Was my friend's privacy violated?

[honeybear]

A friend of mine had a parish pastor for a spiritual director. She was having touble with a couple of members of her parish that caused her to repeatedly behave in a less than virtuous fashion. She brought this to the attention of her director in a letter.

Apparently, the associate pastor found the letter on the desk of the pastor and, seeing that it mentioned in unflattering terms parishioners he was fond of, he became enraged. At a daily Mass, he read her letter out loud to the congregation.

The associate pastor told my friend that it was all the pastor’s fault as he had left the letter on his desk. My friend said the associate pastor had violated her privacy by reading a letter written in confidence to someone else. The pastor stated that the confidentiality of the confessional did not apply here.

Was the letter open for parish discussion by the associate pastor because it was not written under the seal of confession but under spiritual direction?

 

[Michelle_Arnold]

The pastor is correct that the seal of the confessional does not apply to this situation. However, that does not mean that the associate pastor had the right to read a letter that was not addressed to him or to read the letter to the congregation. Reading another person’s mail and broadcasting that mail to outside parties is indeed a violation of your friend’s privacy. If she cannot convince her pastor/spiritual director to address the situation, she should contact her local bishop. If your report of the situation is correct, the associate pastor behaved outrageously.