point — Gury-Ballerini, Compendium of Moral Theology (8th ed., 1884)
Point II. On the Subject of the Seal
- Principles. - I. Every Confessor is primarily bound to the seal, whether true or fictitious and by error believed legitimate, and consequently even a layman who should pretend to be a priest and hear confession. The reason is that whenever someone confesses in order to the Sacrament, whoever hears him contracts by that very fact the obligation of the seal; otherwise hatred of the Sacrament would follow from it. - Thus all.
II. Those are secondarily bound who become participants in the confession, or all those to whom knowledge of the confession comes in any manner, whether from the confession itself or from means ordered to it. It is said, first, from the confession itself, for the matter accused comes to their knowledge on the same occasion; therefore the same cause on account of which the obligation of the seal is given is present, namely, lest hatred of the Sacrament be created. It is said, second, from the means, for hatred of the means redounds upon the end itself.
Hence the following are bound to the seal: 1. interpreters employed in making confession 1; 2. Superiors from whom outside the Sacrament the faculty of absolving, or of receiving absolution from a reserved case, is sought; 3. those who hear the sin while someone confesses, whether deliberately or even inculpably, and likewise if others should perhaps hear it from them; 4. those who write the confession of the uneducated or of those ignorant of the language of the Confessor 2, especially if confession cannot be made in another manner; 5. Doctors consulted by the Confessor with the permission of the penitent; 6. all those to whom the Confessor sacrilegiously or imprudently manifested sins heard in confession. - St. Ligorius, nos. 647 and 648.
1 Namely, if someone spontaneously wishes to confess through an interpreter; for, as was said elsewhere, no one is ever bound to this.
2 Of these also that which was said about employing an interpreter avails, namely, that no obligation to use these means is present.
- Questions. - QUESTION 1. Is the penitent also obliged by the seal with respect to the Confessor?
Reply 1. He is not bound to the sacramental seal, because the obligation of the seal is only in favor of the penitent.
Reply 2. But he is bound to natural secrecy concerning those things which he cannot reveal without unjust harm to the Confessor, or contrary to his reasonable will, or without injury and contempt of the Sacrament. - St. Ligorius, no. 647.
QUESTION 2. Can the Confessor speak with the penitent concerning the latter's confession?
Reply 1. He can speak in confession about all past confessions 3.
3 Understand this if some grave cause requires it. For even within confession, unless a long habit of confessing to the same priest has introduced a certain familiarity between him and the penitent, it is ordinarily burdensome to penitents that the memory of sins which they confessed at other times be renewed. Indeed, it is still less profitable, nor is it pleasing to penitents, that after a long time the Confessor appear mindful of old sins; and, on the contrary, it is profitable that the Confessor, as a minister of God, display in himself what is said of the Lord God himself: You have cast all my sins behind your back (Isaiah 38:17); and, He will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea (Micah 7:19); and, I will remember their sins and iniquities no more (Hebrews 10:17).
Reply 2. He can also speak after absolution before the penitent has departed, or if he afterward returns. The reason is that, although the Sacrament is complete, the judgment nevertheless still morally continues.
Reply 3. Outside the sacred tribunal he cannot speak even one word with him, without the penitent's permission, concerning those things which pertain to his confession. Except the case in which the penitent himself first speaks about his conscience 4. - St. Ligorius, no. 651.
4 That is, if he speaks of those things which were the matter of confession; for not every discourse introduced by the penitent about matters of his conscience grants the faculty of speaking about all the things heard from him in confession. Indeed, the Confessor ought not go beyond the matter about which the penitent spoke.
- QUESTION 3. Is one who reads a paper on which the penitent wrote his confession bound to the seal?
Reply 1. No, per se. The reason is that this is not a means ordered of itself to confession and therefore does not of itself induce the obligation of the sacramental seal, but only of natural secrecy. Nevertheless, this presses per se under grave sin unless the matter concerns the slightest faults. - St. Ligorius, no. 650.
Reply 2. Per accidens the obligation of the seal can be present if the paper were or had been a necessary means for confession; for example, if it were written by a mute person or directed to a Superior on account of some reservation 5; likewise if the paper had already been handed to the priest; but especially if someone were to read it while it is in the hand of the Confessor or in the act of confession, or if it had been lost by the Confessor himself 6, because in these cases it pertains to confession. - St. Ligorius, ibid.
5 It was already observed elsewhere that no one, not even a mute person, is bound to write; and if the Superior who can grant the faculty for reserved cases is absent, it was already said elsewhere that the penitent can confess to another, by whom he may be directly absolved from the non-reserved sins, and thus the reserved sins also be indirectly remitted.
6 Cardinal De Lugo, from whom these things were taken, does not limit the case to a paper lost by the Confessor himself, but says generally (On Penance, disputation 23, no. 48): Indeed, even if after absolution someone found it in the confessional, it seems probable that he would be bound to the seal, because it seems to be the confession itself remaining. But it can be left in the confessional also by the penitent, whether he received it back after it had been read by the Confessor, and by the best counsel the Confessor will always return the paper to the penitent, or whether the penitent confessed from the writing. Wherefore it seems that the canon discussed above at no. 650, question 2, must also be employed here.
- QUESTION 4. Is a Doctor consulted by the penitent himself bound to the seal of confession?
Reply. No, at least more probably, if he is consulted concerning a confession to be made to another; but he is bound only to natural secrecy. The reason is that the obligation of the seal arises from sacramental confession alone, in which the penitent manifests sins in order to absolution. - St. Ligorius, no. 549; Suarez, disputation 33, section 4; Billuart, dissertation 8, article 3, against some who therefore affirm it because revelation would render confession odious. But, as St. Ligorius deservedly replies, not confession itself but the consultation would become odious.
I said above, if he is consulted concerning a confession to be made to another, because if the penitent consults him concerning a confession to be made to that same man, he is bound by the seal, since this consultation must be held as a confession begun.