When to break the seal?

So to answer the question posed by the title of this blog, I'll go back to some old logic I learned in college. 

Not until after your third drink.

I kid of course, because we're not talking about breaking the seal on one's bladder before a night of binge drinking, rather we're talking about the far more important issue of breaking the seal of the confessional.

So under what circumstance should a priest reveal something told to him in confession?

Never. Never ever.

To understand why this is something I and other Catholics take so seriously requires a bit more explanation.

First why does this matter?

The Church believes based on scripture and sacred tradition that confession of sins is needed for one to be absolved and to remain in a state of grace. To go to heaven when you die, you must be in a state of grace. Hence, it's important to confess your sins, because you don't know when you'll die.

The Church teaches that it has the authority to forgive sins based on John 20:23 (If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.)

This is again in Matthew. (If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.  

The earliest confessions of the Church were usually between sinner and bishop, though sometimes sins were confessed publicly if the sinner chose to do so. The sins were absolved when one did their prescribed penance.

By the Church's authority, this process has changed over the centuries and somewhere between the 9th and 11th century, we started down the road to get to the form we see now. One sinner, one priest. Confession, and absolution, followed by penance.

Ok, so, what we see from the earliest years of the Church, the allowed practice of private confession. This is important, because if one knows that a priest may betray their sins, it might deter them from an essential sacrament. If they do not get this sacrament and they die, they may go to hell.

So to the Catholic, this is non-negotiable. It's too important to who we are as a people. It's too important to our souls. As Catholics we want to be good citizens of the world and nations we live in, but when push comes to shove, we serve God, not the government.

The Church confirms this in Canon Law, 983 , "The sacramental seal is inviolable; therefore it is absolutely forbidden for a confessor to betray in any way a penitent in words or in any manner and for any reason."

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Changing gears a little. 

Clearly a government has a right to run its country within reason. There are laws on the books that require people to let authority's know if they're aware of a crime. But governments like ours have noted an exception.

Doctor-Patient privilege, Attorney-client privilege.  

The United State is a nation that recognizes this as an essential right, granting Confessional Privilege. {See wikipedia: Confessional privilege (United States)}

This flows out of the first amendment's "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."

Allowing, or as Ireland suggests, compelling a priest to share information from confession would be prohibiting the FREE exercise thereof.

I think it is interesting to read this now. I'm reminded that the first amendment's establishment clause doesn't mean the banishment from faith in the public square, but the protection of the faithful and non-faithful alike to be able to practice. 

And in the case of the confessional, US law is on the side of faith, even though there are civil gains to be made by making priests confess what was confessed. 

I'm having one of those proud to be an American moments.

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But back to Ireland, their motivations make sense. Their goals are more than laudable. They're trying to protect kids. 

And they should. But not this way. This is bigger than the government of Ireland and the Church will not stand for it. Priest will go to prison and pay fines and do what must be done, but we will never obey this unjust law, no matter how noble its purpose.

I should note, that when someone confesses a crime, the priest can and should (and does) urge the offender to go to the police and turn themselves in. If someone comes to them with information outside of the sacrament of confession, I'm all for that being fair game.

But within the seal. Within the sacrament. No.

I hope that a law like this never comes to the United States. I'd hope we're better than that. But Ireland was once practically Vatican West, and now this. It can happen here, but I'll pray that it doesn't.

What's everyone think about this?