The Confession

A priest from the south of France was accused of murdering a man. It transpired that the priest was the only person at the scene of the crime, and all the evidence pointed against him. Tried before the whole village, he defended himself vigorously, maintaining his innocence, but as there were no other suspects and the evidence found pointed to him, he was sentenced to death and hanged in front of the villagers.

Thirty years later, a very elderly woman appeared before the town magistrate and said to him:

‘Your Honour, I cannot die without saying something that weighs heavily on my conscience. I am the one who killed the man for whose murder our priest was sentenced to death 30 years ago. And I have come to confess because I cannot take this terrible secret to my grave. But that is not all. That evening I went to church and confessed my sin to the priest; but at the trial I did not have the strength to admit my wickedness, allowing him to be condemned in my place. So, the priest knew that I was the murderer and did not denounce me. He preferred to be condemned in my place and accepted death, but he did not reveal what he had heard from me during the Sacrament of Confession!