(b) those who have contracted the habit of some grave sin, if they are unwilling to use the proper means to overcome it; but if they seriously promise to use means prescribed by the confessor, they should be considered as well disposed. A sin is habitual when it is committed often—that is, for an external sin about five times a month, and for an internal sin about five times a week-and when the sinner acts for the proper motive of the vice, e.g., in injustice for disorder, in intemperance for pleasure of the sense, in sins against charity out of hatred, etc. But consideration should be taken also of the character of the person (i.e., a weak-willed person is enslaved by habit more readily than a strong-willed person) and of the vice (i.e., an alluring sin like impurity becomes a habit more quickly than other sins);
(c) those backsliders or recidivists who have confessed the same grave sin in three or four previous confessions and have relapsed into it again without any improvement. These persons should be absolved if they are sincere now and give some special indication as proof of sincerity (e.g., some effort made to conquer their habit); otherwise (except in great necessity, when they may be given the benefit of the doubt and be granted conditional absolution) they should not be absolved but should be put off kindly for a short space, since there is no reason to believe that the present sorrow is any better than that of the past.
2761. The Sacramental Penance.—(a) Obligation.—The confessor is bound to impose a penance in order to provide for the integrity of the Sacrament and the good of the penitent. Exceptions to this rule are the cases when the penitent cannot perform any penance, as when he is at the point of death, and when the penitent after the imposition of a penance and absolution remembers new and necessary matter. It is at least a venial sin to delay the giving of a penance till after the absolution, and it is a grave sin to give no penance at all, unless (as some hold) only a light penance was due.
(b) Quantity.—The amount of the penance should be suited as a punishment to the degree of the penitent’s guilt, that is, a heavier penance should be given for necessary matter and a lighter penance for free matter. The penance should also take into consideration the moral malice and the frequency of the sins. Works that the Church may order under pain of serious sin suffice for necessary matter (such as a Mass, a fast, five decades of the Rosary, or the Litany of the Saints). Light penances are the _De Profundis_, the Litany of St. Joseph, five Paters and five Aves. For a sufficient reason (e.g., the sickness of the penitent, the probability that a grave penance will keep him from future confession, the fact that his sorrow is very great or that he has gained a plenary indulgence, the performance of satisfaction for him by the confessor himself) the quantity of a penance may be lessened. A grave penance may be lightened by joining it with some duty already owed (e.g., by requiring the penitent to say the Rosary while hearing Sunday Mass, by obliging him to hear Mass on Sunday and also to say a few prayers after the Mass).
(c) Quality.—The character of the penance should make it suitable as a remedy for the spiritual disease of the penitent; that is, as far as possible he should be required to perform works that tend to correct his chief failings. Thus, for those who are uncharitable or avaricious an alms or other work of mercy is a good penance; for those who are given to pleasures of sense, a fast or other corporal austerity; for those who are lax or irreligious, a prayer, a visit to the Blessed Sacrament, a meditation, or frequentation of the Sacraments. Ordinarily it suffices to impose prayers as penances, since prayer is a universal remedy. Penances unsuitable to the penitent (e.g., fasts for one who needs nourishment on account of labors), those that are too difficult (e.g., perpetual or long-continued practices), those that are harmful (e.g., penances that will bring the penitent into suspicion or ridicule), must be avoided.
2762. The Duties of the Confessor as Spiritual Physician.—(a) General Remedies.—The confessor should give much attention to the study of moral and ascetical works, so as to be able to suggest suitable means to his penitents for overcoming their spiritual infirmities and avoiding future relapses. Thus, if a penitent desires to know or ought to be told how to struggle against anger, drunkenness or impurity, the confessor should know how to advise him and what measures to recommend to him.
(b) Special Remedies.—Certain classes of penitents need special attention. Thus, the tempted and afflicted should be told the means of fighting temptation and sadness; the scrupulous should be forbidden to examine their consciences too carefully, or to accuse themselves minutely, or to spend too much time at devotions; the sick and the dying should be encouraged to dispose themselves well and to put aside thoughts of fear and discouragement; pious persons often need assistance when they suffer temptations to tepidity or spiritual desolation. The careless, lazy, malicious, and hardened should be reproved, but sternness should not be unmingled with kindness, lest the penitent be driven away from his duty altogether.
2763. The Duties of the Confessor as Teacher and Guide.—(a) Instruction.—The confessor should teach children and other ignorant persons if he finds that they do not know truths necessary to be known for a fruitful reception of the Sacrament—that is, the mysteries of faith that must be believed explicitly and the dispositions for receiving absolution (924). He should instruct about duties when this will be for the penitent’s good—that is, when the penitent falsely believes something to be sinful which is not sinful, or to be gravely sinful that is only lightly sinful, or when the penitent’s ignorance of an obligation is gravely culpable, or when he is invincibly ignorant but will be kept from a sin without graver evil if he is instructed now. If an instruction will probably do no good, a confessor should not instruct an invincibly ignorant penitent about his duties, unless silence will be productive of greater evils than instruction. Thus, if the confessor foresees that the penitent will only be put in bad faith if he is told about a duty of restitution, it would be useless and wrong to speak to him about it; but if he should foresee that, if he does not speak, the penitent will do worse things with great injury or scandal to others, it would be necessary to instruct him.
(b) Direction.—In spiritual matters a confessor should be willing and able to counsel and advise, for example, about the choice of a state of life (marriage, clerical state, religious life), about voluntary rules or practices (vows, austerities), and about the performance of duties (e.g., training of children). For advice on temporal matters a priest should either direct his penitents to lawyers, physicians or other professional advisers, or, if he can give prudent direction himself (e.g., on artistic, educational, or business questions), he should preferably discuss the matter elsewhere than in the confessional.
2764. The Duties of the Confessor After Confession.—(a) _Per se_, or by reason of his office itself, the confessor is held to guard inviolate the secret of the confessional—that is, he may not disclose, or use to the penitent’s disadvantage, any information received from sacramental confession. This duty is a grave one imposed by natural law (since there is a quasi-contract that the confessor will treat the penitent’s confession as confidential), by divine law (since Christ, in willing that confession be used, implicitly willed that it be so conducted as not to become a thing odious, scandalous and harmful), and by church law (for Canons 889, 890, 1757, 2369 strictly forbid revelations or use of sacramental knowledge and decree severe penalties against transgressors). Since God wipes out from remembrance the sins He has pardoned, the confessor, being God’s representative, must treat what he has heard as not known to him. The obligation of the seal is so strict that no one may dispense from it, that neither Probabilism nor epieikeia may be applied to it, and that no exception is allowed unless the penitent himself freely, unmistakably and for a serious reason gives permission for it to the confessor.