Posted on 06/13/2018 11:25:51 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
CANBERRA, Australia, June 12, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – A new law in Australia requires Catholic priests in Canberra to break the sacred seal of confession to report a child-sex abuser. The law, which has drawn fierce opposition from Archbishop Christopher Prowse of Canberra, could result in faithful priests being jailed who refuse to comply.
A bill passed on June 7 by the Legislative Assembly of the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) extends mandatory reporting of child abuse to cover churches and church activities, including the Catholic confessional. All the political parties in the Assembly supported the measure.
A Roman Catholic priest cannot violate the seal of the confessional, which means that he cannot repeat what he is told by a penitent confessing his or her sins, without incurring automatic excommunication. The Catholic Church teaches that confession is a sacrament, a place of encounter between the Christian and Jesus Christ. The priest who hears the confession is merely Christ’s instrument of forgiveness.
Hitherto the confessional was exempt from ACT’s reporting laws; from March 31, 2019, priests who do not report confessions regarding child abuse to the police risk prosecution.
Archbishop Prowse slammed the new law, saying "priests are bound by a sacred vow to maintain the seal of the confession. Without that vow, who would be willing to unburden themselves of their sins, seek the wise counsel of a priest and receive the merciful forgiveness of God?"
Prowse, the archbishop of Canberra and Goulburn, wrote an essay in the Canberra Times last week explaining why legislating against the seal of confession will do much harm and no good.
“First, what sexual abuser would confess to a priest if they thought they would be reported?” he asked.
Prouse explained that it is the common experience of pastors that child abusers don’t confess their crimes to either priests or police. If the seal was removed, the theoretical possibility abusers might confess and be counselled to turn themselves in would be lost.
“Second, the government itself has acknowledged [with] the [Catholic] church’s ‘Truth, Justice and Healing Council... that [...] it [was] difficult to see systematic abuse of the seal of confession,” Prowse wrote. “People who attend confession are sorry for their sins, indicate resolve not to sin again and seek God’s mercy. Pedophiles carry out evil and unspeakable criminal acts. They hide their crimes; they do not self-report.”
Third, he pointed out that priests do not necessarily know the identities of people who confess to them.
Fourth, he said that such a law attacks the inviolate seal of the confessional.
Originally the ACT government invited the archbishop to meet with the Attorney General to discuss the importance of both the protection of children and the seal of the confessional. However, the legislature began to debate the new bill before this meeting could take place. The archbishop decried this loss of opportunity for dialogue, pointing out that the proposed new law threatened religious freedom.
“Religious freedom is the freedom to hold a belief and, secondly, the freedom to manifest belief in community and in public, privately and individually in worship, observance, practice and teaching,” he explained.
“The government threatens religious freedom by appointing itself an expert on religious practises and by attempting to change the sacrament of confession while delivering not improvement in the safety of children,” he continued.
The new reporting laws will require priests to report allegations or offenses related to children to the ACT Ombudsman within 30 days.
Two members of the ACT Legislative Assembly thought forcing priests to break the seal of the confessional was a step in the wrong direction.
Andrew Wall, a former student of Marist College, a school notorious in Australia for child sex abuse allegations, said that while some of the child protection measures in the new law were “overdue”, he objected to its extension to the confessional.
According to the Canberra Times, Wall said forcing priests to break the confessional seal “significantly impinges on an individual’s freedom of association, freedom of expression and freedom of individual rights.”
Vicki Dunne, the second member, pointed out that a priest who breaks the seal of confession incurs an excommunication that can be lifted only by the pope. In addition, it would undermine Catholics’ trust in the "sacred, sacramental and sacrosanct" rite.
“We need to stop and think twice before we pass legislation that requires Catholic priest to break the seal of the confession,” she had warned.
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?
Vicki Dunne, the second member, pointed out that a priest who breaks the seal of confession incurs an excommunication that can be lifted only by the pope. In addition, it would undermine Catholics’ trust in the "sacred, sacramental and sacrosanct" rite.
No one mentions that breaking a vow is a mortal sin.
Sin is so rarely talked about these days. Perhaps if sin (and its wages) were talked about there would less of this sort of thing going on.
Ask them if it can be done to uncover illegal aliens and the requests will stop.
More than one criminal has blamed a priest for not stopping him when he could have. (after he was caught)
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 would like to know how this is going to enforced also. Only thing I can think of is recorded sting operations or actual abusers claiming or recording themselves confessing to priests as insurance for getting caught for deal cutting sentencing/prosecution leniency. If it then applies to civil cases then I don’t see how the Church isn’t sued into oblivion. The priests can’t even admit they heard a confession much less what was divulged.
Freegards
True. But sodomizing an alter boy is also a mortal sin and a lot of priests and prelates don't seem to have a problem with that.
Once the church started down the path of tolerating mortal sin in one form they left themselves open to this.
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.
Because children/(and increasingly women these days) are the atom bomb of politics. You can do anything you want no matter how harmful or nonsensical, if you attach it to supposedly saving them. Whereas nobody really cares about anything else up to and including genocide, tyranny, and murder (of men)
I agree. It is a political stunt being attempted by the Australian government against the Catholic Church.
You seem to ignore or maybe you don’t know that this is not a problem unique to the Catholic Church.
Public schools had the same method of dealing with pederast in most of the twentieth century. Fire the teacher, hush it up and send the teacher down the road.
Yes, the Catholic Church will naturally be held to a higher standard but in the end, it is an institution comprised of men intent on protecting that institution and its image.
The Church can not change eternal truth because mistakes were made.
I am no longer a Catholic, but I find that a lot of people find it easy to ignore what is going on in their backyard or any other backyard to take a shot at the Catholic Church.
It is easy and a bit gratuitous, IMO.
Such a law defeats itself. Who is going to confess to a priest something that will immediate result in the police arresting them.
So we have one priest refusing to do his job because of someone’s beliefs, while the Australian priests provide secrecy, relief and spiritual succor to child molesters.
They can’t both be right.
Ya think? Maybe?
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. |
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