If a priest gets a confession that someone will bomb the prime minister's office tomorrow, should he be allowed to tell the authorities? According to the catholic religion, what is said in the confession box stays at the confession box.


Yeah, alot of you are saying, confession is things you have done. But, you can confess to something that you will do, etc shoot someone.

It would also go against catholic religion to let innocent people die.

Also you may want to change Prime minister to president for our easily confused American folks.
(Wuts a pr1me minister?)

Anyways if i were in that position i wouldn't tell because honestly i can't stand Stephen Harper (Canadas PM) and would be more then happy to watch his guts splatter all over the place.

Owch, thats a toughie.

I'd say yes since if he was any decent priest, he wouldn't want anyone to die. But would you want a simple vow over keeping a secret be broken over several lives lost.

But in the end, it's common sense and if i was said priest, id contact the authorities.

Yes, he should.

I'm fairly sure you can't confess to future crimes.

It's pretty simple for him, keep the secret but make sure they gather there will be danger! His religion forbids him from telling but he must save life, he doesn't really need to give anything away.

Fairly good point, although intent to kill isn't a confession of what you have done it is a confession of what intends to be done. Either-way someone should probably be alerted to the danger..

You could go the long way around it and confess about confessing.

No, he shouldn't.

Although I still don't understand why someone would say they were GOING to do that. The point of Confession is that they repent for sins. How can you repent for something you plan on doing in the future?

Anyways, it's the Priest's responsibility not to tell anyone, because the Priest and apparently the person who's committing the bombing both believe in God, and what's going to happen 'next'.

Seriously though, that's a really unlikely scenario.

So he should just let someone kill quite a few people in a terrorist attack?


That didn't make any sense. Especially the last part. Plans for terrorist attacks are justified by religion now eh?

I would like the priest to tell the authorities, even though it probably would go against the priest's beliefs.

Look, I'm not saying I personally wouldn't tell the authorities if I was in that position, I'm just saying I don't think the Priest should, because Priests say over and over again there's nothing they can share. I know of a Priest who told us he heard a confession from a man who DID kill someone, and never got caught. The man felt horrible though, and said over and over again how he was repenting to God, so the Priest accepted it.

Also, I still say this whole argument is flawed because Confessions are for past sins, and any Catholic using the Confession system should know that. You don't apologize before you punch someone in the face.

Edit: Before someone says my first paragraph was falsified because the Priest told us that, he obviously didn't mention any names.

the guys not repenting he's just giving the priest the heads up. So if the priest wasn't very apreiciative (which he know doubt won't be) then yes, he should tell people.

So every crime is justified as long as you go confess to some priest? A priest isn't the one to decide the appropiate punishment (usualy just praying for like 10 mins or so) for crimes.

but you just said priests weren't supposed to share what they heard in the confession box, and then they go and tell you?

I'm sure that when the idea of confessions being private, the Priests in question weren't thinking that people would be coming and confessing to future 'acts' such as this one. I'd like to think that the Priest would look beyond this particular principle in aid of preventing death, but it would depend on the Priest's judgement and thought process.

Theres also alot of cases of priests molesting little children so why not tell the world about a guy killing someone.

Every crime is justified by God, (according to Religion) because someone confessed and repented to a priest. I don't think that should be all they do though, of course they should do jail time, but only if discovered by authorities. I mean they should go and hand themselves in, and I'm sure the Priest would suggest that, and if they truly believed in what they were doing they probably would. Unless they lived in Texas.



To answer what you just said to me, I'm going to make something bold and red and hope you understand.

In this situation the priest definitely should tell the authorities considering the person didn't actually confess to a sin. He simply came into confession and told a priest he was going to kill people, but you cannot show remorse for a crime you have full intention of committing!

In God's eyes, a serial murderer who believe in God and is truly sorry is a better man than one who has never committed any sort of wrongdoing but doesn't believe in God. The job of a priest is to look after the spiritual side of the community; allowing others to confess is an important part of that, and it is done in faith and in confidence. Whether or not it is right in human eyes is totally irrelevant.

Yeah, this seems to be important...>_<

you could confess that you have been planning to.
since planning is an action going on in the present, and is pretty sinful

Omission is also a sin, so the people's death would also be his fault.

Confession is for past deeds, not future ones.

Debate closed.


If you were confessing that you were planning to do it, it would mean you're not going to do it since you're sorry for it.

If I was in the same position I would not tell anyone, for that is my vow and I would respect that. This happens in more conventional cases, like therapists having to report when their client is planning murder etc.

Alright then.

For debates sake how about a different example.


I'm a paedophilic rapist who's been collecting young girls for the past 13 years. Every morning i rape and brutalise them and every night i tie them up and torture them until there own screams put them to sleep. I've had 11 children and one grandchild with these girls who are all still chained up to pipes in my furnace room as we speak. I confess this to you. Now what do you do?

