‘No exceptions’: UK moves to crush sacred seal of confession in abuse cases

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‘No exceptions’: UK moves to crush sacred seal of confession in abuse cases
Cardinal Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster, told the IICSA that the seal is 'an essential part of the exercise of priesthood.'



Priest holding a rosary during Confession
Halinskyi Max/Shutterstock

May 21, 2025
(LifeSiteNews) — Under proposed new legislation, Catholic priests in England and Wales would be required to report child sexual abuse heard in confession under a new government policy—despite Church law imposing automatic excommunication for breaking the sacramental seal.

Jess Phillips, Labour’s safeguarding minister, confirmed the Crime and Policing Bill will include no religious exemptions.

In a May 13 letter to the National Secular Society (NSS), the Home Office said it was not considering “any kind of exception” and that “there are no exceptions on the basis of where disclosures are received, including confessionals.”

“The duty will apply to all individuals undertaking relevant activity with children, including within religious and faith-based settings,” Phillips wrote.

The NSS had urged the government to adopt the recommendations made by the 2022 Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) for mandatory reporting without exceptions for confidential or religious settings. “Safeguarding children must take precedence over religious interests,” said NSS spokesperson Alejandro Sanchez.

Catholic teaching holds the seal of confession to be absolute. Canon 983 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law states: “The sacramental seal is inviolable.” Canon 1388 imposes automatic excommunication on any priest who directly violates it.

Cardinal Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster, told the IICSA that the seal is “an essential part of the exercise of priesthood.”

READ: Washington bishops say priests won’t comply with new law requiring them to break Seal of Confession

David Paton, a Catholic academic who submitted evidence to Parliament, said the policy could backfire. “There is no evidence that mandatory reporting by priests would reduce abuse,” he told The Pillar. “Priests will still be forbidden by canon law from breaking the seal, so there could be no practical benefit.”

He warned the policy would expose clergy to malicious accusations without any possibility of defence.

The Crime and Policing Bill, now at Report Stage in the House of Commons, does not include criminal penalties for failure to report. Instead, it allows for professional sanctions or disqualification from working with children—effectively ending the ministry of accused priests.

This move comes at the same time of similar attempts elsewhere, including the USA’s Washington state and Hong Kong.

The Church has long held that no earthly authority may compel a priest to violate the confessional seal.

The Roman Catechism teaches that priests must observe “a perpetual and religious silence concerning all the sins confessed to them” and that penitents should never fear that their sins will be revealed.

Catholic teaching insists the integrity of the sacrament depends entirely on its absolute and inviolable confidentiality. Meanwhile, Catholics in England and Wales were subject to at least some form of legal harassment and exclusion from public life from 1534 until the Roman Catholic Relief Act of 1829.

READ: Trump DOJ investigating Washington for new law forcing priests to break Seal of Confession