The president of the French bishops’ conference has accepted a request to discuss his recent comments about the confessional seal with the country’s interior minister.
According to an October 7 Bishops’ Statement, Archbishop Eric de Moulins-Beaufort will be meeting with interior minister Gérald Darmanin to discuss the meaning of the Sacrament of Confession for Catholics and the theological, spiritual, and canonical foundations of the seal of Confession.
Rather than a summons arising from the recent revelations of decades-long sexual abuse that took place in the Church in France, the request from Mr Darmanin has been described as an invitation to discuss whether the confessional seal took precedence over French laws.
The statement on the bishops’ conference website said that the meeting with Mr Darmanin “will be an opportunity for [Moulins-Beaufort] to recall that today, the seal of Confession, imposed on priests by canon law, is not contrary to French criminal law.”