I may be called Confession but it doesn't mean the person themselves are confessing. See below.



Confessing=/=repenting. I'd see it more of a gloating than a true confession.

You confess what you've done, not what you're going to do. That's not how it works.

The priests make a promise not to tell anyone. They could also always give the penance to make the guy turn himself in.

If it's in your religion then yes, eh.

Although most people break their religion everyday.

True, but what happens during confession is between the priest, the person confessing, and God. However, in the catholic religion the priest just channels your confession to god; he doesn't forgive you, "god" does. therefore, it is technically between the sinner and god. if the priest is caught talking about it, he gets his position in the church revoked.

Well, if you were going to confession, that means your truly sorry for it. You can't be truly sorry if you continue to do it or hold these girls in bondage, so if you really were going to confession (see below for what the actual meaning is, at least in the Catholic Church) you would release the girls from bondage, and you would, obviously, get caught.


Confession, at least in the way of the Roman Catholic Church, is saying that you are sorry for your sins, will repent and do penance and will sin no more (all of which can be found in the Act of Contrition that is said during every confession). So if you were gloating to a priest, then no, that wouldn't be a confession.

Okay, the guy is crazy. He's sorry but thinks he has bomb the PM or whatever. He goes to church to confess about how bad he feels about what he has to do.

Once again, it's not a confession unless you're confessing something you did, not something you're going to do.

Well what if the guy is psycho and just going in there to tell someone who he knows can't tell anyone?

I'm going to say this once and only once: if it's not an actual, real confession (if he's just ranting about things he's going to do, etc.) then it's perfectly acceptable for the priest to point him out.

No it's not because it's not the priest's place to judge whether or not the confession is legitimate.

Again, omission is a sin. Nobody paid attention to what I posted

Not for priests. They are exempt from the sin of omission during confession because they believe it is their spiritual duty to keep private what the person confessing told them.

And the whole point of confession is that you are telling god. Nothing is being omitted (except what you don't confess).

For the sake of argument, why would someone confess to a crime prior to committing same?

Right, let's be clear now. Unless the person is truly sorry for his sins and is willing to do his/part to prevent further sin, the confession is not valid and therefore, the right to Seal of Confession or the promise of confidentiality between priest and confessor is not valid. To quote the Catholic Encyclopedia...




If the man is truly sorry for his past sins he will by his own willpower and grace, accept the full responsibility and consequences of such action. Unless this is the case, any form of confession the man takes is null and pointless. In the case of a rapist's confession mentioned awhile ago, a priest has every right to ask the man if he will turn himself in to the authorities and let the girls in captivity go from their suffering. If the answer is no, the man has not properly repented nor has any interest doing so. The Sacrament is void and the priest, having the duty to ease the suffering of his fellow human beings has every right to prevent this form of suffering and sin by informing the authorities.

Case closed ladies and gentlemen.

Of course not, but if the person says that he's going to still commit the sin, it's a no-brainer that it wasn't part of the confession.

EDIT: Let me make this clear, if the person is talking about future events, they can't confess it because they haven't done it, so therefore I believe it is perfectly legitimate for the priest to tell the authorties since it wasn't part of the confession. (Let me show you an example. Which one doesn't belong: Father, I have shot two squirrels, ran over a duck, and am going to blow up the Prime Minister tomorrow...)

If the sin would cause him to die, then maybe it's a genuine I'm sorry for what I'm about to do but I feel like I have no other choice.

Since you haven't done it, it's not a confession.

here's a thinker. lets say the priest doesn't tell the authorities.
should he be charged with Misprision(wrong word, but I couldn't find another)

Priests are exempt from being charged for anything related to ommiting information (or atleast any information obtained while "on duty"). I don't think he should have to tell anyone if you know someones going to do something wrong your not obligated to say anything its not your responsibility if you want to do the "right thing" then good for you if not then good for you.

I think the priest should tell authorities
Sure vows are binding but in the end theyre just words. Meanwhile if innocent people died because of his inaction, that's more than words.

If it's a confession, those innocent people would have already died.

For the last time! If a man is not trully repentant then the confession is null and void. A trully repentant man would not commit such a crime and thus if mad man happens to think it's amusing to "confess" his future sins to a priest he is not entitled to the Seal of Confession because IT'S NOT A CONFESSION!!

Even though I am a Catholic, I think the priest should, in that case, be able to report to the authorities.
It would potentially save a life, and there is nothing wrong with that in Christian law, is there?

I totally agree, a priest should tell when somebody says that he's going to kill somebody. Why? Because it's not a confession.

There is, however, a strict law prohibitting a priest from telling others of somebody else's sins.