I know that the seal of confession is inviolable and that the priest cannot compel a penitent to reveal his sins to anyone else as a condition of absolution. Hence, a repentant murderer cannot be required to turn himself in to the police; an unfaithful spouse will not be compelled to tell his wife.
I am trying to find the official source for this teaching. I have found Jimmy Akin commentary and a Q&A from Catholic Answers and loads of opinions from armchair theologians, but I can’t find anything in canon law specifically. I was asked to provide the source for this claim. Any leads?
Thank you.
Hello,
You won’t find this spelled out in the Code of Canon Law. In fact, it provides a counter-argument in canon 982: “Whoever confesses to have denounced falsely an innocent confessor to ecclesiastical authority concerning the crime of solicitation to sin against the sixth commandment of the Decalogue is not to be absolved unless the person has first formally retracted the false denunciation and is prepared to repair damages if there are any.” There is no other canon like this, related to other sins. Nevertheless, this canon does demand that the priest not absolve until the penitent has “formally retracted…” This formal retraction would necessarily involve revealing the sin to a third party.
As to the broader question of what a confessor can impose as a penance, the Code says: “The confessor is to impose salutary and suitable penances in accord with the quality and number of sins, taking into account the condition of the penitent. The penitent is obliged to fulfill these personally” (c. 981). Certainly, the confessor has to absolve when he is not in doubt about the penitent’s disposition (c. 980). And, the penance should be such that the penitent is able to fulfill it (implied in c. 981).
There is also the Rite of Penance which states: "A penitent who has been the cause of harm or scandal to others is to be led by the priest to resolve to make due restitution (n. 18). This does not require a revelation of sin but if you steal $20 from the grocery store and the priest says: “Return that money.”…the clerk might put two and two together if you decide to personally return the money. See also Catechism of the Catholic Church, nos. 1459-1460.
If the confessor imposed as a penance: “Tell the store clerk that you stole $20.”, that’s a different matter and is what you are asking about. That would get into the area of making a person harm his own good name and this, in my understanding, is something that is not generally allowed. A person has a right to his “good name” and so revealing hidden sins would harm his good name/reputation. Canon 220 is somewhat related to this.
All that being said, as far as I know, there is no law specifically forbidding a priest from imposing a penance such as “turn yourself in to the police for that crime.”
Dan
