Catholic World News

No compromise on confessional seal, Vatican declares

July 01, 2019

The Vatican has stated that priests can never be required to reveal what they are told in sacramental confessions.

Reacting to legislature proposals that would require priests to disclose reports of sexual abuse, a Note from the Apostolic Penitentiary says that while the Church is committed to fighting abuse, the confessional seal cannot be compared with other professional privileges, such as the lawyer-client privilege, which may be waived in some circumstances. The Vatican statement insists that the Church will work “to prevent secular laws from applying to the seal, which is inviolable.”

The note—signed by Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, the Major Penitentiary, says: “The secrecy is not an obligation imposed from the outside, but rather an intrinsic requirement of the sacrament and, as such, cannot be dissolved even by the penitent.”

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