238. Seal of the confessional

Seal of the confessional

YOUCAT Catechism of the Catholic Church Lesson 238

Ave Maria series

238  May a priest later repeat something  he has learned in confession?

No.  Under no circumstances.  The secrecy of the confessional is absolute.  Any priest who would tell another person something he had learned in the confessional would be excommunicated.  Even to the police, the priest cannot say or suggest anything.  [1467]

This marks the place on the bridge parapet where John of Nepomuk was thrown into the Vitava  River. …..238

St. John of Nepomuk (c. 1345 – March 20, 1393) is the saintof Bohemia (Czech Republic), who was drowned in the Vitava river at the behest of Wenceslaus, King of the Romans and King of Bohemia. Later accounts state that he was the confessor of the queen of Bohemia and refused to divulge the secrets of the confessional. 

“Knowing that the (queen) was going to Confession to the young priest, (King) Wenceslaus invited (John of Nepomuk) to his palace and tried to bribe him to reveal to him the contents of the queen’s Confession, but St. John replied that the Seal of the Sacrament of Confession prevented his disclosing anything. The king then tried torture. He had Father John thrown in prison where he was racked and had his sides burned with torches, but the only thing that he said during his suffering were the names of Jesus and Mary. After one more failed attempt to alter the priest’s resolve, Wenceslaus had him paraded through the city with a block of wood in his mouth, a mockery of the Sacramental seal, to the Charles Bridge, where his hands and feet were bound and he was thrown into the Moldau River where he drowned. Since, he has been considered a martyr to the Seal of Confession and a patron saint of confessors.” –Catholic Preaching, Fr. Roger J. Landry, Diocese of Fall River. January 25, 2013

There is hardly anything that priests take more seriously than the seal of the confessional.  There are priests who have suffered torture for it and have gone to their deaths.  Therefore, you can speak candidly and unreservedly to a priest and confide in him with great peace of mind, because his only job at that moment is to be entirely “the ear of God”.

Love Jesus!  Have no fear!  Even if you had committed all the sins in this world, Jesus repeats these words to you: ‘Your many sins are forgiven, because you loved much’.”  St. Padre Pio of Pietrelcina (1887-1968, one of the most popular saints of Italy)

THE MINISTER OF THIS SACRAMENT

1467  Given the delicacy and greatness of this ministry and the respect due to persons, the Church declares that every priest who hears confessions is bound under very severe penalties to keep absolute secrecy regarding the sins that his penitents have confessed to him. He can make no use of knowledge that confession gives him about penitents' lives.(compare Codex Iuris Canonici, can. 1388 § 1; Corpus Canonum Ecclesiarm Orientalium, can. 1456.)⁷² This secret, which admits of no exceptions, is called the "sacramental seal," because what the penitent has made known to the priest remains "sealed" by the sacrament.

Saint John of Nepomuk