplishment of the act, but the sin is still committed.

So if a person mentally commits to performing a sinful act in the future ( such as arrange a meeting with someone for the purposes of fornication or adultery) the person has ALREADY sinned and are in need of absolution; even if the trist has not yet happened.

In addition, the seal of the confessional is absolute. Say a man confesses that he will meet with his mistress next weekend for the purpose of adultery. With the decision itself to meet, the man has already committed adultery.

The priest cannot absolve him of the sin of adultery unless he is repentant. Repentance in this case, will include a commitment not to go through with the act and to break off the relationship. Without repentance, there can be no forgiveness.

If the man does not repent, the priest is this case, would be bound by the seal and would not be able to inform the man’s wife of the unfaithfulness, even if absolution was not given.

 

[Chatter163]

This question, which we have seen countless times, is usually designed to stir up controversy. I would urge others to avoid it.

 

[wisedom]

Hi I was wondering if a priest is told of a gravely evil act that the person is going to perform in the future, does the seal of confession apply?

And secondly, if the priest does not grant absolution, does this mean that the seal is not in effect?

I have been struggling with this concept with all the sex abuse hitting the media and people asking questions. I find it hard to believe that if Jesus heard that someone was in danger of an evil act, a child is about to be raped by a priest that he would stand by and do nothing here on earth to prevent Evil from occuring, as such i am trying to see why the church sees fit not to do anything to help this

By any reasoning, it is evil on the part of a clergy to allow future ‘rapes’, taking refuge under a man-made confessional seal, that encourages or has encouraged innumerable ‘men in white’ to violate their own vows of chastity and violate the chastity of young teen-agers, esp. boys…
In an earlier thread i was quite ‘vociferous’ that Jesus would instantly/instantaneously condemn such depraved acts, but some defenders of the indefensible actually supported the criminals, which stand is hard to bear or accept!

An arch-bishop actually broke the confessional seal and handed over the priest to the authorities, but to no avail; because he went against the church rule, he was constrained to resign, but since he acted as per his CONSCIENCE, the highest TRIBUNAL, overshadowing any other authority, he has actually acted in the way that JESUS, himself would have done or will do on the LAST DAY!

Scriptural texts are there that condemn such dastardly acts in Jesus’ own words, and hopefully we all would do well to abide by his teachings…those who don’t know their scripture are advised to read about the punishment that must be given to those who hurt Jesus’ LITTLE ONES, or Jesus himself would question them on the day of judgement with those fantastic words of his!

Note: to those who don’t know the relevant scriptural texts, i shall post the same next time around!