Protect the Seal of Confession

What is the Seal of Confession?

The Seal of Confession is the bond of secrecy that forbids the priest to reveal for any reason whatsoever what has been told to him in confession. The penitent himself is the only one who can release the priest from that bond. A priest cannot reveal what has been told to him in Sacrament of Confession even to save the whole world from destruction. Rather than violate the seal of confession, a priest must be prepared to suffer false accusations, disgrace, and what is worse, death. If a priest were ever guilty of having deliberately broken the seal of confession, he would be penalized with the strictest type of excommunication the Church can inflict.

What does the priest do if a crime has been mentioned in the Confessional?

Always remember that there are processes during the confession. The sinner must first confess, he or she must be genuinely sorry and then he or she must make restitution or serve ‘penance’ in some way before Absolution will be granted by the priest. In the case of child abuse, the restitution would be for the priest to tell the penitent to turn themselves over to Police and make amends to what he/she has done wrong.

What can we do to protect the seal?

As outlined on the Parliament of Western Australia’s website individuals and organisations are invited to make submissions to the committee with the closing date for submissions being Friday, 24 July 2020.

You can send your submission directly to the Committee by accessing the ‘Lodge your submission’ page or you can sign a petition on our parish website that will be, then, posted to the Committee.

With this, let us all do our part in protecting an important aspect of our Catholic faith towards the fundamental challenge that we face now and strongly communicate to our politicians our stand.