That dinging noise is press standards slipping lower... and lower...

The relationship a Catholic has with his confessor is one of the most, if not the most intimate relationship he will ever have with another human being. Even if the priest is a stranger to me and I confess from behind the screen, the Sacrament of Penance requires me to expose myself before God at my deepest, most profound levels. A penitent comes as one who is weak, who has fallen and who wants to beg, not demand, God's forgiveness. The Father Confessor, for his part, has the task of tending to the deep spiritual wounds of sin, counseling the broken-hearted and absolving them of even the worst crimes.

And everything that passes between the two is protected by the seal of the confessional. Even if one were to confess to a vicious murder, the priest could not tell anyone else. He could try to convince the murderer to turn himself in, but that is all.

The obvious sacredness of the confessional makes stories like these almost unbelievable:

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Vatican newspaper denounced an Italian journalist who posed as a penitent and confessed fake sins in order to write an expose on the sacrament of reconciliation...

...The commentary said the article had exploited the good faith of confessors and offended the religious sentiments of millions of people...

...The reporter made his false confessions to 24 different priests in five Italian cities, including Rome. The magazine said the idea was to see how priests handle difficult pastoral situations and whether they followed the strict norms laid out by church teaching...

The full article is brief and worth reading.

How low can the media go? Pretty low. Next time he goes to Confession, the reporter doesn't have to make up any wild sins. He can honestly confess to sacrilege.