1,348
edits
Changes
m
→Confidentiality
==Confidentiality==
From "Guidelines for Clergy" ([[Orthodox Church in America]]):
:"The secrecy of the Mystery of [[Penance]] is considered an unquestionable rule in the entire Orthodox Church. Theologically, the need to maintain the secrecy of confession comes from the fact that the priest is only a witness before God. One could not expect a sincere and complete confession if the penitent has doubts regarding the practice of confidentiality. Betrayal of the secrecy of confession will lead to canonical punishment of the priest.
:"At no time do we find God revealing the sins which have been confessed to Him, lest by making these public knowledge, He should impede those who would confess and so make them incurably sick."<ref>St. John of the Ladder, ''The Ladder of Divine Ascent'', trans. Fr. Lazarus Moore (Brookline, MA: Holy Transfiguration Monastery, 1979), p. 243.</ref>
The Byzantine [[Nomocanon ]] states, in Canon 120:
:""A spiritual father, if he reveals to anyone a sin of one who had confessed receives a penance: he shall be suspended [from serving] for three years, being able to receive Communion only once a month, and must do 100 prostrations every day."<ref>translated by Fr. Alexander Lebedeff from the [Slavonic text http://www.synaxis.info/synaxis/8_law/f_byzantine/nomokanon.htmlSlavonic text]</ref>
==General Confession==
