Does the seal of confession bind within the confessional?

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I posted this in the AAA forum but have not yet received an answer. I would also like to know what your thoughts are. I hope this is not considered cross posting.

In the context of a regular confessor / Spiritual Director, can a priest in persona Christi within the confessional on a subsequent visit remember my “history” of sins, trials and struggles from past confessions to help guide me in my journey toward Christ?

This came up in RCIA class and my feeling tells me that this is not breaking the seal of confession because we are once again within the seal of confession,in the presence of Christ and my answer reflected this. This thought was challenged with the fact that once confessed and absolved, your sin no longer exists so now I am questioning my answer.

Thank you,
Todd
 
Well, considering that those who are scrupulous are often advised to have only one Confessor who knows about the person’s scrupulosity and can counsel accordingly - I would say that Confessor can to some degree refer to past Confessions.

On the other hand, since priests make it a habit to forget Confessions - I doubt they would suddenly remember a person’s past sins during the next Confession.

Within the person who is confessing’s consent, I think it would be appropriate for the priest to take into account past Confessions when asked if he could even remember.

I know I have had at least one time when my Confessor knew what I was talking about when I referred to a Confessed sin during a time of spiritual direction without my specifying. But we had discussed it prior in spiritual direction and he knows I go to Confession regularly. So really I guess there isn’t any way to know where exactly he remembered from.

I hope any of this makes sense and is in some way helpful.
Christ’s peace be with you.
 
The way I have been taught, and the way my confessor tells me an has acted, no, he cannot even mention past sins to you. There was an incident where I said something like “remember what I confessed last time.” He hesitated and said, refresh my memory. I knew for a fact that he remembered because we had also discussed it out of the confessional (I had brought it up to him). Later when I asked him how he could not remember he told me that he cannot break the seal of confession even to me. Since I didn’t name the sin he could not acknowledge that he knew what I was talking about. Once he almost did when we were talking (outside the confessional) about something else that was bothering me with regard to something someone did, and he brought up a sinful situation that was similar to what I had confessed awhile ago, but he did not make any reference to me or my situation. I got the sense that he was helping me to make the connection…but when I fell silent he dropped the whole thing. I think he realized he was getting too close to stepping over the line.

Spiritual Direction is a different topic. My director will mention to me things that we talked about in previous sessions, even if they involved sinful actions, but never ones that I confessed to him sacramentally unless I bring up and name the particular sin first.
 
I appreciate your answers. I am pretty clear on how the Seal works outside the confessional. I am still very confused on whether or not it binds inside the confessional.

Are we reentering the Seal or starting anew everytime we enter?

Thanks again - Todd
 
I have received a little bit of a tongue-lashing in confessing the same sins often, but it was it was kind of like “This could be a vocational issue, so step up!”, motivation without Father naming the sins. So, it seems that in that way it could happen, but the priest had better be dang sure that he’s talking to the same person!!
 
A friend of mine went to confession for the same sin 3 weeks in a row, and the priest told him that if he came back again any time soon with that particular sin, the sin would not be forgiven and my friend would no receive absolution. He said the person obviously wasn’t trying.
 
I’m not sure I understand the question. Are you asking whether the seal of the confessional binds a priest to keep secrets from the person who told him the secret?

My understanding of it is this: the priest is strictly bound to never betray what he has heard in confession to a third party, either by word, deed, or omission of words and deeds, in any way that could connect the sin to a particular person. He may never use the knowledge he gained in confession to the detriment of the penitent. He may say that he has heard a particular type of sin in the confessional, but it cannot be something that could ever be traced back to a particular person having said it. That is canon law.

For sound pastoral reasons, however, priests usually act as if a sin never happened, once it is absolved. If you bring it up, they will tell you to remind them. As a physician of the soul, however, your confessor is not bound to never talk to you about a pattern of the sins you confess, nor bound to act as if he’s never heard any such thing from you. He doesn’t have to make the pretense to you that he’s clairvoyant because he knows what you confessed in the past.

For reasons of keeping his own mind sound and at peace, most priests also consider it a great grace when the sins confessed to him are immediately forgotten.
 
Thank you EasterJoy
EasterJoy said:
I’m not sure I understand the question. Are you asking whether the seal of the confessional binds a priest to keep secrets from the person who told him the secret?
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That is exactly the question. No third parties, just me and my confessor in the confessional.

Your point of the priest never betraying the penitent is pretty much what I walk away with from St. Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologica Question 11 if I understand it at all.

I have heard about the Grace of a priest forgetting the sin immediately but I would guess that this is not a concrete fact in that it always happens. I believe that the Priest is in Persona Christi, what would prevent me from believing that Jesus can use my pattern of sin and struggles through the priest to help me amend my life.

So maybe the first thing I have to understand to answer my question is “Are sins forgiven and forgotten or just forgiven?” (“just” not being a great word here!)

