Section 1. Concerning the Obligation of the Seal.

407. The Obligation Itself. There exists a grave obligation in every case of keeping silent outside confession about those things which are contained under the sacramental seal, unless the penitent has given permission of speaking.

1. The obligation of the seal is twofold: from religion, because reverence due to the sacrament, which otherwise would become odious to the faithful, requires it; and from justice, both by force of the implicit agreement entered between confessor and penitent concerning secrecy to be preserved, and by reason of the harm which the penitent would suffer in reputation if an occult sin were manifested.

a. Wherefore violation of the seal always has a twofold malice, and sometimes even a threefold malice: for it is against religion on account of injured reverence due to the sacrament; it is against justice on account of the tacitly entered contract violated; and sometimes also on account of injury to reputation, when namely an occult delict is manifested.

b. The obligation of the seal arises from a threefold source: from natural law, for there intervenes as it were an implicit agreement between confessor and penitent concerning secrecy to be preserved; moreover the law of nature requires that the reputation of another not be unjustly injured; yet from the law of nature it cannot be proved that the seal must be preserved in every case. From divine law: for Christ the Lord, although not by explicit precept, nevertheless by the very institution of this sacrament prohibited any revelation whatever of those things which pertain to sacramental confession; indeed the obligation of the seal is demanded by the very precept of confession: for he who commands an end also commands the means necessary for the end; but men would never be compelled to confess their sins, even the gravest and occult ones, if they knew that these could ever be manifested to others. From ecclesiastical law:¹ the Church commands the seal to be preserved at all times; nevertheless its obligation primarily arises from divine law. Hence it is that the Church can neither dispense nor change anything in this matter.

2. No case is excepted, so that, to save life or even the republic, those things which fall under the seal can be revealed, either before or after the death of the penitent. a. For if any exception were admitted, the spiritual good of the faithful would suffer harm, because the faithful would always fear the revelation of their sins, and this would draw them away from the sacrament of penance; but no temporal or private or public good exists which must not be preferred to this spiritual good of the faithful. b. Since even after death men would hear confession badly, confession would become very odious if the sins of a dead penitent could be manifested.

a. Hence if a priest should know from confession an evil which threatens another, he can urge the penitent, only under penalty of absolution being denied, that he reveal the matter, or that he give the confessor himself the power of speaking afterward; but if the penitent does not wish this, he can warn him only in general words about the danger, provided all danger of suspicion against the penitent is absent.

b. In this respect the seal differs from a natural secret: a. that the violation of natural secrecy is not a sacrilege; b. that the obligation of secrecy admits smallness of matter; g. that the obligation of secrecy in certain cases also ceases; d. that the obligation of secrecy does not urge toward him who committed the secret.

3. The obligation of the seal prohibits the confessor from speaking outside confession about things heard from confession, not even with the penitent himself; but in other confessions the confessor can, without express permission, make mention of those things which he heard from the penitent in previous confessions. Likewise he can also speak about things heard from confession immediately after absolution has been given, whether the penitent has not yet departed, or has already departed and at once returns, because this is morally said to be in confession.

If the penitent himself begins to speak about the confession, the confessor needs permission to speak by this very fact, but only concerning that matter about which he himself began to speak.

4. The obligation of the seal arises from every and only sacramental confession, or one made in order to obtain absolution (n. 267); for from every and only sacramental confession does the obligation of the seal avail, by which secret things are to be preserved.

Therefore he does not break the seal who narrates those things which he had heard outside confession, although under secret or under the seal of confession, as they say; or even in confession, but done without the will of receiving the sacrament, whether done in order to seek alms or to deceive the confessor. Nevertheless scandal of the faithful must be diligently guarded against, since perhaps they will think the deed was a true confession.

5. In this matter of the sacramental seal one may not use a probable opinion, because here there is question not of the merely licit or illicit, but of spiritual harm necessarily to be avoided for the faithful, who would be drawn away from the sacrament of penance.

Wherefore, both in doubt of fact, whether something was said in order to confession, and in doubt of law, whether some dictum or fact injures the seal, the confessor is bound to the seal, as long as the opinion favoring the seal is truly probable.

¹ C. Omnis utriusque 12, De poenit. et remiss. (V. 38), in which these things are had: "Let him take great care that he does not by word or sign or in any other way in any manner betray the sinner." Cn. 889, 1. A confessor who directly violates the sacramental seal incurs an excommunication reserved to the apostolic see in a most special manner, cn. 2369, 1; he who violates it indirectly is to be punished with penalties indicated in cn. 2368, 1.

408. Concerning Permission to Speak. If the penitent has given permission, the confessor can speak about things heard in confession not only with the penitent himself, but also with others; e.g., he can warn the accomplice, because the penitent can free the confessor from the obligation of the seal. Nevertheless, he ought to take care lest someone think that the seal can be violated and suffer scandal.

The obligation of the seal is indeed immediately introduced in favor of the penitent, but principally for the common good, lest the sacrament become odious to the faithful. But although a man cannot renounce a privilege which has been conceded for the public good, nevertheless this is valid only when renunciation tends to public harm; but renunciation in our case does not yield to public harm or to hatred of the sacrament. For if the faithful knew that the confessor cannot speak about things heard in confession except in that case in which the penitent, because he judges it useful to himself, has given permission, the sacrament would in no way be rendered odious to them. - Nor is it said that the penitent cannot take away the obligation of divine law which commands the seal. For the obligation of divine law is not absolute, but conditional: unless the penitent has given permission; therefore the penitent gives that condition by which, when posited, the obligation of divine law ceases.

a. Presumed permission does not suffice, because it could too easily and imprudently be presumed; rather express permission is required, either by word or by deed equivalent to express permission, and it must be entirely free and in no way extorted by force or fear, lest reverential fear exclude it. But if the penitent is bound to give permission and yet denies it, absolution can and must be denied to him, but the obligation of the seal remains.

b. There is a twofold way in which the penitent can give this permission: either he grants permission in such a way that he, to whomever the confessor speaks, is himself not bound to the seal, or in such a way that he is not bound to the seal toward the confessor. But if the penitent grants limited permission, there always remains the obligation of natural secrecy, which the nature of things demands.

Note. Confessors should ask this permission rarely and only in grave necessity, and ordinarily only from those to whom they can safely entrust the matter; for experience establishes that most penitents speak with difficulty outside confession about matters pertaining to confession, and that the very request is already troublesome to them.