Ohio Man tells priest He Killed Girlfriend

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It sounds like he confessed to the priest, but not in confession. If that makes sense.
 
Allegra said:
It sounds like he confessed to the priest, but not in confession. If that makes sense.
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Yes it does. If he told me that, the attorney-client privilege wouldn’t apply unless I was his lawyer.
 
He could well have fully confessed to the priest in full confessional circumstances

and the priest can encourage the man to give himself up and possibly ‘walk with him to do so’

and once the man agreed then the priest could call the cops or could make the man do so. This priest was kind in calling the cops for him though it was most likely negotiated who would do that. But it will have been done with the mans full consent.
 
I am still learning about this, so even in murder situations, priests are not allowed to tell anyone? Thats gotta be a hard thing to carry around on a priests shoulders…
 
Yes the priest cannot say anything about what was said in the confession.

hence why priests are never called for Jury they may know something but cannot share.

but it doesn’t stop the priest to encouraging the sinner and a good priest will do just that and be there for the sinner so its not as lonely for the sinner that first half hour and their sin is probably then aboslved by the priest for God will have forgiven the sinner.

Priests will have their own confessors to confess to so wont have to carry it alone on that score

but it will never be divulged beyond the confessional without the sinners consent. 100% every time.
 
I’m still a fairly new Catholic, but could a priest tell the criminal that, as penance, he had to turn himself in? Is that within the priest’s boundaries?
 
Angelsflight said:
I am still learning about this, so even in murder situations, priests are not allowed to tell anyone? Thats gotta be a hard thing to carry around on a priests shoulders…
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Not if it is done in the context of a confession.
 
SpeSalvi said:
I’m still a fairly new Catholic, but could a priest tell the criminal that, as penance, he had to turn himself in? Is that within the priest’s boundaries?
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actually I don’t think it is. He can encourage the penitent to do so, but he can not establish that as a penance.
 
SpeSalvi said:
I’m still a fairly new Catholic, but could a priest tell the criminal that, as penance, he had to turn himself in? Is that within the priest’s boundaries?
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You should read the article. Sometimes the media uses words in their title to provoke a reaction to get people to read it. In this case, the murdered did not go to Sacramental Confession, he grabbed the priest and “confessed” in the secular sense of admitting that he did this.
 
SpeSalvi said:
I’m still a fairly new Catholic, but could a priest tell the criminal that, as penance, he had to turn himself in? Is that within the priest’s boundaries?
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He could well do that as a way forward. Chances are too that if the criminal was in confessional talking about it all - may be just the extra encouragement they need to help give themselves up. Individual priests will have their own way of handling such situations but he certainly within boundaries to ask the criminal to turn themselves in as penance. But it doesn’t mean to say that every Priest will handle it as thus. Some may grant absolution without further penance etc. They will be carefully listening to the sinner to see if by offering it as penance will help them or hinder them. If they think will hinder then it wouldn’t be a penance. There is no hard and fast rule as such. They may well also know the sinner a little bit more to know how best to help. But if the sinner chooses to do nothing further it will all stay quiet with the priest. Any information shared would do so anyway.

The Priests boundaries are to listen to the confession offer guidence and advice etc and I would hope most priests will at some point inform the criminal that they will have more peace in themselves if they could give themselves up but wouldn’t force them into it and only make the call themselves if they know the criminal is in full agreement. Apart of the hidden role of the priest is making our live that little bit better for us. It may seem the hard way but giving ourselves up if we done crime is easier for ourselves rather than suffering in silence. Some priests will make the call and stay with you and stay with you whatever you choose as everyone needs that friend. The priest is our friend if we let him.
 
no,a priest may not require as penance that someone turn themselves in to the police.
 
Cut and pasted from the New York Post article:

When he came clean Monday, “It was the man’s desire to turn himself in,” not to make a formal, sacramental confession, explained the fellow priest at St. Francis.

Priests are strictly barred from divulging any information from confessions, explained Joseph Zwilling, spokesman for the New York Archdiocese.

“But if someone is going down the street and happens to say, ‘Hi, Father, I killed Bob,’ that’s another thing entirely,” Zwilling said.

Read more: nypost.com/p/news/local/ohio_killer_fesses_to_ny_priest_A3N1ZARhHc1jFkQx8vapVI#ixzz21pvUjfoU

It sounds pretty cut and dried to me.
 
