Folia Theologica et Canonica 11. 33/25 (2022)
Ius canonicum
132 GORAN JOVICIC as the canon lawyer James E. Connell, who says: “Yet, at the same time, many of the States also have a clergy-penitent privilege law that protects criminals who abuse or neglect children by shielding from civil authorities’ information about the abuse or neglect of a child that is revealed to a clergyperson in a confidential setting. These clergy-penitent privilege laws must be repealed or revised.”27 Fr. Connell claims furthermore that the seal of confession was not always the norm in the Church, is not a matter of divine law, and therefore is changeable. He goes on to say: “there are some people who hold that the seal of confession is a matter of divine law, having been intended by the Lord in the establishment of the sacrament of reconciliation and, thus, cannot be changed. However, if that were so, why did the Holy Spirit allow the church to employ public penances over the first centuries? I respond: Because the seal is not a matter of divine law.”28 There are other suggestions, that the seal of confession should be circumvented in particular situations such as the confession of perpetrators of abuse.29 As a response to the mandatory reporting laws and to the critics inside and outside of the Church, which are requiring priests to violate the seal of confession, it seems useful to investigate in this article the development of the secrecy of confession within the sacrament of penance; to provide the historical and theological reasons for the rationale of the seal of confession, since it is based on divine law, namely, the sacred duty to protect the sacrament itself; and on the natural law of confidentiality and the unalienable human right of religious freedom. Furthermore, we should explain the place of the seal of confession in the Church as one of the pillars of Catholic faith and morality, and why any violation of the seal of confession represents a violation of the free exercise of the mission, worship, and sacraments of the Church, of the independence of the Church from the secular state, and of right of the faithful to exercise their religion without interference of the state. It would be important in our research to provide a short summary of canonical measures, which the Church has implemented at the universal level in addressing the abuse of minors. In addition to that, the churches on the local level have adopted some additional measures for the prevention of abuse; our focus in this article will remain the Church on the universal level. 27 Connell, J. E., Clergy Mandatory Reporter Laws to Protect Children from Abuse or Neglect in the USA, in https://johnmenadue.com/james-e-connell-clergy-mandatory-reporter-laws-to-protect-children-from-abuse-or-neglect-in-the-usa/ (consulted: 1/23/2023). 28 Now Is the Time to Modify the Catholic Church ’s Seal of Confession, in National Catholic Reporter (November 5, 2018): https://www.ncronline.org/news/accountability/now-time-modifycatholic-churchs-seal-confession (consulted: 1/20/2022). 29 Waters, I., The Seal of Confession, in Australasian Catholic Record 94/3 (2017) 330-343.
