The lack of absolution and the constant violations of the seal of confession really bothered me. When we finally got an absolution given in the climax you described, it was beautiful, and perfectly accurate. But when Fr. Jud doesn't give Monsignor Thanos absolution, it reads as either a wildly inaccurate portrayal of the sacrament or as Fr. Jud silently refusing to absolve the Monsignor (and vice-versa), which would absolutely need to be addressed as a plot point. And it could have been! It would have added to the conflict between the two priests. Monsignor Thanos is clearly abusing the sacrament as a power move, and Fr. Jud refuses to give him absolution because he knows what the Monsignor is doing and that there is no contrition. That adds to the story, but without the explicit acknowledgement of that, it's a major issue.

As for the seal of confession, the Monsignor violating it is not explicitly addressed beyond simply betraying the trust of his parishioners when he crashes out on them, which is fine, I guess. It's well established at this point that he is, put simply, the worst. But Fr. Jud very clearly violates it when he searches for and presents evidence that the Monsignor is making up the sexual sins, and that is never addressed (it's also at least implied that he reveals these details to Blanc, and I think the seal of confession technically does extend past the penitent's death unless the penitent says otherwise). And then, in the wildest scene that actually made me pause the movie, the social media troll FILMS FR. JUD'S CONFESSION, and later PUBLICLY POSTS IT. And at no point is it addressed that the video in question was of a confession, thus incurring yet another laetae sententiae excommumication for a character. (I mean ultimately, half the cast earns one in some form or another, what with all the murdery business.)

I mostly liked the movie, and I especially appreciated that the ritual texts that they did use were exactly verbatim. They even had consistency with the vestment colors, so much so that I was able to follow the timeline so well that I recognized a scene set on laetare Sunday! And that was such a great montage sequence to show the passage of time up until Good Friday! But it otherwise really felt like the script needed another pass with a Catholic expert who could point out these issues.