Hypothetical: Seal of confession when knowledge of confession is public knowledge

[FrDavid96]

(Can’t edit above post)

Also, wouldn’t saying something like “A priest broke the seal of confession” imply that a penitent confessed a crime to them anyway? Since the implication is there, but we don’t directly say that a crime was confessed, we’re OK? I’m confused

It is the simple and direct fact that telling anyone what anyone else said in confession is wrong (indeed, it’s a sin). It’s always wrong, It doesn’t matter what else happens. It’s wrong to do it.

(aside: sometimes, we priests do speak about what we hear in confession, for educational purposes. When we do that, we change things around a bit, so that we’re not telling anyone exactly what was confessed. Also, priests are very careful that we never actually reveal the person. If I give an example of a confession I heard 20 years ago on a CAF forum, no one would ever even guess who was the penitent.)

 

[Cumulonimbuss]

Thank you all for replying. Here’s why I posted this question:

Before I say this, I want to make it very clear that I don’t know if these events have ever happened.

I have heard of some priests that have come up with a “loophole” for the Seal of Confession. If a situation ever arises where someone confesses a heinous crime to one of these priests, they would try to get the penitent to confess to them outside the Confessional, at which point they could report the matter to the police. This, in my understanding, would be a violation of the Seal - the priest would have used knowledge received in Confession to the detriment of the penitent.

Again, I don’t know if what I typed above is true. I was thinking about what I should do if it ever became clear in Confession that a priest would break the Seal. I decided to say something similar to what I typed in the previous paragraph if a priest were to ever try that on me. At the time, I didn’t know that one should not discuss knowledge of sins from Confession if it were already public knowledge - if a priest had ever broken the Seal like this, no doubt it would be in the news. If it weren’t in the news, I wouldn’t know if it were true anyway.

I wrote down what I would say on a piece of paper and took it to Confession. Fortunately, I never had to say what I planned to say - most, if not all priests, would probably not stoop so low as to break the Seal. I posted this to see if what I planned to do was sinful, although now it’s still not so clear. I have three questions now:

1. Is my confession invalid even though I didn’t know what I planned to do was sin?
2. What should I actually do if something like this arises? I’m going to Confession in a few hours - I want to be fully prepared.
3. I’ve cut up the paper into pieces (although someone could piece them together again). Do I have to burn the pieces to make sure no one jumps to the wrong conclusion that priests have broken the Seal as I described?

 

[FrDavid96]

…
I have heard of some priests that have come up with a “loophole” for the Seal of Confession. If a situation ever arises where someone confesses a heinous crime to one of these priests, they would try to get the penitent to confess to them outside the Confessional, at which point they could report the matter to the police. This, in my understanding, would be a violation of the Seal - the priest would have used knowledge received in Confession to the detriment of the penitent.

Real priests do not do things like this. I cannot be clear enough about that. Legitimate, faithful priest do not, absolutely do not, attempt to manufacture loopholes in order to violate the Seal of the Confessional. This sort of thing happens only in the realm of fiction. It happens in books and movies and TV shows. I recall seeing a popular TV show (that I rather like) this season* about a priest violating the Seal. No priest would ever do what that fictional priest did.

Yes, sometimes a priest might (just might) counsel a penitent to turn himself over to authorities. However, no priest would try to deceive a penitent into revealing the sin outside of Confession in order to manufacture a situation where the priest could violate his solemn responsibility of secrecy–which is absolutely inviolable.

Again, I don’t know if what I typed above is true. I was thinking about what I should do if it ever became clear in Confession that a priest would break the Seal. I decided to say something similar to what I typed in the previous paragraph if a priest were to ever try that on me. At the time, I didn’t know that one should not discuss knowledge of sins from Confession if it were already public knowledge - if a priest had ever broken the Seal like this, no doubt it would be in the news. If it weren’t in the news, I wouldn’t know if it were true anyway.

I wrote down what I would say on a piece of paper and took it to Confession. Fortunately, I never had to say what I planned to say - most, if not all priests, would probably not stoop so low as to break the Seal. I posted this to see if what I planned to do was sinful, although now it’s still not so clear. I have three questions now:

1. Is my confession invalid even though I didn’t know what I planned to do was sin?
2. What should I actually do if something like this arises? I’m going to Confession in a few hours - I want to be fully prepared.
3. I’ve cut up the paper into pieces (although someone could piece them together again). Do I have to burn the pieces to make sure no one jumps to the wrong conclusion that priests have broken the Seal as I described?

And at this point, I don’t think I’ll be saying any more. Until now, this seemed to me to be just what the title describes: a hypothetical situation. Since it’s not that all I’m going to say is, in regard to what you typed in the second half, you need to speak to a priest in-person.

I have no doubt (based on years of prior experience here) that people who have no idea what they’re writing about will respond here with all kinds of mis-information (the worst of which starts with something like “I don’t know what the Catholic Church says, but I saw this movie once…” or “I feel as if…”) I’m going to say it before rather than after: don’t pay any attention. Speak with a priest. That’s what you need to do.

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• There’s no point in treating this like some kind of secret. It was a TV episode of Blue Bloods, which I usually like. They got this one terribly wrong

 

[Usagi]

If you voluntarily repeat confessed material to the priest outside the setting of the sacrament (“outside the confessional” isn’t key since you can confess anywhere), then he can act upon it, yes. Sometimes that is important because the priest can’t even talk* to the penitent* about the content of the actual confession, so he has to pretend he hasn’t heard it before and ask for it to be repeated if the penitent seeks a follow-up conversation or advice outside the sacrament. I doubt that a priest would trick a penitent into repeating a confession, though.

 

[Cumulonimbuss]

So I asked a priest what I should do if any priest were to try to break the Seal on me, and he told me to not worry about it because that just wouldn’t happen - if he were to break the Seal, he would be finished. I forgot to ask the other questions though

Thank you all for your help.