I once had a private face to face talk with a priest I met on a pilgrimage. We just discussed this and that and whatever came into my mind and also chatted about some difficulties I was having and some things I regretted. I was never told this was supposed to be a confession but at the aend of it the priest gave me an absolution.
So is it a valid confession even if I don’t find out it was a confession until afterwards?
If the priest absolved you, that means HE regarded it as a confession and it is therefore a confession. He may have done that partly because he felt the subject matter was confessional in nature and should be subject to the seal.
I’m not sure what your point is here. It’s physically possible for a priest to break the seal just like it’s physically possible for someone to break the law and commit premeditated murder. In both cases, when the offense is discovered, it will be severely punished.
Priests generally don’t want to get excommunicated, which is a severe punishment (the priest is basically forbidden from exercising his priestly ministry, it’s like a lawyer being disbarred) and might also not be the only punishment meted out to the priest. Therefore, 99.9 percent of priests are not going to commit such serious violations as breaking the seal.
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