In Court, a Priest Reveals a Secret He Carried for 12 Years

"On a winter afternoon in 1989, a Jesuit priest named Joseph Towle was called to the home of a teenager in the Hunts Point section of the South Bronx. Jesus Fornes, a young man Father Towle had guided toward his first communion, had something awful to tell the priest: he had killed a man in Kelly Park."

This is a fascinating case, the more so to me, since I spent a couple of years in a seminary myself and know a few people who are studying Canon Law. As far as I know, there is no record that a Catholic Priest ever violated the seal of confession. Apparently the archdiocese is satisfied that Fr. Towle's conversation with Mr Fornes was not a sacramental confession (which, according to Church Law, it would not be if the words of absolution were never spoken). What interests me is that the lawyers in the case invoked Church law in an effort to keep Fr. Towle from testifying.