Sermon to the Priests

Humble Demetrius, by the grace of God, Metropolitan of Rostov and Yaroslavl, to the honest priests in all the cities and villages of our flock - blessing and peace from our Lord Jesus Christ. It has come to our ears that among you there are unskilled and evil priests who tell and reveal the sins confessed to them by their spiritual children. In conversations that happen with people, they, being drunk, vainly boast about their spiritual children, talking about who goes to them for confession, but if they are angry with the spiritual children for something, then they reproachfully revile them, saying: “You are my spiritual son (or spiritual daughter), don’t you know that I know your sins? Now I will denounce you in front of everyone,” and they utter other crazy words. We are extremely surprised at the madness and evil disposition of such bad confessors, we grieve and sigh over their destruction and at the same time about the vain anxiety of their spiritual children and about the disgrace of the latter. We write this short admonition to everyone in general so that the secret of confession is firmly kept, so that unskillful and insane priest-confessors do not perish, and so that spiritual children do not lose their salvation and are not dishonored. So, we, together with David, say to such foolish priests: “Beware, you foolish people! When will you grow wiser? (Ps. 93:8), remembering what the mystery of confession, or Holy Repentance, is. Oh, how great is the sin of revealing and destroying that secret, and how great is the anxiety caused by the destruction of that secret! Confession is the Sacrament of Holy Repentance, in which a person, through free and humble confession of sins, receives forgiveness from the mercy of God, according to what is written in the psalms: “I said: I confess my iniquities to the Lord, and You have taken away sin from my heart” (Ps. 31:5). This sacrament is the Sacrament of God, for from God Himself comes the power to forgive people their sins, according to what is written in the Gospel: “Who can forgive sins except God alone?” (Luke 5:21), and to Him alone we confess our sins, having our spiritual father as a listener and witness of our confession and at the same time as a judge and decider established by God. So, no one should know this secret of God except the Omniscient God Himself and the spiritual father, as a witness and listener of the deeds confessed through the lips of the repentant. This Sacrament of God is sealed with the seal of God Himself, that is, the Holy Spirit, Who completes this Sacrament, as the Lord said to the holy apostles: “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive, they will be forgiven” (John 20:22–23). This Sacrament is performed by the Holy Spirit through the priest, as through an instrument, forgiving confessed sins and justifying the sinner with permission, which is pronounced through the lips of the priest. With this, like a seal, forgiveness and justification are confirmed and the secret of confession is sealed, and no one should open that seal and make it known to people, according to the words of the apostle: “Who will accuse God’s elect? God justifies them. Who is judging? (Rom. 8:33–34), that is, who has the right to expose the sins of the servants of God, whom God justified for the sake of their confession and chose as heirs of His kingdom for the sake of their repentance? If God has justified, let no man condemn. If God has hidden, let no man expose. If God has hidden, let not man declare. God's mercy is like the sea, and our sins are like stones, weighing heavily on us. Just as a stone cast into the sea remains in the depths unknown to anyone, so our sins, cast into the sea of ​​God’s mercy by confession, cannot be known to anyone. The spiritual father in this Sacrament, as standing in the place of Christ God Himself and the righteous Judge, must also demonstrate His character. Just as Christ God, knowing the sins of everyone, does not convict and does not announce to anyone before His final Last Judgment, so the spiritual father, who takes the place of Christ, should not declare sins spoken in confession, and should not denounce them not only voluntarily, but also when forced to do so by someone. If any ruler or civil court commanded or anyone else forced the priest to tell any sin of his spiritual son, if with threats, torment and death he frightened and convinced him to reveal someone else’s sin, then the priest should rather die and be crowned with a martyr’s crown than destroy the seal of confession and make known the secret of God by announcing the sins of his spiritual child. For it is better for a spiritual father to accept temporary death from people who kill the body but cannot kill the soul for not announcing confession, than for declaring to be punished by God with eternal death. In addition, the spiritual father must also take care not only not to dare to denounce his spiritual child with a word, but also not to expose