GENERAL.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVIII, Issue 49, 6 December 1900, Page 29

GENERAL.

The Virtue of the Confessional.— There is virtue in th«Confesaional and the seal of secrecy it imposes. It can, for instance (sayi the Catholic Time*), restore stolen jewels to their lawful owner, and save the culprit from detection and punishment, A little time ago a fashionable Parisian lady went to her dressmaker to see about a new costume. In the antechamber she deposited a handbag con* taining jewels to the value of several hundred pounds. After the mysterious rites in the sanctum of the modiste were over, the lady passed into the antechamber once more, but the handbag and jewels had disappeared, and the police failed in all their efforts to recover them. Restitution has now been made by a priest to whom the thief— a lady of rank who had visited the dre-smaker on a similar errand — imparted in confessional her misdeed and the remorse it subsequently caused her. Sudden and irresistible temptation was responsible for the larceny ; but it is pretty oertain that but for the knowledge that no Catholic priest can betray the secrets communicated to him in confessional, and that it was quite safe to make him an agent in the matter, the rig-htf ul proprietor of the jewels would be still waiting for her missing property.