To begin, I must quote this:
"The priest must maintain absolute secrecy about anything that a person confesses. For this reason, confessionals were developed with screens to protect the anonymity of the penitent. This secrecy is called "the sacramental seal, 'the seal of the confessional,' or 'the seal of confession.'
"The sacramental seal is inviolable. Quoting Canon 983.1 of the Code of Canon Law, the Catechism states, '...It is a crime for a confessor in any way to betray a penitent by word or in any other manner or for any reason' (No. 2490)."
I am sorry I cannot give a reference, it was found for me on Google by a minister here, drstevej. To continue then, in a previous blog entry I explained how I had got into trouble with a teacher's website by saying as an anarchist I would not report anyone to the authorities no matter how heinous their crime. I then revised this that as a Christian Anarchist I would at least confront the perpetrator of the crime. I have not searched out how RC priests might deal with this, and therefore can only guess that if they feel that the penitent might commit their crime again they may feel duty bound to civil society to report their possible behaviour to the authorities. I am aware of one priest who did this, reporting the penitent to the police who was then arrested and prosecuted and is now in jail, and the priest was absolved.
Even as Christian Anarchists, which I withdraw from calling myself that as explained in my earlier blog entries, they should do exactly what is prescribed in the Scriptures. First go to the person, then bring in another Christian, and finally go to the church. In an anarchist society there would be no authority which could exercise punitive measures, but curtailment of freedom of movement might be necessary, hopefully for a while, whilst counselling, rehabilitation and getting the perpetrator to realize and accept the possible consequences of their actions would be acceptable. As an anarchist, we could be seen to disregard all consequences of our actions which cannot be good, but as a Christian Anarchist we are directed by God's Laws, and God clearly says that in the case of a fully sexual relationship between one person and another for instance, it has to be between a man and a woman of child bearing ages, and only in marriage, ordained by God. The relationship between Christ and his church is the complete parallel, and here we are talking about the universal church of Christ, not the thousands of established denominations, sects and cults so prevalent in our devil-controlled world.
In a confessional between two Christian Anarchists, the listener is never obliged to take the disclosure further, but can engage the penitent (I use this statist word for want of a better) in an attempt to resolve the issues, and then, as the Bible says, take the matter to another Christian Anarchist if not resolved, and finally take the matter to the anarchist community as a whole. There is never any threat of punishment, God is not a punishing God, and if restriction of movement is decided upon this would be perfectly humane, comfortable and perhaps even more so than the general standard accepted by all in the community. The principle is quite simple, all disagreeable behaviour in an anarchist society is rewarded with kindness, knowing that the individuals involved are an in extreme minority and need help.
It seems to me that there is a parallel between the obligation to God by a Roman Catholic priest during confessionals and the obligation to God by a Christian Anarchist, at any time.
"The priest must maintain absolute secrecy about anything that a person confesses. For this reason, confessionals were developed with screens to protect the anonymity of the penitent. This secrecy is called "the sacramental seal, 'the seal of the confessional,' or 'the seal of confession.'
"The sacramental seal is inviolable. Quoting Canon 983.1 of the Code of Canon Law, the Catechism states, '...It is a crime for a confessor in any way to betray a penitent by word or in any other manner or for any reason' (No. 2490)."
I am sorry I cannot give a reference, it was found for me on Google by a minister here, drstevej. To continue then, in a previous blog entry I explained how I had got into trouble with a teacher's website by saying as an anarchist I would not report anyone to the authorities no matter how heinous their crime. I then revised this that as a Christian Anarchist I would at least confront the perpetrator of the crime. I have not searched out how RC priests might deal with this, and therefore can only guess that if they feel that the penitent might commit their crime again they may feel duty bound to civil society to report their possible behaviour to the authorities. I am aware of one priest who did this, reporting the penitent to the police who was then arrested and prosecuted and is now in jail, and the priest was absolved.
Even as Christian Anarchists, which I withdraw from calling myself that as explained in my earlier blog entries, they should do exactly what is prescribed in the Scriptures. First go to the person, then bring in another Christian, and finally go to the church. In an anarchist society there would be no authority which could exercise punitive measures, but curtailment of freedom of movement might be necessary, hopefully for a while, whilst counselling, rehabilitation and getting the perpetrator to realize and accept the possible consequences of their actions would be acceptable. As an anarchist, we could be seen to disregard all consequences of our actions which cannot be good, but as a Christian Anarchist we are directed by God's Laws, and God clearly says that in the case of a fully sexual relationship between one person and another for instance, it has to be between a man and a woman of child bearing ages, and only in marriage, ordained by God. The relationship between Christ and his church is the complete parallel, and here we are talking about the universal church of Christ, not the thousands of established denominations, sects and cults so prevalent in our devil-controlled world.
In a confessional between two Christian Anarchists, the listener is never obliged to take the disclosure further, but can engage the penitent (I use this statist word for want of a better) in an attempt to resolve the issues, and then, as the Bible says, take the matter to another Christian Anarchist if not resolved, and finally take the matter to the anarchist community as a whole. There is never any threat of punishment, God is not a punishing God, and if restriction of movement is decided upon this would be perfectly humane, comfortable and perhaps even more so than the general standard accepted by all in the community. The principle is quite simple, all disagreeable behaviour in an anarchist society is rewarded with kindness, knowing that the individuals involved are an in extreme minority and need help.
It seems to me that there is a parallel between the obligation to God by a Roman Catholic priest during confessionals and the obligation to God by a Christian Anarchist, at any time.
