# Just out of curiosity...\[to whom do priests confess their sins\] **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 7, 2013, 7:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-out-of-curiosity-to-whom-do-priests-confess-their-sins/655062 "2013-04-07T07:36:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![moriah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b2d939/32.png) [@moriah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moriah)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2013, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-out-of-curiosity-to-whom-do-priests-confess-their-sins/655062/41 "2013-04-09T16:34:49Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > You have a Master of Divinity and Bachelor of Sacred Theology from the Jesuit School of Theology at Loyola University? The academic degree: STB from a different pontifical university. > [@bump](#): > > I’m not 100% sure, but I’m pretty sure the penance that the priest gives the penitent locker-defacing student might well be to go confess to the principal and accept whatever temporal punishment ensues. The priest can’t. No penance may be given which forces the penitent to reveal their sin to others. The priest may _recommend_ coming clean to any crimes. And in cases of theft, the penitent is to make restitution, which is either giving back what they stole or a financial equivalent. If giving back would expose them, they can give an equivalent donation to the poor. Restitution is to make sure no one profits from theft by thinking they can just keep what they stole and clear the case with God through confession. It’s also just. > [@](#): > > What I’ve always wondered about is how the privacy aspect of confessions works in terms of aggregate reporting? I know that they can’t say that Mr. X confessed to sin Y, but is it ok for priests to get together and say “I’ve heard a lot of confessions by married men about sin Y lately.”? They can… but need to be very very careful. There can be no clues at all as to who did what. Obviously, when priests learn “how to do confessions”, their priest-instructor gives them a lot of case studies, many from personal experience. But names and places are all sanitized for the protection of the penitent. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2013, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-out-of-curiosity-to-whom-do-priests-confess-their-sins/655062/42 "2013-04-09T16:56:08Z")
> [@bump](#): > > I know that they can’t say that Mr. X confessed to sin Y, but is it ok for priests to get together and say “I’ve heard a lot of confessions by married men about sin Y lately.”? There’s the old one about the priest who had his bicycle stolen, so he decides to preach a rip-roarin’ sermon on the Ten Commandments, intending to really push “Thou Shalt Not Steal.” He gets down to “Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery” and suddenly remembers where he left the bike… ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2013, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-out-of-curiosity-to-whom-do-priests-confess-their-sins/655062/43 "2013-04-09T20:35:45Z")
Some top cardinals, archbishops, bishops etc. have a confessor on their staff. I assume they have other duties as well, but they’re also there to take the Big Enchilada’s confessions. When the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church came to town awhile back for the consecration of our local bishop, just before him in the procession was his confessor, who carried a cross, and was listed in the program as one of the officials involved. I found this on Pope Francis’s confessor during his time in Argentina: [http://crownofstars.blogspot.com/2013/03/popes-confessor-has-medjugorje.html](http://crownofstars.blogspot.com/2013/03/popes-confessor-has-medjugorje.html) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-out-of-curiosity-to-whom-do-priests-confess-their-sins/655062.md?page=2)