Chapter I: Of the Minister of the Sacrament of Penance

The minister of this sacrament is only a priest.

Besides the power of order, for the valid absolution of sins there is required in the minister the power of jurisdiction, whether ordinary or delegated, over the penitent.

§ 1. Besides the Roman Pontiff, Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church possess ordinary jurisdiction for hearing confessions for the whole Church; for his own territory, each local Ordinary, and the pastor and others who are in the place of the pastor.

§ 2. The canon penitentiary, also of a collegiate church, according to the norm of can. 401, Sec. 1, and exempt religious Superiors for their subjects, according to the norm of the constitutions, also enjoy this same jurisdiction.

§ 3. This jurisdiction ceases by loss of office, according to the norm of can. 183, Sec. 1, and, after a condemnatory or declaratory sentence, by excommunication, suspension from office, and interdict.

§ 1. The local Ordinary in whose territory confessions are heard confers delegated jurisdiction for receiving the confessions of any persons, whether seculars or religious, upon priests both secular and religious, even exempt; religious priests, however, are not to use the same without at least the presumed permission of their Superior, with the prescription of can. 519 nevertheless remaining firm.

§ 2. Local Ordinaries are not habitually to grant jurisdiction for hearing confessions to religious who are not presented by their own Superior; but they are not to deny it without grave cause to those who are presented by their own Superior, with the prescription of can. 877 nevertheless remaining firm.

§ 1. In an exempt clerical religious institute, for receiving the confessions of professed members, novices, or others of whom in can. 514, Sec. 1, their own Superior also confers delegated jurisdiction according to the norm of the constitutions; it is lawful for him to grant it even to priests from the secular clergy or from another religious institute.

§ 2. In an exempt lay religious institute, the Superior proposes a confessor, who nevertheless must obtain jurisdiction from the local Ordinary in whose territory the religious house is found.

§ 1. Any contrary particular law or privilege being revoked, priests, both secular and religious, of whatever grade or office, need peculiar jurisdiction for validly and licitly receiving the confessions of any religious women and novices, with the prescription of can. 239, Sec. 1, n. 1, 522, 523 preserved.

§ 2. The local Ordinary where the house of the religious women is situated confers this jurisdiction, according to the norm of can. 525.

§ 1. Neither local Ordinaries with respect to jurisdiction, nor religious Superiors with respect to jurisdiction or permission for hearing confessions, are to grant these except to those who have been found suitable by examination, unless there is question of a priest whose theological doctrine they have ascertained from elsewhere.

§ 2. If, after jurisdiction or permission has been granted, they prudently doubt whether a priest previously approved by them still continues to be suitable, they are to compel him to a new test of doctrine, even if there is question of a pastor or canon penitentiary.

§ 1. Delegated jurisdiction or permission for hearing confessions can be granted circumscribed by certain definite limits.

§ 2. Nevertheless local Ordinaries and religious Superiors are to beware lest, without a reasonable cause, they too greatly restrict jurisdiction or permission.

§ 1. For hearing confessions validly there is need of jurisdiction expressly granted in writing or by words.

§ 2. Nothing can be exacted for the granting of jurisdiction.

§ 1. The local Ordinary or religious Superior is not to revoke or suspend jurisdiction or permission for hearing confessions except for a grave cause.

§ 2. But for grave causes the Ordinary can also forbid to a pastor or penitentiary the function of confessor, with recourse in devolutive effect to the Apostolic See preserved.

§ 3. Nevertheless it is not lawful for a Bishop, without the Apostolic See having been consulted, if there is question of a formed house, to take away jurisdiction all at once from all confessors of some religious house.

§ 1. All priests of either clergy approved for hearing confessions in some place, furnished with either ordinary or delegated jurisdiction, can also validly and licitly absolve wanderers and travelers from another diocese or parish who come to them, and likewise Catholics of any Eastern rite.

§ 2. Those who have ordinary power of absolving can absolve subjects everywhere on earth.

In danger of death all priests, although not approved for confessions, validly and licitly absolve any penitents whatever from any sins or censures whatever, however reserved and notorious, even if an approved priest is present, with the prescription of can. 884, 2252 preserved.

§ 1. All priests undertaking a sea journey, provided that they have duly received the faculty of hearing confessions either from their own Ordinary, or from the Ordinary of the port in which they board the ship, or even from the Ordinary of any intermediate port through which they pass on the journey, can, throughout the whole journey, receive on the ship the confessions of any faithful sailing with them, although the ship in the journey passes through or even stops for some time in various places subject to the jurisdiction of different Ordinaries.

§ 2. As often as the ship stops in the journey, they can receive the confessions both of the faithful who for any cause come to the ship, and of those who, when they themselves call briefly at land, ask to confess to them, and can validly and licitly absolve them even from cases reserved to the local Ordinary.

The absolution of an accomplice in a base sin is invalid, except in danger of death; and even in danger of death, outside a case of necessity, it is illicit on the part of the confessor according to the norm of the apostolic constitutions and especially of the constitution of Benedict XIV Sacramentum Poenitentiae, June 1, 1741.

Although the prayers joined by the Church to the formula of absolution are not necessary for obtaining the absolution itself, nevertheless, unless there is a just cause, they are not to be omitted.

If the confessor cannot doubt concerning the dispositions of the penitent and the latter seeks absolution, absolution is neither to be denied nor deferred.

According to the quality and number of sins and the condition of the penitent, the confessor is to impose salutary and suitable satisfactions; these the penitent must accept with a willing soul and fulfill personally by himself.

§ 1. Let the priest remember that in hearing confessions he equally sustains the person of judge and physician, and has been constituted by God at once the minister of divine justice and mercy, so that he may provide for the divine honor and the salvation of souls.

§ 2. Let him beware entirely lest he inquire the name of an accomplice, lest he detain anyone with curious or useless questions, especially concerning the sixth precept of the Decalogue, and above all lest he imprudently question younger persons concerning things which they do not know.

§ 1. The sacramental seal is inviolable; wherefore the confessor is diligently to beware lest by word or sign or in any other way and for any cause he betray the sinner in any respect.

§ 2. The interpreter also and all others to whom knowledge of the confession has come in any way are likewise held by the obligation of preserving the sacramental seal.

§ 1. Use by the confessor of knowledge acquired from confession, with burden to the penitent, is entirely prohibited, even with any danger of revelation excluded.

§ 2. Both Superiors existing at the time, and confessors who later have been appointed Superiors, can in no way use for external governance the knowledge which they have had concerning sins in confession.

The master of novices and his associate, and the Superior of a Seminary or college, are not to hear the sacramental confessions of their pupils dwelling with them in the same house, unless the pupils spontaneously seek this in particular cases for a grave and urgent cause.

§ 1. Pastors and others to whom the care of souls has been entrusted by force of office are held by a grave obligation of justice of hearing, either by themselves or through another, the confessions of the faithful committed to them, as often as these reasonably seek to be heard.

§ 2. When necessity urges, all confessors are held by the obligation from charity of hearing the confessions of the faithful, and in danger of death all priests.