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Priests will to go to jail rather than break the seal of the confessional

Say seal of confession means they cannot disclose wrongdoings

CATHY HAYES,

IrishCentral Staff Writer

Published Wednesday, July 20, 2011, 6:59 AM

Updated Wednesday, July 20, 2011, 6:59 AM

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31 Comments

A founding member of the Association of Catholic Priests has said he would he would rather choose to serve time in prison rather than break the seal of confession.

In the wake of the Cloyne report the Irish government stated that priests who fail to report child abuse disclosed to them during confession, to the relevant authorities could face up to five years in prison.

Writing in his Western People column Father Brendan Hoban said that the seal of confession outweighs “any form of professional confidentiality or secrecy.”

“Priests do not just regard it as an absolute duty not to disclose anything that they
learn from penitents in the confessional. They know that if they reveal anything they have learned during confession to anyone, even under a threat of their own death or that of others, that they would be automatically
excommunicated.”

Canon law states: "Let the priest who dares to make known the sins of his penitent be deposed."

Under the seal priests cannot disclose anything they learn from their penitent. Fr Hoban said the most any priest can do is encourage the person to surrender themselves to authorities.

“We cannot directly or indirectly disclose the matter to anyone, civil authorities or anyone
else,” he states.

He goes to to reference the Alfred Hitchcock film “I confess” in which a killer confesses a murder to a priest. The priest himself is later accused of the murder but cannot convey the truth as it would break the seal of confession.

“It is a measure of the vulnerability of the Catholic Church that part of the package of measures being contemplated by the civil authorities effectively amounts to a rejection of protection in law for what was always regarded as the sacred seal of Confession,” he concludes.

________________

Irish priests say they will not reveal confession secrets

Bishop of Cloyne apologizes from American hideaway
_________________

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31 Comments

15 - 31 | See all comments

Collette2 | Jul 23, 2011, 12:38 AM EDT

This like celibacy, is a man made law, both causing big problems that could and should be repealed. Tell me honestly, who would a clergyman be more afraid of, God or the church hiearchy. We should already know the answer to that by now.

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Colliegirl | Jul 22, 2011, 01:31 PM EDT

barneyjo, Absolution can't be given conditionally. It can be withheld if, for example, the person refuses to remove himself from the occasion of sin. In scripture Jesus gave the apostles the command to forgive AND TO RETAIN sin. Therefore, the priest can say to a penitent I will leave you in your sin until you take steps to show me that you have truly repented, then come back and I will absolve you. In the case regarding poteen, the priest was unable to grant absolution (he didn't give it conditionally), only the bishop could grant it in that case. A priest can't absolve a person in advance before he fulfills the condition. The person would have to fulfill the condition and then come back for absolution. But even in that case the priest is bound by the seal of confession. Besides, how could anyone trust a priest who would break his vow? What confidence could you have in his word? And it would all be hearsay. Do Irish courts accept hearsay as evidence?

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CitizenWhy | Jul 22, 2011, 10:54 AM EDT

I think Enda and the bishops have cooked up a scheme to reinvigorate the Irish Catholic Church. Pass this misguided law. Put priest in jail. As a result win sympathy and loyalty back for the Church.

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seanomelbourne | Jul 21, 2011, 09:00 PM EDT

Gearoid how many pedophile priests confessed to their crimes and what penence did they receive 3 hail marys ? It is illegal not to report a crime priests should not be an excepton to civil law.

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Gearoid4 | Jul 21, 2011, 04:26 PM EDT

The secrecy of the confessional is paramount in the penitent/confessor relationship and to break the seal of confidentiality on this is enough to incur automatic ex-communication( latae sententiae) for the priest. I can see the moral dilemma involved here but this is a Holy sacrament of the Church and the conditions governing it cannot be dispensed with. In reality the confessional box is a source of little intelligence regarding such crimes as sex-abuse and anyone guilty or suspected of such a crime is unlikely to use it and instead would give themselves in to the secular authorities if they wanted to unburden themselves.

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barneyjo | Jul 21, 2011, 02:47 AM EDT

@884evergirl - thats precisely the point. "To whom much is given, much is expected"!! Broken lives, broken bones and broken souls should NOT be part of that!!

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884evergirl | Jul 20, 2011, 11:58 PM EDT

i am catholic always have been and been in the confessional many times i have done horrible things in my life and i know the priests have heard it all and thank god we are forgiven but no i do agee and applaud the priests that would rather go to jail all they can do i counsel someone and have themselves turn themselves in jesus did say afterall there is no sin that cannot be forgiven except sins against the holy spirit and who's sins yu forgive on eath will be forgiven in heaven and those that yu retain on earth will be retained in heaven they do have difficult decisions to make and thats why not everyone can be a priest and why we have so few its not easy and we must pray for them the most because much has been given to them by GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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bonjouryall | Jul 20, 2011, 09:49 PM EDT

I believe relatively few priests hide behind the sanctity of the confession. At the same time, there is nothing to prevent that same priest from saying 'no, this should not occur' if the administrative priests decide to reassign a sinning priest to another parish where they do not know of his wicked ways. Like sending Boston pedophile priests to Louisiana. The adm. type priests just don't ask questions and don't listen if an opinion is given by a good priest. It is possible they may "create" a fake confession just to be able to assert it. In both cases, their sin is almost as great as the pedophile.

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sirpeter | Jul 20, 2011, 09:39 PM EDT

God loves Pedophiles

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barneyjo | Jul 20, 2011, 08:10 PM EDT

@TomSwinford - if you want to consider conditionality, think on the story of the wealthy young man who enquired of Jesus "what must I do to enter the kingdom of heaven" to which the reply was "give up all that you have and follow me" And you know the rest. I take it you can see the paralell to my previous post!!

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barneyjo | Jul 20, 2011, 08:02 PM EDT

@Fathervol - not so. In 19th/20th Century Ireland the church regarded both the consumption and production of Poteen as a major sin to the point that in certain Diocese, absolution was conditional on the confession of this sin to the Bishop and the Bishop alone; the priest was not permitted to grant absolution in this instance. Thus an element of conditionality is present.

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pilib04 | Jul 20, 2011, 07:37 PM EDT

Any priest who hides pedophiles should go to jail. Priests have been hidden by the church hierarchy for too long. They have enjoyed protection by the seal of the confessional. This is about to stop as it should!

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pilib04 | Jul 20, 2011, 07:03 PM EDT

I was not aware that forgiveness in the confessional box could be conditional. "Sins that are forgiven, they are forgiven; sins that are retained, they are retained." MsGail and barneyjo, I like your solution, it makes sense - but, of course, that's the problem, it makes sense. In truth, I am with glorybe1929. As I've said in an earlier post on this subject, I am no longer a practicing Catholic. But I have not lost my faith, I have lost my religion. My faith is a personal and private matter between me and my God - and no one else, period. When we allowed intermediaries to intercede between ourselves and God we totally screwed up the world - and gave unconditional power and wealth to institutions that in their very nature were bound to abuse this trust in the worst way. They have and they will again and again.

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seanomelbourne | Jul 20, 2011, 06:57 PM EDT

I am proud of priests who would be jailed rather than break the seal because that is where they belong for aiding and abetting criminal behaviour(an acccessory after the fact comes to mind).

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FatherVol | Jul 20, 2011, 06:33 PM EDT

Glorybe doesn't know his/her sacred scriptures for the Church was given the authority to loosen and bind people ccording to their sins. Barbeyjo, a priest can only urge a penitent to confess his/her wrongdoing to public authorities; he cannot compely him/her to do so by making is a condition of forgiveness.

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