[sinkspur]

Wow. I didn't know that. Lay confessors.

[Dominick]

It makes sense since the Bishop legally gives the Priests the right to hear confessions. It is one of the things one loses if they are not incardinated.

I have to worry about lay confessions though, the seal of confession is pretty important to a jerk like me! (thats a joke...) I imagine the same rules apply about the seal to a lay confessor.

[gbcdoj]

Before the Council of Trent, deacons and even laymen were sometimes allowed to hear confessions in extremis when no priest was available. They were not, however, permitted to grant absolution, since: "as regards the minister of this sacrament, the holy Synod declares all these doctrines to be false, and utterly alien from the truth of the Gospel, which perniciously extend the ministry of the keys to any others soever besides bishops and priests" (Trent, Session XIV, Decree on Penance, cap. vi).

[Tantumergo]

"Wow. I didn't know that. Lay confessors."

There is precedent in the Roman rite (way, way, way back when!) for deacons hearing confessions and reconciling apostates to the Church.

There is a certain logic to it as the deacon is "the bishop's man" and as such participates in his ministry. When the deacon was given faculties by a bishop to exercise the Sacrament of Penance he was essentially reconciling the penitants to the local Church by acting as a "vicar" of the head of the local Church - i.e. the bishop.

P.S. I have no personal desire ever to be a confessor - coping with wayward deacons is bad enough as it is!!!