Also… I would love to know more about priests encouraging someone to turn themselves in, or requiring it as part of a pennance. Off to “Ask an Apologist”!!!
 
rfournier103 said:
Also… I would love to know more about priests encouraging someone to turn themselves in, or requiring it as part of a pennance. Off to “Ask an Apologist”!!!
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what are you expecting?

on a good note a few year ago through an bad moment I dropped out of the church choir. I continued with church because it wasn’t God I’d fallen out with…
The first confessional the priest at that time tried hard to get me to rejoin the choir . He really did try to pave the way for me to have simply gone back in the following week. But I wasn’t that ready.

Few year down the line and with the current priest the penny kind of dropped after 9 lessons and carols. But not fully dropped. I’d written one confession out and booked it. The second I put the phone down I screwed up the original confession and wrote it about love of music… based on an earlier discussion with him. I should have seen it coming but really did not. I throughly kind of expected that at the most be Psalm 150 or something. But nope my penance was to rejoin the choir - based on a question or two from him about how much do I want. I really still didn’t see that coming though naturally it the natural thing to happen. That was a fun penance (for me) but on the same lines of a criminal being encouraged. I think I stood there half stranded codfish at first and certainly a few seconds later thinking, he hasn’t given me a penance - oh yes he has.

Okay that is a different level to someone committing a crime. But priests do and can use whatever is at their disposal kind of, to help you deal with situtations. To face situations.If penance helps then it will be used but wisely not as a punishment but so are nearer to God. There is nothing spectacular about a criminal turning up at confession. Its quite ordinary. Only quite naturally most of the time we don’t hear about it. Plus I would like to bet that most of the crimnals by the time they reach the stage of confessional they are probably ready to give themselves up. Just need that extra help and the penance can be used as such. Naturally the criminal be absolved because the Priest wouldn’t be saying you gotta go to court etc. Just helping them to give themselves up. Of course not everyone will give themselves up but the priest be there just the same because he is our friend. Nothing exciting or mysterious or whatever about confession and the criminal.🤷
 
englishredrose said:
what are you expecting?

on a good note a few year ago through an bad moment I dropped out of the church choir. I continued with church because it wasn’t God I’d fallen out with…
The first confessional the priest at that time tried hard to get me to rejoin the choir . He really did try to pave the way for me to have simply gone back in the following week. But I wasn’t that ready.

Few year down the line and with the current priest the penny kind of dropped after 9 lessons and carols. But not fully dropped. I’d written one confession out and booked it. The second I put the phone down I screwed up the original confession and wrote it about love of music… based on an earlier discussion with him. I should have seen it coming but really did not. I throughly kind of expected that at the most be Psalm 150 or something. But nope my penance was to rejoin the choir - based on a question or two from him about how much do I want. I really still didn’t see that coming though naturally it the natural thing to happen. That was a fun penance (for me) but on the same lines of a criminal being encouraged. I think I stood there half stranded codfish at first and certainly a few seconds later thinking, he hasn’t given me a penance - oh yes he has.

Okay that is a different level to someone committing a crime. But priests do and can use whatever is at their disposal kind of, to help you deal with situtations. To face situations.If penance helps then it will be used but wisely not as a punishment but so are nearer to God. There is nothing spectacular about a criminal turning up at confession. Its quite ordinary. Only quite naturally most of the time we don’t hear about it. Plus I would like to bet that most of the crimnals by the time they reach the stage of confessional they are probably ready to give themselves up. Just need that extra help and the penance can be used as such. Naturally the criminal be absolved because the Priest wouldn’t be saying you gotta go to court etc. Just helping them to give themselves up. Of course not everyone will give themselves up but the priest be there just the same because he is our friend. Nothing exciting or mysterious or whatever about confession and the criminal.🤷
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I wonder if any priest ever felt threatened by a criminal’s confession. Has that ever happened that anyone knows of? Where a priest was injured or killed because he “knows too much” ?

That would be a scary part of just hearing a confession like that
 
rfournier103 said:
Also… I would love to know more about priests encouraging someone to turn themselves in, or requiring it as part of a pennance. Off to “Ask an Apologist”!!!
Click to expand...
Search the forum or the Catholic.com quick questions. What you will find is that as long as the Priest believes the person is sorry for their sin they must absolve and cannot require turning themselves in either a condition of absolution or as a penance as these would break the seal.
 
I am ashamed of myself. I thought that a priest had broken the seal of Confession and told the police about the crime. Thankfully when I looked at the article I saw that there was no Sacramental Confession but only a fessing up in a somewhat ordinary conversation. I don’t think you could really call the conversation ordinary but I used those terms to make it distinct from Sacramental Confession.
 
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