Spiritual advice and the sacramental seal

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Killdeer_7

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Apparently, JPII had a lay spiritual advisor when he was young. Normally, spiritual advice wasn’t separated from confession, so it would have been protected by the sacramental seal.
Would this lay advisor have been bound by any formal requirements of the sacramental seal? What about lay ministers offering spiritual like advice to high school and collage age persons in the present day? There seems to be little written about even the duties of actual priests as it relates to confidentiality and spiritual advice.
 
It could arguably be protected by the same rules of confidentiality as therapists and lawyers, to the extent recognized by law. But there would be no sacramental seal or anything with an equivalent degree of force.
 
In seminary life at least (and I imagine it would be the same elsewhere), spiritual direction falls within the internal forum - meaning that it’s subject to the same protections as the sacrament of reconciliation. The only difference is that a SD can bring up something the directee has previously mentioned whereas a confessor cannot do this. It would also be covered by the same civil law protections as confession since most other denominations don’t recognise the sacrament of reconciliation.
 
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