Case XL: Regarding the Confession of a Person Hard of Hearing

With considerable anxiety Father Cajus enters for the first time the confessional. His first penitent is an aged lady, who, amongst other things, accuses herself of not having kept the prescribed fast days. After listening to her Confession, Cajus, as in duty bound, puts some necessary questions, but he receives either a wrong answer or no answer at all. It becomes evident to the young priest that he has before him a person hard of hearing. Father Cajus is perplexed, but after some hesitation, he decides to unconditionally absolve the penitent, who, it appears to him, is well disposed; furthermore, he imposes a very trifling penance, because he cannot speak to the penitent without being heard and understood by others. The question is, Did Cajus act rightly or not?

Cajus acted quite correctly, as he only became aware of the penitent’s deafness after the confession of sins, and for this reason was unable to take his penitent to another place, or bid her to return at a later hour, without causing others to suspect a grievous matter about which they would think the confessor wanted to inquire more thoroughly. For this reason also Cajus very properly imposed merely a small penance. The justification of this procedure is found in the solicitous concern not to violate the seal of Confession. The material completeness of the Confession must here give way to the regard for the seal of Confession. Formal completeness of the Confession suffices here because material completeness is morally impossible.

The confessor would have been obliged to proceed differently had he noticed the defect before her confession of sins, or had he known from experience that he had before him a deaf person. In such a case he would either appoint another time for her to come to Confession, or seek an appropriate place, where he could ask the necessary questions, unless, indeed, in the case of females, prudence and regard for good repute made it advisable to be satisfied even in this case with the formal completeness of the confession of sins (Cf. S. Alphonsus, Praxis Confessarii, 104; Lehmkuhl, Theologia Moralis, edit. VI., tom. 2, 328). Dr. John Döller.