§ 2. What Things Fall Under The Seal

1864. Principle. The matter of the seal is constituted by all and each of those things HEARD IN CONFESSION, whose revelation would render the Sacrament of Penance ODIOUS to the faithful, and whatever the penitent REASONABLY does not wish to be manifested by the confessor.

Hence, UNDER THE SEAL there fall: 1. All the sins of the penitent, both mortal and venial, both present and past, both occult and manifest, provided they were declared in a truly sacramental confession. - 2. The circumstances of sins, even those explained after absolution, whenever they were disclosed in order to confession: e.g. if one illegitimate by birth has received Sacred Orders. - 3. The objects of sins: e.g. if someone confesses that he hates his mother because of her adultery, or because she was unwilling to correct his brother concerning theft: the adultery and the theft fall under the seal. - 4. The sins of an accomplice, even imprudently manifested in confession. - 5. The penance imposed, unless it is minimal, namely that which usually is imposed for the very lightest venial sin. - 6. All things which would expose the penitent to mockeries and would turn the faithful away from the Sacrament, such as natural defects, ignorance, incapacity, etc. - 7. Virtues and revelations, when they are disclosed to the confessor in order to manifest some defect committed, or one's own ingratitude toward God; but otherwise, if they are manifested so that the state of the soul may become known to the confessor.¹⁸ Hence, in a Cause of Beatification, attestations of the confessor are judged licit and useful, although not necessary.¹⁹

1865. Questions. Q. 1. Whether the SCRUPLES or SCRUPULOSITY of the penitent fall under the seal?

Resp. Affirmatively, if the manifestation would redound to a burden for him, as would happen if such a thing were said of a Prelate, of a confessor, and the like. - But otherwise, if it were said of some secular persons, for whom this would rather redound to praise.²⁰

Q. 2. Whether sins fall under the seal which the penitent committed IN THE CONFESSION ITSELF, for instance sins of impatience, of insult against the confessor, or against others?

Resp. Negatively of themselves, because the penitent does not confess such faults, but commits them while the confessor sees. Ordinarily, however, they fall under the seal per accidens, because they involve danger of revelation; for they provide an indication from which it can be conjectured with a certain probability that the confessor either was unwilling to absolve, or noticed something in the penitent on account of some graver fault.²¹