A “Hot Topic” in Current Events
The State of Washington has recently passed an anti-Catholic law, Senate Bill 5375, which requires a Catholic priest to violate the confidentiality of the seal of Confession. The U.S. Justice Department has in turned sued the State of Washington, arguing that this bill violates the free exercise of religion for Catholics and goes against the U.S. First Amendment. We would add that Bill 5375 violates God’s divinely revealed Law, is an outrage against the Sacraments, and runs contrary to centuries upon centuries of accepted jurisprudence by all Christian nations. (Read the press release from the U.S. Justice Department.)
Note: This atrocity is not limited to the State of Washington. Other U.S. states (e.g., Colorado, Utah, Oregon) and other nations have passed, or attempted to pass, such legislation. In 2020, a new law was passed in Queensland (Australia) which criminalizes priests who maintain the seal of Confession in various circumstances.
What Is the Seal of Confession?
The Seal of Confession, also called the sacramental seal, refers to the absolute obligation of a priest to keep secret anything that is revealed to him in the Sacrament of Penance. This obligation is not merely disciplinary or pastoral – it is divine law, binding under pain of automatic excommunication (latae sententiae), reserved to the Apostolic See. A priest may not, under any circumstances, disclose or act upon what he hears in confession, regardless of the gravity of the sin, the urgency of the situation, or the demands of civil authority.
The Catechism of the Council of Trent explains:
“The faithful are to be admonished that great care is to be taken that no one know the sins confessed by penitents, either by word or sign, or in any other manner. For the sacrament would be wickedly abused, if the priest were to make known to any one the sins of those who had confessed to him.” (Part II, On the Sacrament of Penance)
The 1917 Code of Canon Law (Canon 889) likewise declares:
“The sacramental seal is inviolable; therefore, it is absolutely forbidden for a confessor to betray the penitent in any way, by word or in any other manner and for any reason.”
This binding obligation includes all sins, whether venial or mortal, whether repented of or not. It extends to anything that might indirectly reveal the penitent’s identity, including even those details not sinful in themselves if they are revealed within the context of sacramental confession.
The Dominican moral theologian Fr. Dominic Prümmer, O.P., writing in his Manuale Theologiae Moralis from 1927, is unequivocal:
“No cause whatsoever, even the most grave and urgent, can excuse a direct or indirect violation of the sacramental seal. The priest is strictly obliged to die rather than reveal the contents of a confession.”
This sacred duty protects not only the dignity of the penitent, but the integrity of the sacrament itself. Without this divine guarantee of absolute secrecy, the faithful would rightly fear to confess their sins, thereby imperiling their eternal salvation.
The Necessity and Nature of the Seal
The Council of Trent affirms the sacramental seal as essential to the Sacrament of Penance:
“It is wholly necessary that confession remain secret and inviolable, and therefore the Church forbids under the gravest penalties that the confessor reveal the penitent’s sins by word, sign, or in any other manner, for any reason whatsoever.” (Session XIV, De Poenitentia, cap. 5)
The priest in confession does not speak as a private individual but as an instrument of Christ. He hears the sin, not to satisfy curiosity or to gather information, but solely to offer absolution and counsel. As such, he has no moral or juridical right to disclose the matter afterward, even to the penitent unless invited.
Fr. Adolphe Tanquerey, in his Synopsis Theologiae Moralis et Pastoralis published in 1930, writes:
“The seal binds in such a way that the confessor must neither reveal, nor use, nor be influenced in any way by the knowledge obtained in confession, unless such permission is granted freely and explicitly by the penitent outside the sacrament.”
This level of protection is not found in any civil courtroom or psychological practice. It is unique to the tribunal of divine mercy, in which the soul lays itself bare before God and is restored to grace. To protect this sacred exchange, the Church demands absolute silence – unto death if necessary.
Civil Intrusion and Anti-Catholic Legislation
Despite centuries of respect for this principle, modern governments have increasingly sought to undermine the seal. In recent years, legislatures in Ireland, Australia, California, and elsewhere have attempted to force Catholic priests to disclose what they learn in confession about cases of crimes like child abuse. These laws, while often cloaked in the language of public safety, amount to a direct assault on the Catholic Faith itself. Washington State now joins this list.
Such attempts are not only anti-Catholic in substance but also unconstitutional in nations with religious liberty protections. The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees the free exercise of religion. Courts have repeatedly upheld the confidentiality of the confessional as an essential component of that freedom.
In People v. Phillips (New York, 1813), one of the earliest American religious liberty cases, a priest refused to testify about a confession. The court upheld the priest’s right, stating:
“It is essential to the free exercise of the Roman Catholic religion that its priests should not be compelled to reveal the secrets of auricular confession.”
To compel a priest to break the seal is not simply to ask him to disobey Church law; it is to require him to commit mortal sin and endanger his soul for all eternity! The confessor must choose either fidelity to God or obedience to the state. No true priest will ever choose the latter.
The Martyrdom of St. John Nepomucene
The highest expression of fidelity to the Seal of Confession is found in the martyrdom of St. John Nepomucene, the patron saint of confessors and of the seal itself. A 14th-century Bohemian priest and vicar general of Prague, St. John served as confessor to Queen Sophia, wife of King Wenceslaus IV.
Consumed by suspicion and rage, the king demanded to know what the queen had confessed. When John refused, he was imprisoned, tortured, and eventually thrown into the Vltava River to drown. His refusal to break the seal cost him his life – but gained him a martyr’s crown.
Pope Benedict XIII canonized him in 1729, and his example has been celebrated by the Church ever since. His body lies incorrupt in St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague, and his image is often shown with a finger over his lips – a symbol of sacred silence. His Feast Day is May 16th.
As Father Tanquerey notes:
“The confessor is bound to preserve the sacramental seal even under threat of death. St. John Nepomucene bore witness to this law with his own blood, and his heroic example should inspire all priests to the same inviolable fidelity.”
Conclusion: Silence That Speaks to Eternity
The Seal of Confession is not a man-made policy or a clerical privilege. It is a sacred duty rooted in a divine institution and affirmed by countless saints and martyrs. When a penitent kneels in the confessional, he is not speaking to a man, but to Christ through His minister. And Christ does not betray.
No government, no court, no lawmaker has the authority to rupture this divine bond. To do so is to attack not only the Church, but God Himself, Who instituted this sacrament for the salvation of souls.
As Catholics, we must resist such efforts with clarity and conviction, defending the sacred rights of the Church and the consciences of the faithful. And we must pray for priests, that they may have the strength of St. John Nepomucene to keep the seal even to death for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.