If you confess to a priest in the Catholic Church, do they have to keep quiet?

Question

If you go to confession in a Catholic Church to confess to murder, does the priest have to keep quiet? Do you have to go the police? Or it is exactly the opposite: can you not, under any circumstances, go to the authorities, especially if the person begged you not to?

(This is not me. This is for a book I am writing about a murderer who goes to confession and confesses to the brutal murder of a stranger).

Answer 1

*Is Catholic*

Breaking the seal of confession is one of those things that will get a priest excommunicated and likely defrocked, or at least prevented from ever hearing confessions again. It is in Canon Law. Here is some Canons.

Can. 983 ß1 The sacramental seal is inviolable. Accordingly, it is absolutely wrong for a confessor in any way to betray the penitent, for any reason whatsoever, whether by word or in any other fashion.
ß2 An interpreter, if there is one, is also obliged to observe this secret, as are all others who in any way whatever have come to a knowledge of sins from a confession.

Can. 984 ß1 The confessor is wholly forbidden to use knowledge acquired in confession to the detriment of the penitent, even when all danger of disclosure is excluded.
ß2 A person who is in authority may not in any way, for the purpose of external governance, use knowledge about sins which has at any time come to him from the hearing of confession.

It is important to note that the seal of confession only takes places when confession is being undertaken. An individual who comes up to a priest for a talk about his/her sins is not protected by the seal. An individual is only protected when he/she is engaged in the act of confessing.

Also of note, you cannot confess future crimes. You would need to talk to a Canon Lawyer but I do not believe that if in confession you said, and only said, that tomorrow I will murder this person that you would be protected, because you have not entered into confession.

Also of note, a priest need not absolve a crime, if he believes the the penitent is not sorry for his sins/wishes to be sorry. Saying that Joe's body is in 6 feet of concrete under the house and you are never going to tell is not a strong indication of sorrow. However the seal would still be in place because a confession was attempted.

The seal does not prevent the priest from talking to the sinner about the crime outside of the confessional in private to convince a repentant sinner that they need to go to the police and turn themselves in. A good priest would give a penance of turning oneself in.

I do not believe that a priest would be barred from talking to his superior or bishop about what to do with a serious crime confessed under the seal, as long as the name is not revealed or indication is given as to who it was that confessed or exact details of the confession.

Here what we are assuming is that a penitent represents an ongoing serious danger to the community due to frequent repetitions of serious dangerous sins, but that the penitent is truly sorry. The moral question that is being asked is, what should be done? First we need to recognize that the duty of the priest is first to absolve the penitent from his sins. The priest is not an arm of the police and should never assume that his job is to uphold the law...his job is to give the absolution of sins. The priest, though, has a duty to his flock and needs to protect them from serious ongoing sins perpetuated by some individual in their midsts.

Lets give a nightmare situation for a priest.
Someone confesses to a him that he murdered someone years ago because the voice told him to.
That same some one keeps coming back to confession now and then and says that he has a desire to murder someone again and that this desire is steadily growing.
That same someone one day drops the name of who the voices want him to murder next during the confession.

What can be done?
1. The priest can try to talk to the individual in confession.
2. The priest can suggest that the individual talk to the priest outside of confession (outside of the seal) so that the priest can thus be free to act and get that individual help. A not so good priest might trick such an individual into talking about the issue outside of confession.
3. The priest, especially if he does not know who the individual is, should talk to his Bishop without breaking the seal asking for advice. However, I believe that a priest would be free to talk about details if it is done under the seal of the priest himself confessing to the bishop. I am sure that a priest is facing plenty of temptations to break the seal and that could be confessed thus knowing more details to be known. However, again not sure how proper it is to do such and you should check with an actual bishop or bishop's office, but it could happen in a story.

Answer 2

To answer your question, one must first understand the Sacrament of Penance. If the man confesses of something as grave as a murder, the simple act of confessing must show that the man is filled with remorse at what he has done. The priest of course must learn to keep such things a secret since it is a severely strict rule. Here's proof:

"Accordingly, it is absolutely wrong for a confessor in any way to betray the penitent, for any reason whatsoever, whether by word or in any other fashion" (canon 983 of the Code of Canon Law).

Answer 3

Yes, confession is sealed. The priest acts as a representative of Christ and once absolution is pronounced, the sins are both forgiven and forgotten.

Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen once remarked that listening to the confessions of nuns was like being stoned to death with popcorn.

Answer 4

A priest cannot repeat anything told him as part of a confession.

The Code of Canon Law states: The sacramental seal is inviolable; therefore it is absolutely forbidden for a confessor to betray in any way a penitent in words or in any manner and for any reason.

Violation of the seal of confession results in immediate excommunication of the priest.

Priests may discuss things in general terms. One priest said that hearing the confessions of second graders is like getting bombarded with cotton balls.

For more information, see the Code of Canon Law: http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG1104/__P3G.HTM

With love in Christ.

Answer 5

Confession is private. Priest's are not supposed to tell anyone what goes on in there. This is one reason that they won't let Priests Marry. Catholics believe that there should be no secrets between husband and wife. Confessions cannot be divulged even to wives. Hence, secret.