Confessing the sins of another

[darcee]

My DH and I were talking about this last night and couldn’t figure it out.

Let’s say a married couple commit a mortal sin together.

If one of the couple confesses it to their parish priest and the other does not how does the priest deal with it if they both come up for communion? This would be especially difficult if it was something along the lines of them having an abortion.

-D

 

[spetreopn]

First, it would be hard for the priest to know that the other had not confessed the sin to another priest.Second, Canon Law provides for withholding Communion from those in public, manifest, and grave sin.

It seems that the situation as you have presented it would require the priest to address the other privately, and after the Mass.

 

[system]

darcee:

If one of the couple confesses it to their parish priest and the other does not how does the priest deal with it if they both come up for communion?

How does the priest know the other spouse didn’t go to Confession somewhere else? On EWTN “Web of Faith”, the priests discussed this issue and they said that the conditions by which a priest can “know” someone should be denied Communion are very strict. Basically it’s not up to the priest, he must almost always assume that everyone coming to Communion is “properly disposed”.

 

[baltobetsy]

The priest cannot assume anything about the spouse who did not confess to him. It’s probably some violation of the seal, and besides, how does he know the other spouse didn’t confess to someone else?

Betsy

 

[Katholish]

It is a violation of the seal of the confessional for a priest to act in anyway on the information received under that seal. Even if the priest is sure the person approaching the Holy Eucharist is in a state of mortal sin, he could do nothing if that information was gathered in the confessional. The seal is absolute.

The spouse who confessed on the other hand should try to prevent their partner from commiting sacrilege, if at all possible and reasonable.