We should send Father James Martin over there to lay a serious guilt trip on the Australian Parliament. (And then don’t let him come back here.)
Not even one of them will break the seal.
1. How are they going to know if the priest reports or not?
2. Once the seal of confession is breached for this, what’s next?
Or what?
Ask them if it can be done to uncover illegal aliens and the requests will stop.
Such a law defeats itself. Who is going to confess to a priest something that will immediate result in the police arresting them. Passing such a law simply means that the perp is not going to confess. Now the perp will not even get any consoling from a priest to discontinue such activity. So the net effect of this law is very negative- Zero positive.
I don’t see the point of this even if you don’t believe in catholicism. Once you have to rat out confession nobody will speak freely anymore. The cops still don’t get their criminals and now the priests can’t save souls. Its lose lose all around. Unless the purpose is to attack religion and actually has nothing to do with justice.
Catechism of the Catholic Church
| 1467 Given the delicacy and greatness of this ministry and the respect due to persons, the Church declares that every priest who hears confessions is bound under very severe penalties to keep absolute secrecy regarding the sins that his penitents have confessed to him. He can make no use of knowledge that confession gives him about penitents' lives. This secret, which admits of no exceptions, is called the "sacramental seal," because what the penitent has made known to the priest remains "sealed" by the sacrament. |
They leave only one option, just defy the law.