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→Confidentiality
==Confidentiality==
:''"The secrecy of the Mystery of [[Penance]] is considered an unquestionable rule in the entire Orthodox Church. Theologically, the need to maintain the secrecy of confession comes from the fact that the priest is only a witness before God. One could not expect a sincere and complete confession if the penitent has doubts regarding the practice of confidentiality. Betrayal of the secrecy of confession will lead to canonical punishment of the priest.''
:''St. [[Nicodemus the Hagiorite]] exhorts the Spiritual Father to keep confessions confidential, even under strong constraining influence. The author of the Pedalion (the Rudder), states that a priest who betrays the secrecy of confession is to be deposed. The Metropolitan of Kos, Emanuel, mentions in his handbook (Exomologeteke) for confessors that the secrecy of confession is a principle without exception.''::"<ref>From the [http://aggreen.net/guidelines/guide03.html ''Guidelines for Clergy'' (Orthodox Church in America)]</ref>
In St. [[Nicodemus the Hagiorite]]'s Exomologitarion, he writes:
:"At no time do we find God revealing the sins which have been confessed to Him, lest by making these public knowledge, He should impede those who would confess and so make them incurably sick."<ref>St. John of the Ladder, ''The Ladder of Divine Ascent'', trans. Fr. Lazarus Moore (Brookline, MA: Holy Transfiguration Monastery, 1979), p. 243.</ref>
The Byzantine Nomocanon states, in Canon 120:
:""A spiritual father, if he reveals to anyone a sin of one who had confessed receives a penance: he shall be suspended [from serving] for three years, being able to receive Communion only once a month, and must do 100 prostrations every day."<ref>translated by Fr. Alexander Lebedeff from the [Slavonic text http://www.synaxis.info/synaxis/8_law/f_byzantine/nomokanon.html]</ref>
==General Confession==
