Information In Confession

[MIKolbe]

I think I know a Priest cannot divulge information given by the penitent in the Sacrament.

However, is he allowed to use the information for his personal decision making?

For example, a person confesses to embezzling money from a former employer. This same person will let Father know (say 2 weeks later) of their desire to work on the parish finance council, or in some capacity which would include the handling of money. Father would have the authority to confirm/deny this request.

Could Father use this information, given in confession, to help to form his decision? Could he use this info to start a mandatory back check of possible candidates? Could he insist on a questionnaire where questions like 'have you ever embezzled or stolen from an employer?' would be asked?

Is there anything at all Father could "do" with the information gained in confession assuming he did not come out and say, "Jenny told me she embezzled from her former employer" and break what is commonly refered to as the 'seal' of confession?

[CatherineM]

Interesting question. Hopefully Cappie will come along to give an in the trenches perspective.

With life experience comes great wisdom. Often just by seeing other people's mistakes. As an attorney, I had access to a lot of privileged information. I had a business client once who came up with a great idea for a new fishing product. I did his corporation paperwork stuff. He got it marketed and even got a mention on a prominent fishing show. Orders rolled in, lots of money. A couple of months later, I found out that he hadn't actually produced the item and spent all the money. I obviously had to fire him as a client.

I used the information I learned of a confidential nature in the future by keeping a closer eye on what my clients were doing. Not just to protect myself from appearing to be involved in a fraudulent enterprise, but also to give better counsel to clients to keep them from making the same mistake.

My point is that a priest might not consider doing background checks for volunteer staff until something like this. Just because he realized a good idea in the confessional, doesn't mean he can't use it. A priest might not realize a particular video game or movie or book was a near occasion of sin until he has a dozen people come through the confessional talking about it. I have had priests tell me they have gotten ideas for sermons while in the confessional.

As to your question, I think if a priest heard about embezzlement in the confessional and decided to start doing background checks across the board, that would be wise. Doing it because a particular person decided to apply is different. That might be crossing a line. I suspect if a priest had that come up, he'd have a private word with the individual and try to resolve it that way.

We also have to remember that priests are human. If he heard a confession from a pedophile who then wanted to teach CCD, I don't know how he'd be able to just separate himself from what he'd heard. Fortunately, I suspect this kind of thing would be really rare. Only someone trying to create real issues for a priest would confess something and then put the priest in a position where he might let your secret slip out.