In 1552 the Council of Trent, in affirming the previous decisions of Popes and Councils, declared that the Sacrament of Penance consists of three essential and indispensable elements; viz., contrition, confession and satisfaction; that these are of divine institution; that every penitent must confess his grievous sins at least once a year, and that no minister who is not in priest’s orders has the power of absolution. The wilful omission of any material circumstance vitiates the whole confession and renders it null and void. It is, therefore, clear that the Catholic cannot evade the obligation of confession without grave injury to conscience. The priest, on the other hand, cannot deny his duty of hearing confession to any who seeks it, though he may refuse to give absolution afterwards. The Church goes further and binds him to an inviolable secrecy as to what is told him in the privacy of the confessional. He is bound, under the most solemn obligation, never under any circumstances or whatever demand be made upon him, to reveal any sin which a penitent has confessed for the purpose of sacramental absolution. The priest, by his very act of administering the Sacrament, binds himself to a secrecy, a secrecy which he cannot violate without mortal sin, and the forfeiture of all that is most valuable in life. ‘The Seal, as it is called, is of divine right most strictly binding the priest, in every case, even where the welfare of the State is at stake, and even after the death of the penitent, to reveal nothing that he has heard in confession, so that the Sacrament be not rendered intolerable and hateful to the people,’ And we know from the high standard of the priesthood that no priest would so violate his religion and his honour as to be guilty of such a crime for all that the world could offer. The priest remains under this obligation even when in doubt as to having heard the matter in question in the confessional.