§ 1. Who Are Held To The Seal

1862. Principle. All are held to the seal, to whom NOTICE of sacramental confession has COME in any way whatever, whether from the confession itself, or from means ordered to it. The reason is that, if Christ had not bound the obligation of the seal to confession, however heard, He would not have sufficiently provided for penitents; for confession would be very odious if penitents knew that their sins revealed in confession could ever be revealed by someone. Besides, a thing passes with its own burden; therefore that notice also passes with the obligation of the seal.

Therefore, there is held: 1. The confessor, as is clear. - 2. A simple priest, who pretends himself to be a confessor; indeed also a layman, who was held to be in place of a priest. - 3. A Superior, to whom one absolved from a reserved case presents himself by law, or from whom permission of absolving from a reserved case is sought. - 4. An interpreter, or one who, asked by another, for instance by an uneducated person, etc., wrote his confession. - 5. One who furtively, or by chance, although inculpably, hears something. Thus bystanders are held to the seal, in whose presence confession is made from necessity, as in shipwreck, in battle. But otherwise, if the penitent, for his own confusion, wishes to confess publicly. - 6. All to whom something from things heard in confession has been revealed sacrilegiously or imprudently; hence concerning this they cannot even converse among themselves. - 7. A doctor or another, who is consulted with the permission of the penitent; for although the notice of the sin is directly manifested to him for the instruction of the confessor, nevertheless indirectly it is manifested also in order to absolution to be imparted and the Sacrament to be perfected.¹⁴

1863. Questions. Q. 1. Whether one is held to the seal who READS A PAPER in which the penitent WROTE the confession?

Resp. 1. Of itself he is not held; the reason is that that writing is not confession, but preparation for confession; nevertheless it induces the obligation of natural secrecy, and indeed under grave sin, unless it is a question of the very lightest faults.

Resp. 2. Per accidens he is held to the seal, if such a paper necessarily pertains to confession: e.g. 1) if a mute person confesses by writing to a confessor present, and by chance another reads it; because then the reader in reality draws the notice of sins from his actual confession; - 2) if someone by letter should seek from a Superior permission for a reserved case, and another should read it; - 3) and the same must be said if someone reads a paper relating not to a confession already made, but prepared for making confession to a priest; because that presentation is a certain begun confession.¹⁵

Q. 2. Whether a doctor consulted by the penitent himself is held to the seal?

Resp. 1. Affirmatively, if he is consulted about confession to be made before that very one, and if the penitent manifests his faults to him; because this consultation is to be held as a begun confession.

Resp. 2. Negatively (although there is an obligation of natural secrecy), if it is a question of confession to be made before another. The reason is that the obligation of the seal arises from sacramental confession alone, in which the penitent actually manifests his sins in order to obtaining absolution. Thus more probably, against some who reject this opinion for this reason, because, they say, such a revelation would render confession odious; but this reason is not of great moment; for, as St. Alphonsus excellently observes, not confession itself, through a revelation of this kind, would be rendered odious, but the consultation.¹⁶

Q. 3. Whether the PENITENT is held to the sacramental seal with respect to the confessor?

Resp. Negatively, "because the seal was instituted only in favor of penitents, not of confessors." Nevertheless the penitent is held to natural secrecy concerning those things whose publication could bring either damage to the confessor, or injury or contempt to the Sacrament. "But to me," says St. Alphonsus, "penitents seem to be held to this secrecy (although natural) more strictly than others; for others voluntarily provide counsel, but the confessor is bound to provide it from office... Hence the penitent is more rigorously held to beware lest damage come to the confessor on account of counsel given to himself."¹⁷