Can a church pastor prohibit sacraments to people for any reason, other than mortal sin?
The short answer is no. This is bared out in Geremia’s answer.
Can. 980 If the confessor has no doubt about the disposition of the penitent, and the penitent seeks absolution, absolution is to be neither refused nor deferred.
This is certainly a violation of canon law.
Difficult times and situations bring out the best and the worst in some individuals, this includes priests.
Priests have a duty and obligation to administer the sacraments to the faithful. The priesthood is not a career, but a vocation. They take the place as God’s representative to those in need of the sacraments.
Unfortunately, some lack courage to administer the sacraments when the possibility of harming their health comes into play.
The Coronavirus is only the latest example of this. For example, my own parish priest, some years ago, refused to take communion to the elderly and those in hospital because he feared getting sick. He thus delegated this duty to Eucharistic Ministers. More unfortunate, now, is that this same parish now has three priests and they never visit the sick, the infirm or the elderly. What a shame!
On the other hand, some priests will look on this as a tremendous opportunity to administer the other sacraments, such as confession.
I can recall reading the life of St. Saint Damien De Veuster of Molokai, who volunteered to work amongst the lepers.
After some years of working in the leper colony, we was asked to return to Belgium. He asked to be allowed to return to the colony because they had no one to administer the sacraments. Initially he was refused because his superiors deemed it to dangerous for health reasons to send another priest. During this conversation Father Damien had his hand very close over a candle and did not feel the pain that he had burned his hand. When his superiors noticed this, they had Father Damien examined by a physician. He was diagnosed with leprosy. Again he requested permission to return to his island and this time he was not refused. At his first mass upon his arrival he pronounced these now famous words: ”We lepers...”.
We need more priests with Fr. Damien’s courage.
How many priests died administering the sacraments during the Black Plague!
It is true that priests must look after their health, and prudence plays a part. Priests can take the required protocols that have been proven effective in controlling the virus instead of putting out a rule that unless you are vaccinated, you can not go to confession. Rome does not even obliged the faithful to get the vaccines. Priests should know better than circumventing Canon Law.
There is a story somewhere out there about confessors hearing confessions of lepers in a particular catacomb in Rome. I can not recall the source, but if someone knows of it could they please edit it into this answer or at least pass me a link.
There is in Rome a catacomb, where the acoustics are held in such a way that a priest can hear the confession of lepers at a relatively large enough distance while speaking in a low voice and thus avoiding close contact and avoiding the contact with the Hansen's disease.
Priest need to be more courageous and step up to the plate. Doctors and nurses do not abandon the sick during the pandemic; nor should priests refuse to hear penitents because they have not received a vaccine.
Rome has already made it clear that the faithful are not morally obliged to receive a vaccine.
- At the same time, practical reason makes evident that vaccination is not, as a rule, a moral obligation and that, therefore, it must be voluntary. In any case, from the ethical point of view, the morality of vaccination depends not only on the duty to protect one's own health, but also on the duty to pursue the common good. - Note on the morality of using some anti-Covid-19 vaccines
Addendum: Visual contact must still be maintained for confession!
While there are now apps such as "Confession" that can assist during the examination of conscience, you cannot receive sacramental absolution via the internet or on the phone. Matter of conscience are forbidden by Rome over the phone, e-mail, internet and other modern forms of modern communication when the sacrament of confession is involved. The priest must keep the identity of the person secret. The internet is not.
Can a priest hear confession over the phone?
With regard to Penance, it is clear that the Sacrament is not to be celebrated via cell phone. In addition, in the present circumstances cell phones should not be used even for the amplification of voices between a confessor and penitent who are in visual range of each other. Current threats against the seal of confession also raise questions about information on cell phones.
It is important to note that the sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation has not been prohibited during the pandemic in the Archdiocese of Detroit and pastors have been encouraged throughout to use their discretion to determine how to safely administer this sacrament to the faithful.
