Question:
Answer:
The simple answer is that, according to present Church discipline, a bishop could not require a specific penance in the internal forum of confession if it required exposing the penitent in the external forum. Catholic moral theology teaches that a confessor may not require the penitent to do anything that would make his sins public. The penitent may be required to take steps that risk exposing his sin if another person is unjustly being accused in the external forum for the sin or crime of which the penitent is guilty, but per se he is never required to turn himself in. This would be necessary only if there were absolutely no other means to avoid the injustice.
On the other hand, if the penitent is endangering others by remaining in his position, say with the care of young people, then the confessor may make absolution conditional on his resigning from his post and seeking less risky employment. But this would be only if the behavior of the penitent had already become problematic or was certain to become so. And it would not be a penance but a condition verifying contrition and purpose of amendment.
In the early and patristic Church, there was not the legal “seal of the confessional.” In those days, any grave sin might be subject, in the bishop’s judgment, to a public penance. So there was not much emphasis on secrecy. The current, longstanding discipline of the seal of the confessional is a very wise one. It makes it easier for the faithful to approach the sacrament with tranquility. Those who go to confession certainly do not expect to find the attitudes they would fine at the sheriff’s office!
If there is a bishop with such a norm, it does not have to be followed today.