Confession of Sin and Commission of Crime: Conflict Between Canon Law and Civil Law and the Dilemma of Catholic Priests
This paper examines the tension between Church law codified as cannon law and civil law as it relates to the seal of confession as practiced in the Catholic Church. Under what conditions should the seal be broken? Or should it never be broken? Are there exceptions to this rule? Or should there be exceptions? Although this paper justifies why the seal of confession is inviolable under Church law, some civil law jurisdictions do not consider it so; hence they consider it as a qualified but not an absolute privilege which presupposes that a priest can be compel in certain situations to disclose or give evidence in a court of law in respect of the contents of confession which come to his knowledge, thereby betraying the sacred trust that exists between him and the penitent. Despite the inviolability of the seal, this paper concludes by urging the Church to create exceptions to so as to bring it in tandem with the realities of time and tide.
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