When it is impossible to receive sacramental absolution through individual confession, due to lack of availability or the individual’s inability to leave home during the pandemic, perfect contrition obtains forgiveness of sins, even mortal ones (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1452). Perfect contrition consists of:
The love of God, beloved above all things, expressed by a sincere request for forgiveness (that which the penitent is at present able to express) and
The firm resolution to go to sacramental confession as soon as possible.
At present, confessions in my parish are done in a side room with priest and penitent are over 10 ft apart and a veil between them. No problem!!!
Addendum:
The Church’s Code of Canon Law states that confessions should not be refused, provided the proper conditions are met.
A parish in the Diocese of Trenton will no longer restrict the sacrament of confession to those who have received a COVID vaccine, after a clarification from the diocese.
On Sunday, the Church of the Precious Blood in Monmouth Beach, New Jersey, had posted on its website that confessions would once again be available - but only for those who had already received the coronavirus vaccination.
“Only those vaccinated may come to the Sacrament of Penance in order to protect yourself, and more importantly, to protect others in case you are asymptomatic and contagious,” said the parish website on Sunday.
Then on Monday afternoon, the Trenton Diocese clarified that the parish would allow people not yet vaccinated to receive confession.
“The Diocese has contacted the pastor in question and the parish website has been updated to allow for all those seeking Confession, regardless of vaccination status,” said the Diocese of Trenton on Monday afternoon on Twitter.
The parish’s confession policy was an update of a previous policy on its website dated from June 3, 2020. The announcement stated that “confessions at this time remain problematic,” due to the ongoing pandemic. The pastor of the parish, Fr. Michael Sullivan, had not yet decided on how to proceed with hearing confessions.
“With the presumption that anyone may be infected without knowing it, then the use of any screen, which allows anonymity, means that we must sanitize that side of the screen and any chair or kneeler used by the penitent between each penitent’s confession,” said the website in February. “I need more time to consider what to do. We may have to only allow face-to-face Confession in the meantime.
The Church’s Code of Canon Law states that confessions should not be refused, provided the proper conditions are met.
Canon 843 §1 of the Code of Canon Law states that “The sacred ministers cannot refuse the sacraments to those who ask for them at appropriate times, are properly disposed, and are not prohibited by law from receiving them.”
By Monday afternoon, the parish website had been updated to state that “Confessions Are Now Available” for all - but still separated those penitents who have been vaccinated from those who have not been vaccinated.
“Now that Fr. Mike has been vaccinated, the Sacrament of Penance will be available in two ways,” said the website. “For those who have not been vaccinated, in the sanctuary of the church, face to face. For those who have been vaccinated, in the confessional where confession can take place anonymously.”
Fr. Sullivan did not respond to CNA’s request for comment in time for publication. The parish office at Church of the Precious Blood was closed.
The confession policies at the Church of the Precious Blood were more strict than those the Diocese of Trenton recommended in its pandemic directives from late 2020.
Those directives stated that “as has been the case throughout the pandemic, confession continues to be available as needed,” although “confessionals should not be used.” The directives encouraged outdoor confessions as well indoor confessions in a well-ventilated, socially-distant setting.
“All arrangements for confessions must safeguard the health of both priest and penitent, respecting the dignity and confidentiality of the Sacrament,” the directives stated. Kneelers and chairs were to be sanitized after each penitent.
While the parish now requires that non-vaccinated persons confess their sins face-to-face, both the Code of Canon Law and the sacramental norms of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) stipulate that confessional screens must be available in churches.
According to Can. 964 §1, bishops’ conferences must “take care, however, that there are always confessionals with a fixed grate between the penitent and the confessor in an open place so that the faithful who wish to can use them freely.”
The USCCB Latin Rite bishops’ complementary legislation for canon 964, §2 states that “[p]rovision must be made in each church or oratory for a sufficient number of places for sacramental confessions which are clearly visible, truly accessible, and which provide a fixed grille between the penitent and the confessor.”
During the coronavirus pandemic, the Vatican has said that canonical norms remain in place for the sacrament of confession, although bishops themselves could determine how the sacrament could be administered safely while upholding the sacramental seal. - New Jersey Parish Reverses Vaccine Mandate for Confessions
