Posted on 07/19/2011 2:22:24 AM PDT by markomalley
Catholic priests in Ireland are prepared to “strongly” resist a proposed law that would require them to disclose information learned in confession.
“More than any other issue, it is probably the one that will unite both the liberal and conservative wings of the Church,” said Father Tony Flannery, a priest with the Association of Catholic Priests, in a July 18 e-mail to CNA.
“If even one exception was made to the seal of Confession, then the whole Sacrament would collapse,” he stated. “The truth of faith that this Sacrament is meant to convey is central to Christian teaching.”
The legislation, proposed by Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny, would put priests in jail for up to five years if they failed to tell authorities about sexual abuse crimes disclosed during confession.
Fr. Flannery said that the Association of Catholic Priests has not taken the proposed law very seriously, because it is simply not “workable.”
“When a person confesses in the confessional box, the priest would not normally know who they are, or indeed be able to see them,” he explained. “So how is he to report them?”
It is also “unlikely” that a person involved in abuse would go to confession, Fr. Flannery pointed out.
“In my forty years of priesthood, I don't ever remember someone confessing that they were currently abusing someone,” he said.
He noted that the prime minister’s bill also fails to address implications for other professions, and things that are said in other privileged situations of confidentiality.
It also opens the door for other crimes becoming exceptions, requiring further breaches of the confessional seal.
“Why make this one the only crime to be reported?” Fr. Flannery wondered.
The priest contends the proposed law is a “total over-reaction” to the recently released Cloyne Report, a study that found the Diocese of Cloyne failed to report nine cases of sexual abuse between the years 1996 and 2005.
Fr. Flannery predicted lawmakers would be “more calm and reasoned about all this” after a few months have passed.
But he made clear that “if this does come to law - which I do not expect - priests will resist it strongly.”
Every nightmare predator is coming to life with these Hitleresque people.
This is about persecuting the faithful, not helping children. Any priest hearing such a confession would obviously withhold absolution from the penitent until he turned himself in. This is the Taoiseach as Henry VIII.
I’ve always been taught that priests must insist that criminals turn themselves into the police. No absolution without that. There’s a film with Monty Clift about this subject. Forget its title.
You are right. This is a Stalinist ploy to turn priests into tattletales for the State. Appalling.
Leave the confession the same but change one part so sins are silently confessed to the Lord. That way the priest has nothing to tell.
Whether its confession or a fifth step, admitting to yourself, your higher power AND another human being is a profound event. It’s the saying it out loud that brings it home.
The title is “I Confess.” It was on a few weeks ago, and it’s going to be on again within the next ten days (on Turner Classic).
It’s a Hitchcock film I think, and worth watching.
Regards,
I thought it was a Hitchcock film. I never saw it - despite my love for Montgomery Clift. I’m gonna catch it this time. Thanks!
“I Confess” is on TCM today at 2pm.
This is what comes of incrementalism and compromise; it never should have gotten this far. If the Church had had the courage to draw the line on homosexuality, abortion, the welfare state, and a host of other moral issues, the marxists wouldn’t be battering at the doors of the confessional today.
Better late than never, but this should serve as a lesson to everyone that there is no negotiation with evil that results in good.
Miss M...
mc5cents says “I Confess” is on TODAY @ 2:00. It’s a pretty good movie, and Clift gives a performance that clearly shows how a priest is supposed to handle this very situation. He never even implies that he’s ever heard any kind of confession to the crime, but simply asserts his innocence and leaves it at that.
Regards,
“Why make this one the only crime to be reported?” Fr. Flannery wondered.
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If they break the seal, then they should do it for all crimes, not just this one.
Also, I find it difficult to think that a child molester would confess considering they usually don’t think what they are doing is wrong much less a sin.
Any priest hearing such a confession would obviously withhold absolution from the penitent until he turned himself in.
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BINGO! I know that and I’m not even Catholic.
Better to be in jail temporaily on earth than to lose heaven’s eternal life by disclosing the contents of Confession.
God bless them and grant them strength and endurance.
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