A Sacred Trust Threatened
Breaking the Seal of Confession
"Bless me, Father, for I have sinned..."
These opening words of confession constitute
a sublime act of humility that marks the lives of so many
Catholics.
In the wake of the sexual abuse scandals,
a renewed emphasis on the Sacrament of Penance, the sacrament
whereby the Church invites the sinner to reform his life
and progress in virtue, would be a natural solution to
a crisis that has put everything in disarray.
Dissident reformers, however, don't see
it that way and are adding to the confusion. They appear
intent upon changing the Church and see confession as a
target rather than a solution. Ironically, some of the same
critics who accuse the Church of having broken trust in
the scandals now want to break the priest’s most sacred
trust, the Seal of Confession.
States Seek to Change the
Church
The growing cry for revealing confession
testimony is taking the form of legislation heralded as
a way to "protect the children." In fact, Catholic
activists and victims' advocate groups are pressuring state
legislatures to enact laws that will force priests to break
the Seal of Confession in abuse cases.
In an atmosphere of intense media hype,
legislators, many of whom are not Catholic, are accommodating
these very vocal constituents and introducing an assortment
of bills.
To their credit, legislatures
in Maryland, Virginia, Connecticut, and Kentucky have
rejected such attempts. Nevertheless, the effort continues.
In early March, new anti-Seal bills were introduced in
Nevada and Florida, and in New
Hampshire a bill entered in January will soon be debated.
It should be noted that such measures
have no precedent in American law. In the United States,
the government has always considered what has been said
between a priest and a penitent in confession as sacred
and inviolable. It was part of the guarantee of religious
freedom.
That guarantee now faces a grave threat.
A Profound Misunderstanding
The cry to remove the Seal of Confession
shows a profound misunderstanding of the nature of the
Sacrament of Penance. This is hardly surprising, for from
the beginning shoddy theology has plagued the sexual abuse
scandals. All too often, those proposing solutions have
only a superficial knowledge of Catholic issues.
To many observers, confession is but
glorified spiritual counseling much like any professional
counseling. Yet, ironically, even secular professionals
enjoy confidentiality with their patients. Many of the
new bills now seek to strip priest and clergy of this
same right and turn them into “mandated reporters”
of the State.
Confession with Christ
What opponents of confession fail
to realize is that confession outweighs any form of professional
confidentiality or secrecy. Confession is a supernatural
affair. When a person confesses his sins, the priest is
merely the minister, acting in the person of Christ. In
reality, it is Christ who forgives the sins, and the priest
has no right to reveal anything that is confessed to Christ.
Breaking the seal of confession would
turn Christ into a “mandated reporter” of
the State.
Sacred Trust Established
One condition for confession to
be effective is the existence of a sacred trust between
the priest and the penitent.
Sins that are forgiven are consigned
to the person’s past. They are only forgiven if
the sinner is sorry for them and resolves to make amends.
This can happen only in an atmosphere where the sinner
fears nothing from the priest and has the certainty that
his sins cannot be revealed. For this reason, confessionals
traditionally had screens to protect the penitent’s
anonymity and lessen the possibility of the priest associating
a “face” with a confession.
A Serious Obligation
The moral obligation of priests
who hear confession is so great that the Church’s
Code of Canon Law qualifies it as “a crime for a
confessor in any way to betray a penitent by word or in
any other manner or for any reason” (no. 2490).
A priest cannot use the knowledge he
gains in the confession even to save his own life or reputation
or to refute a false accusation. He cannot even say what
he did not hear in confession.
To safeguard this sacred trust, the Church
imposes the highest of sanctions. Should a confessor directly
violate the Seal of Confession, he incurs automatic excommunication
reserved to the Apostolic See (Code of Canon Law, no.
1388.1).
The bills now being considered would
force priests to violate the law since, in these cases,
God’s law supersedes civil law. To illustrate the
importance of the Seal of Confession, both Cardinal McCarrick
of Washington and Cardinal Keeler of Baltimore “promised
to go to jail rather than obey a law requiring them to
break the seal of the sacrament” (CNS, March 7,
2003).
Priest Prefers Death to
Betrayal
Saint John Nepomucene (1340–1393),
vicar general to the Archbishop of Prague, was a martyr
for the Seal of Confession when he refused to reveal to
King Wenceslaus IV the contents of the queen’s confession.
Confessors under Communism and Nazism
suffered prison, torture, and execution rather than break
the sacramental seal.
The Threat Within
The greatest threat to the Seal
of Confession does not come from media reporters or non-Catholic
legislators. The greatest threat comes from within.
Many activists of the Catholic left,
galvanized by the sexual abuse scandals, are proving to
be major proponents of mandated reporting. Groups such
as Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP)
are actively seeking such laws. These organizations seem
to hold a vision of the Sacrament wherein the Seal of
Confession is just another senseless rule instituted by
a male hierarchy to control the faithful. “The Church
uses the rule as yet another way to protect themselves
and continue the great web of secrecy,” said SNAP’s
Phil Saviano in an interview with WorldNetDaily.1
While
not speaking officially for the organization, Voice of
the Faithful member Anne Coughlin is almost single-handedly
responsible for pressuring for the New
Hampshire bill against the Seal. She admits “she
has no evidence whatsoever to show that priests in New
Hampshire are being told in the confessional of crimes
against children: ‘I can’t prove that ever
happened. But I’m absolutely convinced that it has.’”2
No Smoking Gun
Perhaps that is the most disturbing
aspect of the legal measures now being discussed. There
is no evidence at all that eliminating the Seal of Confession
would help protect children. There are no credible studies
to indicate that turning priests into mandated reporters
would stop child abuse.
Quite to the contrary, the very nature
of the Sacrament would lead one to believe that abusers
who so heinously have committed crimes will simply stay
away from Confession.
American TFP Campaign
Responding to the efforts to remove
the Seal of Confession, the American TFP’s Church
Shall Prevail Campaign is mobilizing friends and supporters.
“We hope this campaign will mobilize
all American Catholics,” said Thomas McKenna, campaign
director. “The plain truth is that New Hampshire
is the battlefield where the future of the confessional
is being decided.”
Bishop Robert Vasa of Baker, Ore., has
invited Catholics to join the campaign. Recalling past
attempts to break the Seal, Bishop Baker encouraged members,
stressing that “your assistance and participation
now will assure that this unjust and shortsighted attack
on one of our Sacraments will once again be repelled.”
The American TFP’s “Crusade
for Confession” is yet one more step to respond
to the scandals and the democratic reforms that threaten
the Church. Structural and systemic changes like eliminating
the Seal are exactly the kind of reforms foreseen in the
TFP’s latest book, I Have Weathered Other Storms
(to purchase your copy of I Have Weathered Other
Storms, click here).
Until today, the state had absolutely
no say in what sins a priest must or must not report to
civil authorities, because the Seal was absolute. It was
between the priest, the penitent, and God. The Church
Shall Prevail Campaign hopes American Catholics will react
to keep it that way.
