Saint Dimitry of Rostov: Instructions to Priests (Concerning Revealing Confessed Sins)

 

The humble Dimitry, by the mercy of God Metropolitan of Rostov and Yaroslavl, to the honorable priests in all the cities and villages of our flock — blessing and peace from our Lord Jesus Christ.

It has come to our hearing that among you there are priests unskilled and ill-natured, who recount and reveal the sins confessed to them by their spiritual children. In casual conversations with people, while drunk, they boast vainly of their spiritual children, telling whom they hear in confession; and if they become angry at their spiritual children for any reason, they reproachfully revile them, saying: “You are my spiritual son (or spiritual daughter); do you not know that your sins are known to me? Behold, I shall expose you now before all,” and they utter other such mad words.

We are exceedingly astonished at the madness and evil disposition of such base spiritual fathers; we grieve and sigh over their perdition, and at the same time over the needless distress of their spiritual children and the dishonor brought upon the latter. This brief exhortation we write also generally to all, in order that the secret of confession may be firmly kept, that unskilled and mad priests-confessors may not perish, and that spiritual children may not be deprived of their salvation and subjected to disgrace. Therefore, together with David, we say to such senseless priests: “Understand, you senseless among the people! And you fools, when will you be wise?” (Psalm 94:8 [93:8 LXX]), remembering what the mystery of confession, or Holy Repentance, is.

Oh, how great is the sin of revealing and violating that mystery, and how great is the distress caused by the violation of that mystery!

Confession is the Sacrament of Holy Repentance, in which a person, through the voluntary and humble confession of sins, receives from the mercy of God forgiveness, according to what is written in the Psalms: “I said: I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and Thou forgavest the iniquity of my heart” (Psalm 31:5). This sacrament is a Sacrament of God, for the power to forgive people their sins proceeds from God Himself, as it is written in the Gospel: “Who can forgive sins, but God alone?” (Luke 5:21), and to Him alone do we confess our sins, having a spiritual father as the hearer and witness of our confession, and along with this, as the judge and resolver appointed by God. Therefore, this divine mystery must be known to no one except the All-knowing God Himself and the spiritual father, as the witness and hearer of the deeds confessed by the mouth of the one repenting.

This is a Sacrament of God, sealed with the seal of God Himself—that is, of the Holy Spirit, Who brings this Sacrament to completion, as the Lord said to the holy apostles: “Receive ye the Holy Spirit. Whosoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them” (John 20:22–23). This Sacrament is performed by the Holy Spirit through the priest, as through an instrument, forgiving the confessed sins and justifying the sinner by the absolution pronounced through the mouth of the priest. By this, as with a seal, the forgiveness and justification are confirmed, and the mystery of confession is sealed—and no one must break this seal or make it known to men, according to the words of the Apostle: “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth?” (Romans 8:33–34), that is, who has the right to reproach the sins of the servants of God whom God has justified for their confession and has chosen as heirs of His kingdom for their repentance? If God has justified, let man not condemn. If God has hidden, let man not expose. If God has concealed, let man not proclaim.

The mercy of God is like a sea, and our sins are like stones, heavily oppressing us. Just as a stone cast into the sea remains in the depths, known to no one, so also our sins, cast into the sea of God’s mercy through confession, can be known to no one.

The spiritual father in this Sacrament, standing in the place of Christ God Himself and the righteous Judge, must also manifest His disposition. Just as Christ God, knowing the sins of all, does not expose them nor make them known to anyone before His final and dread Judgment, so also the spiritual father, standing in the place of Christ, must not reveal the sins spoken in confession, nor should he expose them—not only voluntarily, but not even when compelled to do so by any force.

If any ruler or civil court were to command, or if anyone else were to compel a priest to reveal any sin of his spiritual son—if he were to threaten, torture, or put him in fear of death to persuade him to disclose someone’s sin—then the priest must rather choose to die and be crowned with a martyr’s crown than to break the seal of confession and make known the mystery of God by revealing the sins of his spiritual child. For it is better for a spiritual father, for not disclosing a confession, to suffer a temporary death at the hands of men who kill the body but cannot kill the soul, than for disclosing it to be punished by God with eternal death.

