His Holiness Pope Francis while addressing the participants in the 30th course of Internal Forum organized by the Apostolic Penitentiary, highlighted the significance of Seal of Confession. The Course in which more than 700 participants attended, was majorly aimed to contribute to the formation of good confessors.
As reported by Vatican news, the Pontiff noted that in some cases Church superiors are known to use notions of the Internal Forum to make decisions that are not internal, and vice versa. This, the Pontiff said, “is a sin against the dignity of the person who puts his or her trust in the priest when he or she is asking for forgiveness”. His Holiness Pope Francis went on to explain that the Ministry of Reconciliation requires “adequate formation, so that the encounter with the faithful who ask God’s forgiveness proves to be a real encounter of salvation, in which the embrace of the Lord is perceived in all of its strength, its capacity for renewal, conversion, purification and forgiveness”.
The Pontiff also noted the importance of the secrecy of confession by explaining that Reconciliation is “a good that the wisdom of the Church has always safeguarded, strenuously, with the Sacramental seal. The Pope concluded his address inviting the priests to “always listen with great generosity to the confessions of the faithful”, to walk with them along this “path of holiness” and to “contemplate the miracles of conversion that grace works in the secret of the confessional: miracles of which only you and the angels will witness”.
