Seal of Confession outside.. confession

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OrbisNonSufficit

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Well, as confusing as title can be, I’ll try to present this simple scenario and my doubts in this matter as clear as I can.

First, Canon Law states:
§2. The interpreter, if there is one, and all others who in any way have knowledge of sins from confession are also obliged to observe secrecy.

Now, part about “and all others who in any way have knowledge of sins from confession” is a bit cloudy for me. Does this mean that if penitent tells me outside confession anything about what happened inside confession (which is his right), I am bound by Seal of Confession? Or does that only refer to hearing confession itself?
 
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The penitent isn’t bound by the seal, only the priest or anyone likely to overhear the confession by accident. The penitent can say as much or as little as they want about their own confession. And AFAIK, if the penitent tells you, you’re not bound, because they’re not bound. OTOH, other things do come into play though about just carelessly revealing things told in confidence…
 
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Yes, but if penitent reveals some information to me later, explicitly telling me it happened during confession, am I bound by seal of confession?
 
As far as I know, no, outside of the usual bounds of decorum.
 
No. The only person bound by the seal is the priest hearing the confession, and an interpreter or someone who may accidently hear what is going on.

The penitent can tell anyone they want, and at the point the seal no longer applies.
 
If one person is standing to close to the confessional and hears what is being said, that person is also bound by the seal.
 
No longer applies specifically to the person he told. All others you mentioned are still bound by the seal.
 
While you may not be bound by Canon Law, the bonds of propriety and friendship would be to keep it to yourself.
 
Of course, I would not go around revealing someone’s confession, but thank you for reminding me. This problem was a bit more complicated and I’ll just say I was asked to help but needed someone else’s opinion on the matter to be sure I’m not misinformed. When reading canon law to help me with issue, I’ve stumbled across this line and got a bit confused if I did not do something to break it. People I have talked to do not know each other personally, if that helps.
 
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