Table of Contents
Do priests hear confession?
In the Irvingian Churches, such as the New Apostolic Church, persons may confess their sins to an Apostle. The Apostle is then able to “take the confession and proclaim absolution”. In cases of grave urgency, any priestly minister can hear confessions and pronounce absolutions.
Can priests perform confessions?
According to Roman Catholic canon law, “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.” The confessor is always an ordained priest, because in the Catholic Church only ordained priests can absolve …
How does a priest deal with a penitent who refuses Absolution?
The priest can talk this through with the penitent and try to get him to see what true amendment entails. At the very least, he can explain that he cannot impart absolution if the person does not firmly intend to stop committing the sort of sin that he has confessed.
Can a priest mention a confession he heard but not identify it?
In other words, there may be occasions when a priest may mention a confession which he heard, but in a way that does not reveal the identity of the person who made it. Seminary professors, for example, can provide their moral theology students with examples of concrete ethical situations that they encountered in the course of hearing confessions.
Why did the Catholic Church have to confess sins to priests?
This means that sins had to be verbally confessed to the priests so they could know which sins to forgive and which not to forgive. Also, their authority was to forgive or not to forgive, not merely to proclaim that God had already forgiven sins based on people’s subjective contrition (see Keating p.185).
Can a priest accompany a penitent to the police station?
The priest might even offer to accompany the penitent to the police station when he does this; but in such a case he would still be forbidden to repeat the contents of the person’s confession to others.