BOND OF SILENCE.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 137, 13 June 1927, Page 3

BOND OF SILENCE.

PRIESTS' SEALED LIPS. LAW OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. SEAL OF THE CONFESSIONAL. Speaking at St. Benedict's last evening Rt. Kev. Dr. Liston made reference to a recent cable message from Paris concerning the seal of the confessional. After pointing out that English law fully recognised the secrecy between client and solicitor, and welcoming the claim made by a prominent medical practitioner in Saturday's "Auckland Star" for a similar recognition of professional secrecy between patient and doctor, the Hishop went on to say that the Canon Law of the Catholic Church had long since settled the practical principle as between penitent and confessor. The Council of Lateran in 1215 formally defined an obligation which the Church has always acknowledged, but never so clearly expressed. The law runs that whilst the confessional is a public 'liing. to be seen at any time by any visitor to a church, the confession itself must ever remain a secret. It is the greatest secret in the world. Xo priest may, directly or indirectly, in any circumstances or for any consideration, save only with the clear, formal permission of the penitent, make known to anyone whatsoever, be he layman, fellow-priest, bishop or pope, anything that has come to his knowledge through the confession. Such knowledge is a professional secret of the most sacred kind and must be shrouded in impenetrable silence. History, ancient and modern, tells the story of fidelity to this trust, and within the past fifty years a German priest has willingly accepted a sentence of ten years' imprisonment, a French priest ha* served, to the intense admiration of the '"Sydney Morning Herald," three years in the convict settlement of New Caledonia, and a Polish priest has slaved for twenty years and died in the mines of Siberia—all three faithful to their obligation of honour and trusting to time, as it has done, to vindicate their good name. The seal of silence must be kept at all costs: that's the right of him who comes with the story of sin and the Catholic Church has set her face with inflexible rigour against any possible infrigement of that right. The speaker further said that our New Zealand law is in line with this wise provision, for the Evidence Act, 1908 (1) lays down: "A minister shall not divulge in any proceeding any confession made to him in his professional character, except with the consent of the person who made such confession." In England there is no statute law which expressly declares that a religious confession is privileged from enforced disclosure in the witness box and pronouncements by judges during the past century have not been uniform. Hut the growth of public policy and the trend of feeling seem to run in favour of protecting a minister of religion from the necessity of disclosing a professional secret, and it is probable that in time there may be legislation or judicial ruling in England to this effect, thus bringing England into agreement with most other countries. "And indeed," Hishop Liston claimed, "it is a distinct advantage ti> society itself if the wrongdoer can with perfect security admit his guilt to one friend in the world who will be bound in the strictest possible way to maintain silence. For such a disclosure promotes repentance and consequent abstinence from wrongdoing in the future, whilst it fosters repentance followed by satisfaction in some shape or another for the past."