Can a priest make disclosure of sin a part of penance?
Upvote:0
Yes, a confessor can impose such a penance.
Can. 981 The confessor is to impose salutary and suitable penances in accord with the quality and number of sins, taking into account the condition of the penitent. The penitent is obliged to fulfill these personally.
Turning oneself in certainly would be a salutary penance for someone who breaks a civil law. In fact, not doing so may even be against a civil law.
Upvote:3
Can a priest make disclosure of sin a part of penance?
Response: Yes and no, but generally no as part of the penance itself.
Let me explain.
Several things must be looked at here. A confessor can impose such a penance but there is always a caveat.
Should Abusers Be Encouraged To Report Themselves?
A priest who confesses sexual abuse in the sacrament of penance should be absolved and should generally not be encouraged by the confessor to disclose his acts publicly or to his superiors, a Vatican official said.
Likewise, the confessor should not make the contents of such a confession public, said Bishop Gianfranco Girotti, regent of the Apostolic Penitentiary, a Vatican court that handles issues related to the sacrament of penance. . . .
When a priest confesses such acts, “the confession can only have absolution as a consequence,” he said.
It is true that Canon Law states that a confessor must impose a salutary penance:
Can. 981 The confessor is to impose salutary and suitable penances in accord with the quality and number of sins, taking into account the condition of the penitent. The penitent is obliged to fulfill these personally.
Penancing an offender to turning himself could certainly would be a salutary penance for someone who breaks a civil law, but it also poses some problems for the confessor in the confessional. Rome is very serious about the integrity of the seal, and to keep anybody from even thinking about ways to circumvent it, the Code of Canon Law bluntly states:
Can. 983 §1. 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.
§2. The interpreter, if there is one, and all others who in any way have knowledge of sins from confession are also obliged to observe secrecy.
Can. 984 §1. A confessor is prohibited completely from using knowledge acquired from confession to the detriment of the penitent even when any danger of revelation is excluded.
§2. A person who has been placed in authority cannot use in any manner for external governance the knowledge about sins which he has received in confession at any time.
Although a confessor can not betray the seal of confession even in it's penance, it seems the most the confessor would be able to do would be to implore, encourage, urge, etc., the penitent to self-incriminate, either before Church or civil authorities.
There is still room for debate on this issue.
More post
- 📝 What is the origin of the belief that Satan tortures the unsaved in Hell?
- 📝 Is second marriage forgiven
- 📝 Is the song Baba Yetu actually used by African churches?
- 📝 Catholic Equivalent of Systematic Theology Books
- 📝 What if we were not tempted by the devil but rather, we failed God's test?
- 📝 Who are the 144,000 according to the Roman Catholic Church?
- 📝 What is the history behind the tradition of making the sign of the cross?
- 📝 What is the Biblical basis for moral absolutism?
- 📝 Hades or straight to heaven?
- 📝 Is Christian mysticism an oxymoron or is it a legitimate path for a Christian?
- 📝 How do Young Earth Creationists account for radiometrical dates of more than 7000 years?
- 📝 Do Mormons respect the EU "Data Protection Directive" of right of access to personal data?
- 📝 According to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was Jesus Christ ordained to the Priesthood?
- 📝 How was sin not counted before the law?
- 📝 How could Stephen be stoned without a trial and conviction in front of the Roman Governor?
- 📝 Do the conditions for mortal sin apply to non-catholics?
- 📝 Zechariah 14 and Acts 1 according to those who reject the deity of Christ
- 📝 Is there a list of popes by autonomous particular church?
- 📝 Can these three "2nd greatest commandments" be put into one sentence?
- 📝 Could Jesus have been married?
- 📝 In Prophecy what does a beast represent?
- 📝 How did the original texts of the Creed relate Pilate to Jesus' Passion?
- 📝 What is the Biblical basis for idolatry being "things" we put higher than God?
- 📝 Did John Calvin discourage harmonies in congregational singing?
- 📝 Did King David lose his adult son during a revolt when he revolted against him as a punishment of King David's adultery?
- 📝 Why in the Roman Catholic Church does the sixth commandment differ between languages?
- 📝 How should a Christian look at the Crusaders?
- 📝 Is there a Biblical basis for not believing that Global Warming is occurring?
- 📝 Does the nature of God's love for us include what we humans would call "constant, strong, and genuine affection"? (Catholic)
- 📝 Is the nation of Israel itself a type of Christ and, if so, how?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Can a priest make disclosure of sin a part of penance?
- 📝 How can a loving God make a deal with the devil?
- 📝 Can a Catholic priest adopt a child?
- 📝 Can one sin be worse than another sin, or are all sins equal?
- 📝 Why did God make it a sin to eat an apple?
- 📝 Do Christian groups which think h*m*sexuality is a sin think you can be a practicing h*m*sexual and also a Christian?
- 📝 Can any sin be forgiven? (According to the teaching of the Catholic Church)
- 📝 Can Catholic works of ‘satisfaction’ (prayer, fasting, etc.) for the removal of temporal punishments of venial sin be credited to others still alive?
- 📝 Can a priest give a Mass in American Sign Language (ASL)? What does he do when he is supposed to lift up the Eucharist while speaking in ASL?
- 📝 Do any Christians purport to make testable predictions that any unbeliever can verify in their lifetime?
- 📝 Can a Catholic priest be tied to a single parish or other physical church his entire life?
- 📝 According to a ‘forgiveness in Christ alone’ framework how did ‘sin offerings’ make atonement for sin under the Mosaic Law?
- 📝 Can a priest resign?
- 📝 Can a priest validly celebrate a mass without anybody else present?
- 📝 Can a Catholic priest conduct a Catholic baptism upon the request of non-Catholic parents, assuming that they will raise the child Catholic?
- 📝 Can obstinacy in sin be forgiven in Catholic teaching?
- 📝 Can a priest act on a confession of molestation?
- 📝 Can a priest administer last rites to himself?
- 📝 Can a Catholic Priest report a murderer's confession?
- 📝 Can the ancestral sin doctrine (and Paul's epistles) survive without a single breeding pair?
- 📝 Can a Catholic priest take Anglican services?
- 📝 Can a Catholic ask for protection from a priest in case his/her spouse has filed a no-fault divorce?
- 📝 Can a priest add his own prayers to the Mass after the dismissal?
- 📝 (LDS) What kind of payment can a murderer make to receive a pardon?
- 📝 Under What Conditions Can a Priest Validly Refuse to Absolve Sins?
- 📝 Can only the priest lead the ritual of washing the feet in Holy Thursday in the Catholic Church?
- 📝 Can a Catholic Priest in the Ordinariate be married to a non-Christian?
- 📝 Under a Protestant perspective what sort of ‘sacrifices’ as a symbolic priest can a believer perform within the ‘priesthood’ of all believers?
- 📝 Can a Uniate (Eastern) Catholic priest celebrate the Mass according to the Latin Rite?
- 📝 If a priest makes a major mistake during confession, can he later talk to the person to correct themselves?
