Never Lawful
by VP
Posted on Thursday January 17, 2019 at 11:00PM in Articles
The confessor is forbidden under grave penalties ever to betray by word, sign, or in any other way, what he has heard in Sacramental confession. The obligation of the seal of confession differs from all other secrets, in that it is never lawful under any circumstances to make known the least thing that has been manifested by a penitent in confession. If questioned about confessional matter, even in a court of justice, the priest must always answer that he knows nothing about it, as with perfect truth he may do, for what he knows as a confessor he knows as the Vicegerent of God, not as man.
Not only the priest, but all others, who mediately or immediately come to know anything confessed to a priest with a view to absolution, are bound by the obligation of the seal. The obligation of the seal is imposed in favor of the penitent; it is the penitent's secret, but he himself is not bound by it. It does not follow, however, that penitents may without let or hindrance talk to others about what the confessor has said to them in the confessional. They are at least bound by a natural obligation to reveal nothing which would tend in any way to injure or aggrieve the confessor. The religious obligation of keeping secret anything that is manifested in Sacramental confession is imposed by the natural, the divine, and by positive ecclesiastical law.
Source: Annals of Saint Joseph, Vol. 29-30 Norbertine Fathers, 1917
January: Holy Childhood
by VP
Posted on Thursday January 17, 2019 at 12:01AM in Prayers
Prayer to the Holy Infant for priests
Jesus, Divine Infant, I bless and thank
Your most loving Heart for the institution of the priesthood. Priests
are sent by You, as You were sent by the Father. To them You entrusted
the treasures of Your doctrine, of Your Law, of Your Grace, and souls
themselves.
Grant me the grace to love them, to listen to them,
and to let myself be guided by them in Your ways. Jesus, send good
laborers into Your harvest. May priests be the salt that purifies and
preserves; may they be the light of the world; may they be the city
placed on the mountain. May they all be formed after Your own Heart. And
in heaven may they be surrounded by a joyous throng of those they
shepherded on earth. Amen.
Glory Be three times.
Infant Jesus, make me love You more and more!
Source: Cure d'Ars Prayer Group
