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Government Proposal to Break The Seal of Confession is Without Precedent [Ireland]
The Irish Catholic ^ | 7/14/11 | David Quinn

Posted on 07/15/2011 2:16:30 PM PDT by marshmallow

The Taoiseach, the Minister for Justice and the Minister for Children are all indicating that a proposed new law will require priests to break the seal of confession if someone confesses to them the crime of paedophilia. This would make us the one and only country in the Western world to have such a law. Even Revolutionary France in the days of its worst violence against the Church did not pass a law requiring the breaking of the seal of confession.

The justification for the law is that the crime of paedophilia is so heinous that no one who hears about it, under whatever circumstances, can be allowed to keep it to themselves.

But our Government is clearing missing something that every other Government can see, which is that at a minimum such a law is very unlikely to lead to a single conviction and at a maximum will be counter-productive and will make society less safe, rather than more safe. It could equally be argued that a priest who hears a confession of murder must report it to the police. But if the murderer knew that priests were under such a legal requirement, the murderer would not make such a confession unless he was going to the police anyway.

On the other hand, a murderer who wishes to confess a crime to a priest, under the absolute seal of the confessional, is on the road to repentance and attending confession gives a priest the chance to encourage the murderer to turn himself over to the authorities or at the very least to cease his criminal activities.

The logic is the same with child abusers. No child abuser will go to a priest in confession knowing the priest is required to inform the police.

(Excerpt) Read more at irishcatholic.ie ...


TOPICS: Catholic; Current Events; Ministry/Outreach; Moral Issues; Religion & Politics
KEYWORDS: behaviorconsequence; justice; karma; luke17two; mark9fortytwo; mathew18six; millstone; moralabsolutes; notabovethelaw; pedophelia; pedophile; reapwhatyousew
I don't believe such a law has ever been enacted anywhere, even in times of intense anti-Catholicism, such as during the French Revolution. Yet here it is being proposed in, of all places...........Ireland.

Quite extraordinary.

Persecution is never instigated spontaneously and for no apparent reason. There is always some public "good" to be achieved by such a course of action. The Church is either "the enemy of the people" (under Communism) or "corrupt" (French Revolution) or some other such crime . The oncoming persecution in the west will be for, amongst other things, "sheltering child molesters".

1 posted on 07/15/2011 2:16:37 PM PDT by marshmallow
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To: marshmallow
I never understood the Seal of Confession for CRIMES.

We did away with it here.....years ago...opting for General Confessions.

So, obviously, the whole Confession thing is man made rules.

2 posted on 07/15/2011 2:31:42 PM PDT by Sacajaweau
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To: Sacajaweau

James 5:16


3 posted on 07/15/2011 2:39:54 PM PDT by vladimir998 (Sweden - one of the next Muslim countries)
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To: Sacajaweau

Our Lord gave the Apostles the instruction “whose sins you forgive are forgiven them; whose sins you hold bound are held bound.” Now how can a priest forgive sins unless they are confessed to him? And who would confess to a priest if he knew his sins would be revealed to others? Those who do not accept our Lord’s words cannot understand the seal of confessions; those who do accept his words know that the salvation of souls demands it.


4 posted on 07/15/2011 2:55:38 PM PDT by Petrosius
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To: marshmallow
This proposal is part of the ongoing attack on Western Civilization with its Christian heritage. So far The Third World and Non-Christian assailants are everywhere victorious.

By the way, secular law in California protects the Priest-Penitent communication. There would be a question of whether or not the Priest was obligated to report a plan to commit a crime in the future.

5 posted on 07/15/2011 3:02:14 PM PDT by AEMILIUS PAULUS (It is a shame that when these people give a riot)
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To: marshmallow

A secular law cannot void the seal of confession, since that is not a privilege granted by the State.


6 posted on 07/15/2011 3:04:11 PM PDT by Jim Noble (Freedom is the freedom to say 2+2=4. If that is granted, all else follows.)
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