On March 25, Pope Francis received participants in a course on the internal forum organized by the Apostolic Penitentiary.

Pope Francis told 800 priests in Paul VI Audience Hall that acceptance, listening, and accompaniment are “three essential dimensions of the confessor’s ministry; three faces of love, to which we must add the joy that always accompanies it.”

The Pope also spoke about the duration of the confessional seal. “I have realized that a relativization of the sacramental seal is creeping into some groups, some associations,” he warned. “For example, they say: the seal is for the sin, but then everything that comes after the sin or before the sin, you can say. No! And there are some groups that support this; and then the confessor tells the superiors the other things. No. The seal is from the time you begin to the time you end … everything is under seal.”