Posted on 03/13/2015 7:32:23 AM PDT by EBH
Bologna, Italy, Mar 13, 2015 / 04:01 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The confessional is one of the most private and privileged places in the world. So when an Italian journalist violated the bond of trust between penitent and priest, the Archbishop of Bologna decried her “grave lack of respect” for all Catholics.
Laura Alari writes for Quotidiano Nazionale, which is headquartered in Bologna. She authored a series of four articles in the newspaper which disclosed the responses of priests in the area when she approached them under the pretext of seeking Confession.
Alari went to Confession several times, inventing delicate issues for herself: she pretended to be a lesbian mother asking to baptize her daughter; a woman who cohabitates with her same-sex partner; and a divorced and civilly remarried woman who receives Communion every Sunday.
She then reported the responses of priests when they heard her “confessions.”
Cardinal Carlo Caffarra of Bologna responded with a statement March 11: “In bewilderment at the incident and with a soul wounded by a profound sorrow, I mean to reiterate that these articles objectively constitute a grave offense against the truth of Confession, a sacrament of the Christian faith.”
He said Alari's articles “show a grave lack of respect for believers, who have recourse to it as one of the most precious of goods because it opens up to them the gifts of the mercy of God; and for confessors, by exposing them to the doubt of a possible deceit, which can disrupt the freedom of judgement, which is founded upon a relationship of trust with the penitent, like that between a father and son.”
The cardinal emphasized that Alari's articles were written by “deliberately tricking the confessor and thereby violating the sacredness of the sacrament, which as a first condition requires sincerity of contrition on the aprt of the penitent.”
Cardinal Caffarra recalled that the publication of the contents of a confession is among the most grave crimes in the Church, which are under the direct competence of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
That congregation made clear in norms released May 21, 2010 that among the most grave crimes which it is charged with investigating is that “which consists in the recording, by whatever technical means, or in the malicious diffusion through communications media, of what is said in sacramental confession, whether true or false, by the confessor or the penitent.”
“Anyone who commits such a delict is to punished according to the gravity of the crime, not excluding, if he be a cleric, dismissal or deposition,” reads the norms, to which Cardinal Caffarra averted in his statement.
Alari was also faulted by the Italian Professional Order of Journalists.
Enzo Iacopino, president of the organization, told Avvenire March 12 that their ethical rules “do not allow journalists to hide their identity and to act in disguise, unless the life of the same journalist is in danger, or unless declaring the identity would render writing the article impossible … but discovering what the Church states regarding the divorced and remarried, and baptism, does not require a glimpse through the keyhole.”
“What did she find? Priests who are faithful to the Church's Magisterium and who approach the faithful with humility, in order to find with each person the best and most human way to face their problems,” Iacopino stressed.
On the other hand, Andrea Cangini, editor of Quotidiano Nazionale, responded saying, “If you interview any person in his functions, you will have answers that may be biased. Only in this way have we been able to understand how the average parish priest reacts. It is interesting.”
I hope that those here on FR understand the that this is less about the sacrament of confession, than it is about the attack against religion.
They attack marriage, they steal blessed hosts, and now they deceive in the one place where we seek God's grace with a sincerely contrite heart.
I can’t express my despair at this. People doing this, western tourists posing naked in Cambodian temples, what else does this degraded society need to do to prove itself worthy of hell?
“...what else does this degraded society need to do to prove itself worthy of hell?”
And, unbelievably, it’s only going to get worse. Satan’s minions are being loosed.
Shocked, but not surprised.
I agree that it is only going to get worse.
Correction:
“If you interview any person in his functions, you will have answers that may be biased. Only in this way have we been able to understand how the average (Hack Journalist) reacts. It is interesting.”
It was a very evil thing to do. Even if it’s hard, we should all say a prayer for his conversion.
Oh my Jesus, forgive us our sins, and save us from the fires of Hell. Lead all souls to Heaven, especially those most in need of Thy mercy. Amen.
May your prayers be answered.
As for me, pictures of this scumbag should be distributed to every possible place this POS my show up at again, and a campaign started to get this ahole fired.
Or better yet, prosecuted !
That would be okay, too. It would be interesting to know if he’s broken the law. In the U.S., recording conversations without permission is actionable.
Scandalous as the methods were (and I agree somewhat with the outrage), IMO the methods are being deliberately focused on by the Catholic press, in an attempt to obscure the unorthodox (pun intended) priestly instruction that was the real scandal here. Had the priest told her to repent of her confessed sin, rather than give her advice on how to hide it, there'd be less of a story here.
To put it into another context, Just because Wash. D.C. mayor Marion Barry's crack use was exposed via deceit (i.e. the sting operation), it does not negate the larger issue that Marion Barry was discovered to be a crack smoker.
I’m thinking that the Lord just might ask her about this later.
I’m a Catholic and find it juvenile at best.
It was a waste of time and took time away from other penitents that were waiting in line. Was she supposed to be “shocking”? How stupid for this “journalist” when priests hear the confessions of pedophiles, murderers, mentally unstable, pornographers, strippers , prostitutes, drug addicts and the rest of the population. That a lesbian mother blah, blah, blah... it’s just so pathetic.
Where does it indicate the priest told her “how to hide” her sin? The article says the priests were faithful to church doctrines.
That is how I interpreted his advice, based on how the incident was reported in the thread Italy bishops lambast paper for publishing secret confessions (Catholic Caucus). Here's the relevant section - the underlined portions were the parts that I found troubling:
Undercover journalist Laura Alari wrote four articles. In one, posted on her blog on Wednesday, she pretended to be a divorced woman with a new partner, seeking advice on whether it was a grave sin to keep taking Holy Communion. Alari - who describes herself as a Catholic - wrote that the priest who confessed her suggested she could change parish so as "not to create a scandal," and asked her to consider seeking the annulment of her failed marriage from a Catholic court - a costly procedure.He was also quoted as telling her that it was up to her conscience how to behave. "I am telling you what the Church is asking, but at the end it is you who must make a choice," the prelate reportedly said. "It's clear that from my position, I will never tell you that you can take the communion, as long as the church recognizes only one matrimony. But I will never tell you either that you cannot take it," he reportedly added.
Not that I think what she did was right, but I am curious not being catholic and therefore not having gone to confession with a priest what the responses from the priest were to her questions.
and of course my question is answered in the post right above mine....
Unorthodox priestly instruction? Please expand.
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