I think the argument could be made from the Catechism that sin is not completely forgotten:
CCC 1459:
…Absolution takes away sin, but it does not remedy all the disorders sin has caused.
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Taking in to account the following:
Can. 983 ß1:
The sacramental seal is inviolable. Accordingly, it is absolutely wrong for a confessor in any way to betray the penitent, for any reason whatsoever, whether by word or in any other fashion.
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It would seam that the sacramental seal is a law with the specific purpose of protecting the penitent and the sacrament as a whole. The seal would in no way be violated by the priest referring past sins if the penitent in guiding the penitent.

-Todd
 
marthagreys said:
A friend of mine went to confession for the same sin 3 weeks in a row, and the priest told him that if he came back again any time soon with that particular sin, the sin would not be forgiven and my friend would no receive absolution.
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:eek: Words escape me. :rolleyes:
 
Sir_Knight said:
:eek: Words escape me. :rolleyes:
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Good.

No one who was not present has any right to discuss or judge what was said in anyone else’s confession. The priest could have had any number of reasons for saying that, ranging from his determination that the guy really wasn’t either sorry or trying and should not receive absolution, to saying it lightly to get the penitent to laugh at himself and recommit to the struggle.

None of our business. Nothing appropriate to say.

Betsy
 
ICXC said:
It would seem that the sacramental seal is a law with the specific purpose of protecting the penitent and the sacrament as a whole. The seal would in no way be violated by the priest referring past sins if the penitent in guiding the penitent.
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If you think about it, this makes sense. Let us say that a priest heard confessions every day. Let us say that a penitent came in every day, confessing the same sin. Of course the confessor would eventually address this! That would not be possible if the confessor could not talk to a penitent about past confessions, especially confessions in the recent past.

If there is no reason to bring it up, though, the confessor would generally not.
 
Canon Law:

Can. 983 §1. The sacramental seal is inviolable; therefore it is absolutely forbidden for a confessor to betray in any way a penitent in words or in any manner and for any reason.

Can. 984 §1. A confessor is prohibited completely from using knowledge acquired from confession to the detriment of the penitent even when any danger of revelation is excluded.

My understanding is yes …one can have regular confessor who knows you…or a spiritual director…who in confession or outside (with your permission)…can speak with you and guide you…
 
That was wrong of him…repeated sins or sometimes sins of habit are not a matter of lack of will power or “not trying”…as long as your friend was contrite, had a firm purpose of amendment, and a hatred of sin, then they should always received absolution…now if he confesses a sin and while counselling him, the priest discovers he/she has no intention of changing their sinful life, then he could refuse him absolution…but as long as he/she is whole heartedly trying to amend their life and not sin any further, the priest should not refuse absolution…that is very, very sad.
marthagreys said:
A friend of mine went to confession for the same sin 3 weeks in a row, and the priest told him that if he came back again any time soon with that particular sin, the sin would not be forgiven and my friend would no receive absolution. He said the person obviously wasn’t trying.
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michaeldaniels said:
That was wrong of him…repeated sins or sometimes sins of habit are not a matter of lack of will power or “not trying”…as long as your friend was contrite, had a firm purpose of amendment, and a hatred of sin, then they should always received absolution…now if he confesses a sin and while counselling him, the priest discovers he/she has no intention of changing their sinful life, then he could refuse him absolution…but as long as he/she is whole heartedly trying to amend their life and not sin any further, the priest should not refuse absolution…that is very, very sad.
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That is exactly what I was thinking and that is why it left me speechless. A priest is suppose to deal with sinners in the same fashion that he would like his confessor to deal with him. If he was struggling with a sinful habit, I am pretty sure that he would not have wanted his confessor to with hold absolution from him.
 
ICXC said:
I posted this in the AAA forum but have not yet received an answer. I would also like to know what your thoughts are. I hope this is not considered cross posting.

In the context of a regular confessor / Spiritual Director, can a priest in persona Christi within the confessional on a subsequent visit remember my “history” of sins, trials and struggles from past confessions to help guide me in my journey toward Christ?
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A good one, a true Spiritual Father, does. But only so as to help you break those habits of sin.

If, however, you have a long-term pattern, and he knows of it, he’s obligated to inquire as to your actual repentance and contrition, unless he’s been working with you on it and already knows of it.

He has to judge if you are in fact suitably disposed to receive the sacrament; if not, then his absolution would be meaningless.
 
This is a very interesting topic, and one I’ve thought about but didn’t know how to articulate.

When I go to confession (same priest every time, face-to-face), I don’t assume the priest has remembered anything I spoke about previously. I also admit when I’m repeatedly doing something, so he knows that I’m aware of this, and also so he doesn’t have to try to recall everything.

Something like: “Once again, Father, I’ve put off doing something I don’t enjoy doing and it caused a problem for others. I need to pray for strength so that I won’t continue to succumb to the temptation to procrastinate.”
 
A friend has pointed me toward a Catholic Answers archived show (11/13/09) where Frederick Miller conveys that he treats the Seal of Confession as seperate for each visit to the confessional in answer to Patrick Coffin’s question similiar to the one of this post.

catholic.com/radio/event.php?calendar=1&category=0&event=5954&date=2009-11-13

I called in to the show today (3/3/10) with the question and Fr. Vincent Serpa’s answer was along the lines of if you give him permission.

Thanks for all of your (name removed by moderator)ut.

-Todd
 
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