Moreover, the spiritual father must also be careful not only not to dare to reproach his spiritual child by word, but not even by any sign to expose him to human suspicion, so that people may not even surmise anything about his sin. Therefore, the confessor must not impose a public penance for a secret sin confessed in confession, because if he imposes a visible penance for a hidden sin, many will begin in every way to inquire what sin this penance was imposed for—and this will be contrary to the Mystery of God and the seal of confession.

Let the spiritual father also know this: that after the confession is completed, he must not remember the sins confessed to him, but is obliged to consign them to oblivion—not only must he not reveal them to anyone, but he must not even speak about them afterward with his spiritual son (or daughter), unless the spiritual son (or daughter) himself privately recalls the previously confessed sins to his spiritual father, either seeking beneficial counsel, or requesting a lessening of the penance which he is unable to bear, or for some other such reason.

But if any unskilled, ill-natured, and mad priest, drunk with wine or with malice, raging in pride or vainglorious arrogance, dares to expose his spiritual children and reveal their sins before others—such a one, being an enemy of God, a destroyer of the Sacrament of God, and a violator of the seal of the Holy Spirit, falls under the Dread Judgment of God and eternal punishment, and eternal torment awaits him with Judas, the betrayer of Christ. For he who reveals the mystery of God—that is, confession—and makes it known to men, betrays Christ Himself, Who dwells in the repentant man.

Such a spiritual father is no longer a spiritual father, but Judas, the betrayer of Christ, and even more than that—he is Satan himself, the accuser of our brethren, cast down from heaven, from whom comes great woe to mankind. For from such a spiritual father comes not salvation, but woe—and a twofold woe: woe for the spiritual father himself, who is deprived of the Kingdom of Heaven and goes to eternal perdition; and woe for those who confess to him, through the futility of their salvation and through disgrace.

The futility of salvation for those who confess arises from this: having heard reproach from the spiritual father, they will no longer confess their sins fully and sincerely; and by not confessing their sins openly, they remain with souls unhealed, become children of God’s wrath, and if any one of them happens to die in such a state, they will perish eternally.

The loss of good repute occurs in this way: those disgraced by the reproach of the spiritual father fall under human judgment. For many, believing the words of the reproaching spiritual father, will begin to regard the exposed as sinners, to condemn them, and to destroy their good name. The Apostle says: “It is better for me to die than that any man should make my glorying void” (1 Corinthians 9:15). Thus, an evil spiritual father not only brings destruction upon himself, but also upon his children whom he reproaches—and even further draws into perdition those before whom he reproaches them. Oh, what great woe!

The Mystery of Holy Repentance is, as has been said, a mystery sealed by God. Just as one who would dare, of his own will, to break the seal of an earthly king on a scroll containing a royal secret, and, having read it, reveal it to others, is subject to cruel torments and death—so also a priest who violates the mystery of confession, sealed with the seal of the King of Heaven, and gives the sins of the penitent into public knowledge, falls under torments and punishments—not only eternal in hell, but temporal also here on earth, for even civil law commands that such a priest should have his tongue “torn out from the root.”

O unskilled spiritual father, evil accuser of your spiritual children, destroyer of the mystery of God, scandalizer of the world, and cause of the perdition of many human souls! Why do you bring into the crowd the sins that were confessed and already forgiven? Why do you make open what was hidden and covered by God? Why do you smear again with mire those who have been washed? Why do you defile those who have been cleansed? Why do you recall by remembrance what has passed and been consigned to oblivion? For God has consigned confessed human sins to forgetfulness, as Ezekiel says in his prophecy: “If the sinner repent, his sins shall no more be remembered” (Ezekiel 33:15–16). But you, wretched priest, remember and recall the sins of your spiritual children when they ought not to be remembered, and by this you become an adversary of God. He remembers not the sins once forgiven unto the ages of ages, while you dare to recall them. What punishments are you worthy of for this?!

Offering this to you, O priests, I exhort you with admonition and entreat you with supplication, that you cease from such mad wickedness and destructive boldness. I remind you of the instruction of Saint John of the Ladder from his “Word to the Shepherd”: “God, having heard the confession, never becomes an accuser, lest He strike down the one confessing by accusation and leave him suffering, unhealed” (The Ladder, 282). From these words of the Ladder-writer, every priest must learn not to reproach or reveal the sins which your spiritual children confess to the Lord before you, lest you strike them down, turn them away from repentance, and leave them incurably wounded.

