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11. The Seal of Confession

1. The priest who hears confessions is most strictly boundto hold in perfect secrecy all sins confessed to him. Thisobligation incumbent on the confessor is called the "seal ofconfession."

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

3. The priest hearing a confession, and he alone, is boundby the seal of confession. One who overhears a penitent accusinghimself, is seriously bound to secrecy, but is not, strictlyspeaking, under the seal of confession.

4. 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 indicatedby the request. Yet the priest will not, except under most pressingneed, accede to such a request on the part of the penitent. Thepriest will rather require the penitent to tell him again, apartfrom the sacrament of penance, what he wishes to be revealed. Andthus there will be no danger of scandal, no suspicion that thepriest has broken the sacred seal.

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

"God looks neither at long nor beautiful prayers, but at those that come from the heart."
The Cure D'Ars

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"When the devil has failed in making a man fall, he puts forward all his energies to create distrust between the penitent and the confessor, and so by little and little he gains his end at last."
St Philip Neri

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"Let persons in the world sanctify themselves in their own houses, for neither the court, professions, or labour, are any hindrance to the service of God."
St Philip Neri

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