“Isn't confession a system where the priest digs out your secrets and controls you?”

Penance and Reconciliation — a new start in forgiveness and reconciliation

🛡️The Church's answer: A confessor may not feed his curiosity or play on your shame. Probing for details not needed to discern the sin, or asking humiliating questions, is out of order, and the seal of confession can never be broken for any reason. If you feel uncomfortable or unsafe, you can stop talking and find a different confessor.

🧐If they press further: “What if the questions in confession keep pressing into sexual or private matters?” — You do not have to answer. Get somewhere safe, then tell a trusted adult or the church's safeguarding officer, and any improper behavior that took place outside the sacrament can be reported through the formal channels.

✨In one sentence: “Confession is no place for control or curiosity — it has to protect the penitent's dignity and the absolute secrecy of the sacrament.”