Why Couldn’t Priest Hear Confession?

by Michael Shackleton · June 23, 2015

It is the college of bishops who, to this day in union with their head, the bishop of Rome, possess this wonderful gift of forgiving sin and showing Christ’s mercy for sinners. (CNS photo/Vasily Fedosenko, Reuters)

After Mass in a diocese in Britain I requested the celebrant to hear my confession. He replied he couldn’t, because he hadn’t received permission from the bishop to do so. He asked another priest to hear my confession. How come? I thought every priest could hear confessions. SG Santos

Christ gave the power to forgive sin to his apostles (Jn 20:23), the first bishops of the Church. They, in turn, passed this singular power to their legitimate successors in office.

It is the college of bishops who, to this day in union with their head, the bishop of Rome, possess this wonderful gift of forgiving sin and showing Christ’s mercy for sinners.

As sharers in the bishops’ ministry, priests acquire their authority to forgive sin only from the bishops. They do this in two ways, either by means of the prescriptions of canon law or by the authority delegated to them by particular bishops.

Canon law, which is promulgated in the name of the college of bishops, provides the first way. Canon 968.1 declares, among other things, that the parish priest may hear confessions by virtue of his office. This means that once he formally takes possession of the parish, he has the right in law to absolve penitents from sin.

Presumably, in the case you have mentioned, the priest was not a parish priest but a visitor to the diocese. He would not have the right to hear your confession because he would not hold an office such as that of parish priest.

If this visiting priest, or even a priest in the diocese who is not a parish priest or acting in the place of one, asks the bishop for the faculties to hear confessions, his request is normally granted. This is the second way a priest acquires authority to forgive sin.

When the bishop grants a priest the permission to hear confessions in his diocese he generally includes the right to celebrate the other sacraments as well, and he may lay down certain conditions, always reserving to himself the right to revoke the faculties if deemed necessary.

Vatican II reminds us that bishops enjoy the fulness of the sacrament of orders, and both priests and deacons are dependent on them in the exercise of their authority. It stresses that bishops are the principal dispensers of the mysteries of God, as well as being the governors, promoters and guardians of the Church committed to them (Decree on Bishops, 15).

You see, then, that ordination to priesthood does not of itself confer the right to hear confessions. That right depends on episcopal delegation whether granted by law or by a bishop.