The Seal of the Confessional

I had a query about the Seal of the Confessional, probably stemming from that new law in a West Coast state forcing priests to break the seal of the Confessional and report to authorities on certain sins like child abuse, etc. My general response is this:

A couple of things to keep in mind (and I write this as a former Episcopal priest who heard confessions): firstly, the priest can attempt during the Confessional to ask the person's permission to talk to them outside the Confessional about a particular chain of events. The penitent can absolutely always say no to that. The priest can also strongly recommend that the person turn themselves in and/or go talk to a counselor outside the Confessional. So, it is not that the priest has no agency whatsoever within the Confessional to explore options with the Penitent on how the Penitent can proceed outside the Confessional. Again, the Penitent can absolutely refuse to do any of that, and that is his or her right. There is a reason the seal of the Confession is absolute.

Now, as a matter of form, a priest can refuse to give absolution is someone is not really confessing so much as bragging about what they did. That does not change anything in terms of the seal of the Confessional, but I can tell you from experience that when a priest has to do that as a last resort, the priest will absolutely get the person's spiritual attention. When the person realizes that the gravity of their sin is so grave and that they are so unrepentant about it that the priest has to say, in the person of Christ, that I cannot grant you absolution at this time until you are actually sorry for what you did-that can change a person's outlook and course of action after the Confession-a wake up call, if you will.

This is why I argue that the seal of the Confessional is so important. There is no other way or avenue that anyone could go to in the secular world where that option for an open and honest assessment without fear of being turned in really exists. There are so many people I know personally that do not go to secular counselors or mental health professionals of any sort for fear of being tattled on to the authorities, whether that fear is real or imagined. As such, their mental state continues to deteriorate and their bad behavior escalates because they will not go to a secular psychologist or counselor because they feel like they can't. The end result is more abuse and violence occurring than would otherwise have occurred because they have no one they can trust, and the cycle of mental illness, isolation, and violence/sin escalates.

Now, one other point I would make is that we in the West often use the metaphor of courtroom judgement when it comes to sin and confession like Divine Justice is some sort of Perry Mason legal drama with pleadings and statutes and sentences, etc. We have a very juridical view of Confession and Sin. There is an equally powerful metaphor for Sin that the Bible uses that we often ignore in the Western tradition, and that is that sin is a sickness that poisons the soul unto death, and Jesus is the Great Physician that heals.

If you have ever been to confession in an Orthodox or some Eastern Catholic churches, the actual sacramental rite of Confession looks much different in form. It's not the wooden box "sin bin" style Confessional that is normative in the West. In the East, Confession is a liturgical act. The priest is wearing their version of a chausable or cope (that cloak-like garment you sometimes see priests wear at the Easter vigil for example-they have different styles and names in the East but the principle is the same) and stole. You are usually in the main Church around the altar. The priest physically puts his altar vestment around you, and when you get absolved, the priest tells you to arise, you sins are forgiven. The cloak is symbolically dropped like your sins and the spiritual Band Aids are coming off the wounds of your sin.

This is not true in every Eastern rite or tradition, but it is a much more common Sacramental practice. It's sort of melodramatic, but it can be a very powerful liturgical act. But I find that to be a very powerful image to explain the seal of the Confessional as well. Confessions are not secular clinical therapy. They are good for the soul and the act is therapeutic, but the two are not the same.

Confession exists for the good of the individual's soul. The priest is not work for the state. The priest is not even at work representing himself. He is en personae Christi, in the very person of Christ. Christ the physician and healer. Christ who is the Good Shepherd who will leave the 99 and search out the 1 who is lost.

The priest is acting in the name of the the Christ who searches out the Prodigal Sons. I use the plural there because there are multiple prodigal sons in that famous parable, not just the one everyone thinks about. A prodigal is one who is rashly or wastefully extravagant. You can apply that to all the characters in that parable, including I might add both the older son and the father in that story. My point is that Confession and its seal is for any Prodigal, whether its the younger son who wastes his father's inheritance and ends up living with the hogs, the older prodigy son who extravagantly wastes his father's wealth of grace and good will, or the very father figure in the story.

We don't think of the older father as a prodigal , but he was in his own way. He kills the fatted calf and gives the signet ring to the younger son-none of which where any longer his possessions to give (those items belonged to the older son, as the father gave up everything he owned at the beginning of the story)-all that remained of the estate was at that point rightfully the older's son's possessions. Everyone in that story was a lavish Prodigal in their own way.

Again, Confession is for the sick in a way different than any other form of medicine or therapy or mental health help or justice. It operates in the Kingdom of God to bring all the Prodigals back to grace. When we start pulling the threads of "well, seal of the Confession and its unique grace is only for certain types of sins and sinners but not others"-the priest ceases to be the person of Christ as healer and becomes the judgmental tattler. "This kind of sin is so grave that I tell the police, but that kind of sin is okay to leave under the seal. Prodigal Sons 2, 3, 4 are in the clear, but Prodigal Son 1-you can just go back to living with the hogs. Christ does not want to heal you."

It's not an easy topic, but there are reasons why the Church in it's wisdom has set Confession up in this way, so that any Prodigal can come and drink freely of the Living Water without fear, trusting that in Divine Providence, God can deal and heal even with abuse and bring all people to healing and justice without the need to violate the seal of the Confessional.