Section — Noldin, Summa of Moral Theology
Section 2. Concerning the Subject of the Seal.
409. The confessor himself is bound to the seal per se and primarily; all those to whom knowledge of sacramental confession has in any way whatever come are bound per accidens and secondarily.1
- The confessor is bound to the seal whether he is true or fictitious, or thought to be such by error; therefore even a layman who simulates being a confessor, or is held as a confessor, and to whom the penitent confesses in good faith, is bound.
a. Hence if the confessor is interrogated concerning a matter which he knows from confession, he can and ought to answer that he does not know it; and if he is further asked whether he does not know it even as confessor, he can still answer that he does not know it; and if he is pressed to answer without restriction, he can affirm, even with an oath, that he speaks without restriction, namely without an unnecessary restriction. For all know that the confessor cannot answer otherwise, and that as a private man he truly does not know it and the penitent said nothing to him. But it is better to repel the one asking by this or a similar formula: there is nothing for me to answer to this question.
b. A confessor interrogated in court about a matter which he knows only from confession can use the privilege which is conceded to him both by ecclesiastical law2 and, in most regions of Europe, also by civil law, namely of refusing testimony. But because, when testimony is denied, the sacramental seal is sometimes injured indirectly, namely when from the denied testimony suspicion can arise that the accused confessed the delict, in this case he ought rather to answer that he knows nothing. Indeed, because it can rarely be determined whether the seal is injured or not, and because at least the accused who confessed the delict must judge that the priest is denying testimony on account of his confession, it will be preferable that the priest in every case answer: that he knows nothing.
c. A confessor who cannot confess his own sin without injury to the seal ought to omit it; for the obligation of the seal is graver than the obligation of confessing integrally. But danger of violating the seal will rarely be present, provided nothing is said in confession except what is necessary for declaring the species of the sin.
d. A confessor who, after hearing confession, is asked in church by the sacristan, or in a hospital by a sister ministering to the sick, whether those things should be prepared which are necessary for administering communion, should refer the one asking to the penitent himself, so that he may ask him whether he wishes to receive holy communion; and lest any danger of violating the seal ever arise, this must always be done, whether the penitent has been absolved or has not been absolved.
1 Cn. 889, 2.
2 Cn. 1757, 3, n. 2.
410. 2. It happens in two ways that those who have received knowledge of confession are bound to the seal: a. if they received it immediately or mediately from the confession itself; b. if they perceived the matter from a means of actual confession, whether this means was ordered per se or per accidens to actual confession.
a. Therefore interpreters voluntarily employed for making confession are bound. No one is bound to confess through an interpreter unless he voluntarily wishes; nevertheless, if someone employs an interpreter, the latter, as one hearing sins declared in sacramental confession, is bound to the seal.1
b. Bystanders who, whether by chance or by design, hear a matter declared in confession, and those to whom perhaps a confession heard by these is sacrilegiously revealed; indeed, he who intentionally tries to hear one confessing already sacrilegiously violates the sacramental secret.
If the penitent speaks so clearly that he is heard by those standing around, and while adverting to this nevertheless continues, those who hear the confession can be bound by natural secrecy, but they are not bound by the sacramental seal, because the penitent spontaneously yields his right to a secret confession.2
c. All those to whom the confessor, whether sacrilegiously or imprudently, has revealed something concerning things heard in confession; hence if the confessor in a sermon before the people injured the seal, all would be bound to the seal, so that they could not even speak among themselves about the matter heard.
d. Superiors from whom outside confession, either by the penitent or by the confessor, the faculty of absolving from reserved matters is sought, or to whom one absolved from a reserved matter presents himself, because the superior to whom recourse must be made either for absolution or for penance constitutes with the confessor one sacramental tribunal; for in the former case the necessary preparation of confession is had, in the latter its complement.
e. A theologian whom the confessor, with the permission of the penitent, consults concerning the sins or state of the penitent, unless the penitent has relaxed the obligation of the seal; because just as the work of the interpreter, so the instruction of the consulted doctor is ordered to confession.
If the penitent himself consults a theologian, one must distinguish: if he consults him concerning a confession to be made to another, the consulted theologian is not bound to the seal, because the consultation is not even an inchoate confession; but the seal arises only from sacramental confession at least begun. But if he consults him concerning a confession to be made to that same theologian, he is bound by the seal, because the consultation is an inchoate confession.
f. One reading, whether by chance or by design, the written confession of another is bound by the seal if the writing must be considered as actual confession or as a means ordered to actual confession. But he is not bound by the seal if the paper only contains matter prepared for confession; for a paper of this kind is not confession nor a means of actual confession, but a means chosen and ordered so that confession may afterward be more easily instituted; however, in this case an obligation of natural secrecy is induced, grave or slight according to the nature of the matter which is contained in that schedule.
a. He is bound by the seal who reads a schedule already handed to the confessor by a mute person, or by another who confesses by writing; in the same way, one who reads it after absolution, left in the confessional or sent away by the confessor, because it is as it were a continuing confession.
b. He who reads letters directed to the superior on account of some reservation: for letters of this kind are a means necessarily ordered, by the institution of the sacrament, to confession and therefore a complement of the sacrament.
g. If someone reads a paper in which a penitent, before confession, while making an examination of conscience to assist memory, wrote down his sins, he is no more bound by the seal than one who hears someone making his daily examination of conscience in a louder voice.3 Likewise, one who reads a paper which the penitent used for confessing and which he still keeps after confession does not injure the seal, because this paper can no longer be considered as actual confession.
1 Cn. 889, 2.
2 Lehmkuhl, Casus consc. II, n. 563.
3 Cf. Lugo, disp. 23, n. 47.