Keith, Eliezer: from what I remember of Catholic doctrine (I grew up one), breaking the seal of confession is a lesser sin than murder—as murder is a mortal sin. You go straight to hell for that one, no passing go—Especially as Jesus specifically said ‘do not kill’ is one of the strongest commandments—but breaking the seal, IIRC, is ‘just’ de-frocking and excommunication (which may or may not condemn you to hell), which are only undoable by the Pope.
However, mortal sins can be forgiven, and I recall that self-defense lessens the gravity of the offense. So given the hypothetical case of a sinner who is going to kill the priest, I think the thing to do would be to kill the sinner; but in the case of the sinner killing a bunch of other people & specifically excepting the priest (so he can’t claim self-defense as in the first case), that’s harder. I suppose it comes down to whether you think you can convince the Pope that you were justified in breaking the seal.
Keith, Eliezer: from what I remember of Catholic doctrine (I grew up one), breaking the seal of confession is a lesser sin than murder—as murder is a mortal sin. You go straight to hell for that one, no passing go—Especially as Jesus specifically said ‘do not kill’ is one of the strongest commandments—but breaking the seal, IIRC, is ‘just’ de-frocking and excommunication (which may or may not condemn you to hell), which are only undoable by the Pope.
However, mortal sins can be forgiven, and I recall that self-defense lessens the gravity of the offense. So given the hypothetical case of a sinner who is going to kill the priest, I think the thing to do would be to kill the sinner; but in the case of the sinner killing a bunch of other people & specifically excepting the priest (so he can’t claim self-defense as in the first case), that’s harder. I suppose it comes down to whether you think you can convince the Pope that you were justified in breaking the seal.