But I, a humble bishop, by episcopal authority command you, O priests, not only not to reproach and not to reveal, but also not to boast that you are a spiritual father to anyone, or that such and such persons are your spiritual children—lest through such boasting, O priest, you give people some clue for conjectures and assumptions about anyone’s sin. It is enough for you that all who come to your church know you as their confessor. Why then do you still need to boast of your spirituality? What praise is there in washing someone from filth? What honor is there in cleansing another’s yard from dung? What glory is there in wiping away someone’s excrement? For when you hear the sins of your spiritual child, which he confesses before God in your presence; when you, discerning them by the priestly authority given to you by God, absolve him, wash him from the mire, cleanse the filth from the courtyard of his soul, and wipe away the uncleanness from his conscience—what vanity or pride is there for you in this?

The ministry of spiritual fatherhood is given to priests by God for the purpose of serving human salvation, and not for vanity, pride, vain exaltation, or excessive dominion over spiritual children. And if the power to bind and loose sins is given by God to the priest, then this power operates only at the very moment when the Sacrament of Confession and Repentance is being performed; but after the confession of sins, the spiritual father must not remember what was confessed, nor is it fitting for him to hold lordship over his spiritual children. If henceforth any of the priests, remaining in such incorrigibility, becomes known by name to our humble person, such a one shall be subject to our judgment and severe punishment as one disobedient to God and opposing our episcopal admonition.

If it also becomes known to our humility that certain negligent priests, having under their care not a small flock of human souls, do not care as they ought for their salvation, are slothful in visiting the sick to hear their confession and to communicate them, refuse to visit the poor and destitute, but go only to the rich—despising the poor and the needy—so that many, due to their negligence, die without confession and without Communion of the Divine Mysteries, then to such negligent priests I remind the word of Christ from the Gospel: “Woe unto you, for ye shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against men; for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in” (Matthew 23:13). I further remind them of what is said in the prophecy of Ezekiel: “The blood of the perishing sinner will God require at the hand of the shepherd” (Ezekiel 3:18). And the Lord Christ also says in the Gospel: “It is not the will of your Father in Heaven that one of these little ones should perish” (Matthew 18:14). But if anyone perishes through the negligence of a priest, what answer shall that priest give for the soul that is lost?

Hear, O priests, what answer concerning your flock you will be required to give on the Day of Judgment; hear Saint John Chrysostom, who speaks thus: “If someone, through negligence, causes even one of his flock to perish, does he not thereby destroy his entire salvation? Would it not be better for him that ‘a millstone were hanged about his neck and he were cast into the sea’?” (Mark 9:42). For the whole world is not worth one human soul. What then shall be said of a priest who, through his negligence, has caused many souls to perish? Shall he not be plunged into the unquenchable fire of Gehenna?

Therefore, by the commandment of God, we command priests to care with all diligence for the salvation of human souls, both by day and by night; that they not despise the poor and destitute, but regard them equally with the rich. For at the dread judgment they will be required to give an equal account for all—the Master Christ Himself will demand an account from the priest for each one alike, both the poor and the rich.

If any priest has a very large flock of human souls and therefore cannot personally attend to all, then a subordinate priest should assist him in visiting the sick with the Divine Mysteries, for confession, and should help him in fulfilling other Christian duties.

These exhortations and commandments I have briefly set forth for you, O priests, so that you may receive them with obedience and remain worthy of your calling. Then you shall obtain the mercy of God, and the prayers and blessing of our humility shall remain with you. But if anyone proves disobedient and resistant, if anyone becomes indignant and remains uncorrected, such a one shall see for himself what judgment he shall incur—for the wrath of God does not slumber, and His destruction does not delay. As for us, the humble, we consider ourselves clean from the perdition of such a one, from which may Christ our God deliver all by His mercy. Amen.

 

Russian source: Сочинения святого Димитрия, митрополита Ростовского, 6th edition, Vol. 1, Moscow, Synodal Press, 1839, pp. 159-168.