If a person confessed murder to a priest, would the priest have to tell the police?

no the confession box is exempt

NOPE.. ALL Priests know before they are ordained that the seal or veil of the confession is unbreakable. The latin word used to describe how bad it is for a Priest to break this seal has NO english equivalent, but the closest english words are something "soo terrible that one can not even imagine it" -- So it is considered...really really really bad.

A Priest will be undoubtedly excommunicated from the faith once they find out he did this.

IN fact, in doing some research to answer a similar question a few months ago.. I found out a few OTHER things about it...

YES, Priests will often times STRONGLY URGE the person to confess.. they will even offer to follow the person to the police station to give them courage. However they can NOT tell the police EVEN IF the confessor tells them to. Even if the suspect tells the Priest in public it is OK to tell the Police what he told him..the Priest STILL can not break the veil of secrecy. In order for the Priest to bear witness against the confessor.. the confessor MUST tell the priest everything all over again in a public location outside of the confessional...so it is no longer part of the sacrament of confession.

That's just HOW serious Priests take it.

ALSO.. interesting to note.. IF someone one ELSE accidently over hears a confession, even though they are not a Priest they TOO are covered by the veil of secrecy and are expected to NOT say anything about it.

You could see how a nurse or family member, tending to a sick or dying person might need to tend to the patient while they are confessing to a Priest.. if this occurrs, then they TOO are not allowed to mention anything to anyone.

Obviously many Catholics don't know this..and even fewer non-catholics do. And also, obviously, the Catholic church realizes that there is NO way to enforce that rule on people, but it is a rule, none the less for Catholics to follow.

So, if you hear a confession, but don't know you are suppose to keep quiet and tell someone, you haven't sinned since you didn't know it was wrong. BUT, once you know..you should respect that and not continue to spread around the person's confession all over town.

Priests CAN mention in very general terms what they hear in a confession, so long as there is no specifics mentioned and there is no way anyone knows who they are talking about. Examples of why they MIGHT want to do this is to teach the congregation a moral lesson, or to make a point. They might say, "Just last week I had a gentleman confess that he cheated on his wife...." -- so long at the congregation is large enough that no one knows WHO went to confession last week.

The fact that Priests don't marry actually reduces their inclination to "share with their spouse" something I know is a temptation for a lot of married Pastors and I know some who tell their wives nearly everything.

No.

But this is an ethical scenario brought up in seminary and like course all the time.

What if it got out to the parishioners that the Priest knew? What if the police could have gotten involved and prevented the murder? Shouldn't a person have the right to go before a representative of God in confidentiality? Others may not come to confession because now they know the priest may tell. This is one of the major splits between American Protestantism and it's progenitor.

It's not going to be solved here.

A priest wont tell the police anything, because the confession was done in church under God. Since Catholics believe you need a priest to hear your confession, your sins so man no longer has any right on judging you. Only God does, and he hear you confess and say your were sorry. Thus forgiving you and giving you a clean slate.

I'm not Catholic, but I know this one. The priest not only would not have to tell the police, he would be punished by the Church for doing so. The sanctity of the confessional has always stood up in court, at least in the United States.

The priest could, however, make absolution conditional on the murderer confessing his crime to the authorities.

the priest would encourage him to do so himself as part of his forgiveness process. But a priest cannot go out and blab a person's confession to ANYONE. Unlike a minister who can and probably has told what some person confessed to him to the total embarrasment and scandal of the one who entrusted themself to him, A catholic priest is bound by his vow and if he should tell someone's sin, whatever it was, to anyone, he can loose his priestly vocation forever. The church cannot say, that well, a priest can tell on one who commits a serious crime and sin, but he cannot tell on one who just commits sins, no, it has to be one way or the other or you would have a huge mess and people would quit confessing, and Jesus is the one who told us to confess to the other when he commissioned the 12 to forgive them their sins or retain their sins, if they do, they are forgiven if they do not the are retained. Those are Jesus

's words, not mine.

people may state that the confession booth is exempt all they wish.. However, to be forgiven by a god does not make it ok.

I am under the understanding that should someone confess to murder, the priest would still have to come forward with information. After all, in most cases it stops a psychological doctor from coming forth, but if the person is dangerous or kills, they would still need to inform the police.

The priest is prohibited from violating the seal of the confessional under any circumstances whatever. I believe standard operating procedure is to withhold absolution (forgiveness) until the penitent has surrendered to the civil authorities, as an incentive for doing so.

No they would not tell. Priests uphold a higher law. There is a Seal on the Confessional however the murder would be required to confess himself and face the consequences in order to receive absolution.

Indeed, a confession to a pastor or priest is protected under the law as inadmissable in a court of law.

That depends. If it's a atheist that was murder. Never mind. Yes it is his duty to call the police and let them know. If I had murdered a atheist, I surely wouldn't confess anything to a priest. I would have went to God, asked for forgiveness and went to sleep knowing tomorrow was going to be a new day.