[BobaFloutist]

So if someone confesses that they have made concrete, actionable plans to shoot up a school and have the guns and they're still planning to do it but they want forgiveness for their actions so far, the priest is supposed to just sit tight?

Or if they confess "Yeah I put a bomb under this church and it's going to go off in five minutes, but wait don't go I have more to confess" the priest is supposed to just sit there and let them finish and not make any efforts to leave or even cause others to evacuate?

Or if someone says "I was part of a plan to assassinate the pope, there's a guy scaling the Sistine Chapel with a sniper rifle right now but I feel pretty bad about it" to a priest in the Vatican who just needs to holler to prevent the pope being assassinated, he's supposed to just sit there and wait for God to make his choices?

[GeoAtreides]

Yes.

[BobaFloutist]

Fascinating. I wonder how well this would hold up if these circumstances actually took place.

I guess at the end of the day the priest can always go to confession for violating confession. Nice little relief valve for if their secular conscience happens to overpower their religious conscience. Ingenious, really.

[Aloisius]

Mmm. Priests who break the seal of confessional can't have their excommunication lifted by confessing to another priest. It can only be done by the Holy See.

The last time it happened for breaking the seal, afaik, was in 2018 when Ezinwanne Igbo was excommunicated.

[BobaFloutist]

Right, but if they do it and don't get caught they can get their soul saved by confessing to another priest, who presumably can't break the seal of confession to out them.

[Aloisius]

A regular priest can't grant absolution to another for breaking the seal of the confessional.