The seal of confession is the priest’s duty of “absolute secrecy regarding the sins that his penitents have confessed to him”. This secret “admits of no exceptions”, and is called a seal because what the penitent has made known “remains ‘sealed’ by the sacrament”. It is “absolutely forbidden for a confessor to betray in any way a penitent in words or in any manner and for any reason”, and the interpreter and “all others who in any way have knowledge of sins from confession” are bound to secrecy too. A confessor may not use that knowledge “to the detriment of the penitent even when any danger of revelation is excluded”. A confessor who directly violates the seal “incurs a latae sententiae excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See”.
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