him to human suspicion by any sign, so that people cannot guess from anything about his sin. Therefore, the confessor should not impose an obvious penance for a secret sin spoken in confession, because if he imposes an obvious penance for a secret sin, then many will begin to search in every possible way for what kind of sin such penance was imposed, and this will be contrary to the Sacrament of God and the seal of confession. Let the spiritual father also know that after making a confession, he should not remember the sins confessed to him, but is obliged to consign them to oblivion and not only not to announce them to anyone, but not even to talk with his spiritual son (daughter) himself later about his sins heard at confession, unless the spiritual son (daughter) himself privately remembered to his spiritual father about the previously confessed sins, seeking or useful teaching, or relief of penances that he cannot bear, or for some other reason. If any inexperienced, malicious and insane priest, drunk with intoxication or malice, raging in pride or vain exaltation, dares to expose his spiritual children and declare their sins before people, such an one, as an opponent of God, a destroyer of the Sacrament of God and a violator of the seal of the Holy Spirit, is subject to the Last Judgment of God and eternal execution, and awaits it eternal torment with Judas, the traitor of Christ, for he who reveals the secret of God, that is, confession, and makes it known to people, betrays Christ Himself, who abides in the repentant person. Such a confessor is no longer a confessor, but Judas, the traitor of Christ, and even more than that - Satan himself, the slanderer of our brethren, cast out from heaven, from whom there is great woe to people, for woe, not salvation, comes from such a confessor, and even greater grief: woe for the confessor himself, who is deprived of the kingdom of heaven and going to eternal destruction, woe to those who confess to him through the futility of their salvation and through dishonor. The futility of salvation for those confessing occurs for this reason: having heard the reproof from their spiritual father, they will no longer completely openly and sincerely confess their sins, and without openly confessing their sins, they will remain with unhealed souls, become the sons of the wrath of God, and if one of them happens to die like this, they will perish forever. The deprivation of good glory occurs like this: those who are dishonored by the denunciation of their confessor are subject to human condemnation. For many, having believed the words of the convicting confessor, will begin to consider those convicted as sinners, condemn them and abolish their glory. The Apostle says: “It is better for me to die than for anyone to destroy my praise” (1 Cor. 9:15). So, an evil confessor not only exposes himself to destruction, but also his children whom he denounces, and even draws those to destruction to whom he denounces. Oh, what great grief! The mystery of Holy Repentance is, as it is said, a mystery sealed by God. Just as the one who dares to autocratically destroy the secret of the earthly king, written on a scroll and sealed with the royal seal and, having read it, tell everyone else, is subject to fierce torment and death penalty, so the priest, violating the secret of confession, sealed with the seal of the Heavenly King, and bringing to public knowledge the sins of those who confessed, is subject to torment and execution - not only eternal in hell, but and temporary here, because the civil law commands that such a priest’s tongue should be “excavated from behind.” Oh, inexperienced confessor, evil accuser of his spiritual children, destroyer of the mystery of God, seducer of the world and the cause of the destruction of many human souls! Why do you bring into the crowd sins that have been confessed and already forgiven? Why do you make what is hidden and hidden by God revealed? Why do you apply the washed away swamp again to those who have been washed? Why do you defile the purified? Why do you bring back something that is gone and consigned to oblivion as a memory? After all, God consigned confessed human sins to oblivion, for Ezekiel says in his prophecy: “If a sinner repents, his sins will never be remembered again” (Ezekiel 33:15-16). And you, damned priest, remember and recall the sins of your spiritual children when you should not remember them, and through this you become an enemy of God. He does not remember once forgiven sins forever and ever, but you dare to remember them. What kind of executions do you deserve for this?! In offering this to you, priests, I admonish you and admonish you, so that you stop from such insane malice and destructive insolence. I remind you of the instruction of St. John the Climacus from his “Word to the Shepherd”: “God, having heard the confession, never acts as an accuser, so as not to strike those who confess with reproof and leave them sick unhealed” (Ladder, 