The Seal of Confession

The priest who hears confessions is most strictly bound to hold in perfect secrecy all sins confessed to him. This obligation incumbent on the confessor is called the “seal of confession.”

The seal extends to everything connected withthe sins confessed. That is, it obliges the confessor to complete silence about any circumstance that might reveal, or cause to be suspected, the identity of the sinner who has confessed to him.

The priest hearing a confession, and he alone, is bound by the seal of confession. One who overhears a penitent accusing himself, is seriously bound to secrecy, but is not, strictly speaking, under the seal of confession.

If the penitent, for good and serious reason,voluntarily asks the priest to reveal to another what he confesses,the priest is freed from the seal in the precise matter indicated by the request. Yet the priest will not, except under most pressing need, accede to such a request on the part of the penitent. The priest will rather require the penitent to tell him again, apart from the sacrament of penance, what he wishes to be revealed. And thus there will be no danger of scandal, no suspicion that the priest has broken the sacred seal.

What a priest knows from a source other than confession does not come under the seal. Thus, if a priest saw a man commit a robbery, he could testify to the fact, even though the robber had,in the meantime, confessed the sin to him. For while the sin as confessed is under the seal, the sin as observed apart from confession is not under the seal.