Duties of the Confessor as Teacher and Guide

The Duties of the Confessor as Teacher and Guide.—(a) Instruction.—The confessor should teach children and other ignorant persons if he finds that they do not know truths necessary to be known for a fruitful reception of the Sacrament—that is, the mysteries of faith that must be believed explicitly and the dispositions for receiving absolution (924). He should instruct about duties when this will be for the penitent’s good—that is, when the penitent falsely believes something to be sinful which is not sinful, or to be gravely sinful that is only lightly sinful, or when the penitent’s ignorance of an obligation is gravely culpable, or when he is invincibly ignorant but will be kept from a sin without graver evil if he is instructed now. If an instruction will probably do no good, a confessor should not instruct an invincibly ignorant penitent about his duties, unless silence will be productive of greater evils than instruction. Thus, if the confessor foresees that the penitent will only be put in bad faith if he is told about a duty of restitution, it would be useless and wrong to speak to him about it; but if he should foresee that, if he does not speak, the penitent will do worse things with great injury or scandal to others, it would be necessary to instruct him.

(b) Direction.—In spiritual matters a confessor should be willing and able to counsel and advise, for example, about the choice of a state of life (marriage, clerical state, religious life), about voluntary rules or practices (vows, austerities), and about the performance of duties (e.g., training of children). For advice on temporal matters a priest should either direct his penitents to lawyers, physicians or other professional advisers, or, if he can give prudent direction himself (e.g., on artistic, educational, or business questions), he should preferably discuss the matter elsewhere than in the confessional.