Quodlibet 1 – How are priests prepared to be confessors?
Godzdogz has had a question about the way in which priests are prepared for the celebration of the sacrament of reconciliation. On the one hand there is the remote preparation priests make for this which includes most of what they study: scripture, liturgy, moral theology, doctrine – all of it is needed if a person is to be adequately prepared for the role of confessor. On the other hand there is the immediate preparation, closer to the time when he is due to be ordained. This involves pastoral theology, canon law and practical moral theology. The spiritual life of the priest, his own prayer and his use of the sacraments, are also essential to his preparation for being a confessor.
The seal of the confessional is, of course, absolute. The code of canon law speaks of it as follows:
The sacramental seal is inviolable. Accordingly, it is absolutely wrong for a confessor in any way to betray the penitent, for any reason whatsoever, whether by word or in any other fashion (canon 983).
So a priest can never reveal what he has heard in the confessional, not to anybody else and not for any reason whatsoever. This sets a strict boundary to what a priest may say when he is helping seminarians prepare to be confessors. He may, of course, speak with them about kinds of sins or types of situations that they might encounter and help them to think about how they ought to respond in such situations. But this will always be very general, ‘in the abstract’ as it were: the confessor is alone as he hears confessions and what he learns there about individuals must remain absolutely inviolable.
In an apostolic exhortation from 1984 John Paul II spoke about this preparation of priests for the ministry of the confessional. He emphasised not only the theological and spiritual formation they require but also formation in what he calls ‘the methodology of dialogue’ (Reconciliatio et paenitentia, 1984, paragraph 29). He says:
Every priest must be trained for the ministry of sacramental penance from his years in the seminary, not only through the study of dogmatic, moral, spiritual and pastoral theology (which are simply parts of a whole), but also through the study of the human sciences, training in dialogue and especially in how to deal with people in the pastoral context. He must then be guided and looked after in his first activities. He must always ensure his own improvement and updating by means of permanent study.
Put more simply what the ‘methodology of dialogue’ means is how to receive, listen and respond to another human being who comes in the vulnerable role of a contrite and confessing sinner. It is about some basic human skills: how to meet, greet, receive, listen to, be with, and speak to another person. This may seem very obvious to some but it is important to think about it because this one-to-one human conversation is the basis on which the sacrament is made just as the failure of this conversation humanly speaking may result in people turning away from the sacrament.
