Letter 31

From: Desiderius of Cahors, bishop To: [Unknown recipient] Date: ~643 AD Context: Desiderius of Cahors, letter 31; on the question of how to handle public sinners in the pastoral context. To my brother in the ministry, The case you describe is one of the genuinely difficult ones: a prominent member of the community who has committed a serious but private sin, who has confessed it, who has expressed genuine contrition, but whose public life gives no indication of any of this — who continues to be treated as a respectable person in ways that arguably the sin disqualifies him for. The tension here is between the seal of confession — which is absolute and cannot be broken — and the church's responsibility for the moral formation of the community. A bishop who cannot act on what he knows in confession is genuinely constrained. What canon law and pastoral tradition both suggest in such cases: the behavior that is publicly visible is relevant, separate from the confessional disclosure. If the man's public conduct includes ongoing patterns that are inconsistent with the contrition he has expressed privately, that public conduct is actionable regardless of what was said in the confessional. If the private contrition is genuine and the public life is being reformed — even quietly, even without public declaration — then patience and continued pastoral accompaniment are probably the right response. Your brother in the difficult work, Desiderius