282). From these words of the Climacus, every priest must learn not to expose and not reveal the sins that your spiritual children confess to the Lord before you, so as not to amaze them, not to turn them away from repentance and not to make them incurably sick. I, humble bishop, by the authority of the bishop, command you priests not only not to denounce and not to reveal, but also not to be vainglorious about the fact that for someone you are a spiritual father and that such and such are your spiritual children, so that by that boasting, priest, you do not give people any sign of guessing and fabricating about someone else’s sin. It’s enough for you that all the people who come to your church know you as their confessor. Why else do you need to boast about your spirituality? What praise is there in washing someone away from the swamp? What honor is there in cleaning someone else's yard from pus? What glory is there in cleaning up someone's poop? After all, when you listen to the sins of your spiritual, which he confesses to God before you, when you, sorting them out with the priestly authority given to you by God, resolve him, wash him from the swamp, cleanse the pus from his spiritual courtyard and wipe the feces from his conscience, then what vanity and pride do you have in this? Clergy was given to priests by God in order to serve human salvation, and not for vanity, pride, vain exaltation and excessive power over spiritual children. If God has given the priest the power to bind and absolve sins, then this power acts only at the very time at which the Sacrament of Confession and Repentance is performed, and after the confession of sins, the confessor should not remember the confessed person, just as it is not proper for him to have authority over spiritual children. If in the future any of the priests who remain in such uncorrection becomes known by the name of our humility, such one will be subject to judgment and severe punishment by us, as disobedient to God and resisting our hierarchical admonition. If our humility also becomes aware of the fact that some of the careless priests, who have a large flock of human souls under them, do not care, as they should, about their salvation, are lazy to go to the sick in order to confess and give them communion, do not want to visit the poor and poor, but go only to the rich, and despise the poor and the poor, so that many, because of their negligence, die without confession and without Divine Communion Secrets, then to such careless priests I remind the word of Christ from the Gospel: “Woe to you, because you close the Kingdom of Heaven to men, for you yourselves do not enter, and you do not allow those who want to enter” (Matthew 23:13). I also remind you of what was said in Ezekiel’s prophecy, “God wants to exact the blood of a lost sinner from the hand of the shepherd” (Ezek. 3:18). The Lord Christ also says this in the Gospel: “It is not the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones should perish” (Matthew 18:14). If someone dies due to the negligence of the priest, then what answer will he give about the lost soul? Listen, priests, what answer about your flock will you have to give on the Day of Judgment, listen to Saint Chrysostom, who says this: “If someone through negligence destroys even one of his flock, will he not thereby destroy his entire salvation? Wouldn’t it be better for him “if they hung a millstone around his neck and threw him into the sea?” (Mark 9:42) For the whole world is not worth one human soul.” What can be said about a priest who, through his negligence, destroyed many souls? Will he not plunge into the unquenchable fire of Gehenna? So, by the commandment of God, we command the priests to take every possible care for the salvation of human souls, both day and night, so that they do not despise the poor and the poor, but treat them equally as well as the rich, for during the terrible test they will have to give an equal answer about everyone, the Lord Christ Himself will ask the priest about each equally - both about the poor and about the rich. If any priest has a very large flock of human souls and therefore cannot watch over everyone himself, then let the chapel priest help him in going to the sick with the Divine Mysteries, for confession, and let him assist him in the performance of other Christian duties. I briefly offered these admonitions and commandments to you, priests, so that you would accept them with obedience and remain worthy of your calling. Then you will receive God's mercy and the prayers and blessing of our humility will be with you. If anyone turns out to be disobedient and opposed, if anyone becomes indignant and remains uncorrected, then such a person will see for himself what kind of judgment he will suffer, for the wrath of God does not sleep and his destruction does not tarry. We, the humble ones, consider ourselves clean from such destruction, from which may Christ our God deliver everyone with His mercy. Amen.