Crimen sollicitationis

So, once upon a time, there was a rule that priests had to keep secrets about things that people told them during confession. This was important because people needed to feel safe and trust that the priests wouldn't go around blabbing their secrets to everyone else.

But sometimes, some priests were doing bad things and using confession as a way to get other people to do bad things too. This is called "soliciting a crime." It's like if someone said to you, "Hey, if you steal me a candy bar, I'll give you a dollar." That's not okay, right? That person is trying to get you to do something wrong.

So to stop this from happening, the Catholic Church made a special rule called "crimen sollicitationis." This was a rule that said if a priest was trying to get someone to do a bad thing during confession, the other priests would have to report that priest to the higher-ups in the church. They would investigate what had happened and make sure that the priest was punished if they had done something wrong.

Basically, the rule was made to stop bad priests from using confession to get other people to do bad things too. And that's crimen sollicitationis, explained like you're five!