Question about the Seal of Confession

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Norbert25

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Hi all,

First time commenting on the forum, but I’ve been a long time reader. I was hoping you could help me out with a question I have about the seal of confession. Some friends and I were talking about a case many decades ago in which a young girl told a priest during confession that she was being abused by her stepfather. Because of the seal, the priest said he could not do anything about it. As a result, the abuse continued for years. If she told anyone, her stepfather had threatened to harm her mother and brother.

I’ve thought about two potential things that the priest could have done but I’m not sure if the seal would prevent these two options as well…

(1) In Confession, the priest could have told the girl that if she wants him to help her, she must tell him about the abuse outside of the confessional (and thus outside the sacrament). If the priest is told outside of confession, he is allowed to report it to authorities.

(2) The second option is what a priest told me could have been done, but I want to know if you agree. Upon hearing about the abuse in the confessional, the priest is permitted to tell the authorities about the abuse IF AND ONLY IF the girl explicitly states something along the lines of “Please tell the authorities, I need your help.”

Any insights you have are much appreciated. God Bless.
 
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Norbert25 said:
(1) In Confession, the priest could have told the girl that if she wants him to help her, she must tell him about the abuse outside of the confessional (and thus outside the sacrament). If the priest is told outside of confession, he is allowed to report it to authorities.

(2) The second option is what a priest told me could have been done, but I want to know if you agree. Upon hearing about the abuse in the confessional, the priest is permitted to tell the authorities about the abuse IF AND ONLY IF the girl explicitly states something along the lines of “Please tell the authorities, I need your help.”
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In my opinion if the girl tells the priest outside Confession the same thing she told him during Confession then the priest would not be breaking the Seal of Confession by informing the authorities. I don’t think it makes any difference if the girl tells the priest outside Confession voluntarily or by the priest during Confession telling her to do that outside Confession after Confession is over.

In the second case the priest would be bound by the Seal of Confession. During Confession if the girl tells the priest to inform the authorities he not permitted to do that.
 
It’s a difficult issue but fortunately one that arises only rarely. I know a canon lawyer who would say that, if abuse is revealed in the confessional (by the victim) then the seal doesn’t apply because they’re not confessing a sin (on their part at least). Personally, I’m uncomfortable with this simply because of the chilling effect it may well have on those who aren’t familiar with the finer points of confessional secrecy.

The closest I’ve come to this is thoughts of self-harm being raised in the confessional - I explained to the person that I wanted to help them but couldn’t do this unless they approached me after I was finished hearing confessions. After I was finished (and following a short but nervous wait) they did approach me. This is basically the approach I’d adopt for allegations of abuse,
 
I agree with the responses by thistle and InthePew. However, when we’re talking about something that allegedly happened “many decades ago” and only getting one side of the story and not hearing from the priest, it seems like potentially information is being left out.

The priest may well have said, or indicated in some way, that the girl should approach him outside the confessional, and she didn’t do it, perhaps out of fear or trauma; perhaps out of misunderstanding; perhaps because she wasn’t able to handle telling the story again, or telling it outside the confessional face-to-face if the confession had been taking place behind a screen; perhaps because she took the priest’s statement in the confessional as being dismissive; etc.

Depending on when this happened, the priest may also have thought that him saying he couldn’t do anything “because of the seal” sufficiently indicated that she should approach him outside the confessional if she wanted help. Catholics “many decades ago” went to confession more often, and had a better understanding of confession and the seal of confession (there were even popular movies made with plots about how priests couldn’t break the seal).
 
Thanks for the clarity. The story was told in Robert Orsi’s “History & Presence” which is required reading for a class I am taking.

Thanks again.
 
I wonder how long ago was that story?

question doesn’t the seal of confession belong to the confessor and isn’t a priest suppose to do all he can to help the confessor… isn’t that the main reason we confess to a priest, for help?

Also was she the sinner? if not then the priest wasn’t violating the seal of confessor for her cause she wasn’t the sinner, right?

okay yea I know more then one question, sorry.
 
annad347 said:
I wonder how long ago was that story?

question doesn’t the seal of confession belong to the confessor and isn’t a priest suppose to do all he can to help the confessor… isn’t that the main reason we confess to a priest, for help?

Also was she the sinner? if not then the priest wasn’t violating the seal of confessor for her cause she wasn’t the sinner, right?

okay yea I know more then one question, sorry.
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A priest may not reveal anything that is said during Confession. It makes no difference if what is said is about a sin or not.
 
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annad347 said:
isn’t a priest suppose to do all he can to help the confessor…isn’t that the main reason we confess to a priest, for help?
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No. He’s there to give absolution to the penitent. We confess to have our sins forgiven.
 
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If I ask someone to promise they will keep a secret and they break that promise, they break a type of seal with me. If I approached a priest after confession, in regular life, and told him a secret and asked he not reveal it, if a particular law about reporting it applied, he would be boud by the law to break that seal. The seal of confession is with God, so revealing anything whatsoever that is said in confession is impermissible and doing so is not merely a mortal sin, but results in automatic excommunication that can only be reversed/forgiven by the Supreme Pontiff.

I am not sure a canon lawyer would always say that, because it wasn’t a sin per se, that the priest would be permitted to report it to the authorities without breaking the seal. As with all lawyers, different ones have different opinions.
 
thistle said:
A priest may not reveal anything that is said during Confession. It makes no difference if what is said is about a sin or not.
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Not quite. Some things obviously fall outside of the seal - a tip for a good horse to place a bet on for example, or a dinner invitation. At the same time though there is the risk of the boundaries being blurred and it being unclear exactly when the priest and penitent are and aren’t ins sacramental mode, so to speak. I try to avoid this by starting with the sign of the cross. Given that the formula for absolution ends in the same way, I try to avoid small talk between the two and so effectively treat anything said as being within the seal.

Some canon lawyers would argue that if it’s not directly related to confession sin then it’s not covered - so if little Sally says that her father’s abusing her then that’s not covered and the priest should feel free to report it. Personally, I’m not comfortable with that because while it may be clear for the priest the same may not be true of the penitent (or others) since obviously they can’t be expected to understand the nuances of the sacramental seal.

With something serious that’s not a sin, IMHO a better approach is for the priest to ask the person to come and see them outside of the confessional (explaining why) - I once had to do this with a person who was contemplating self-harming. That way, there’s no risk of confusion.
 
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