Posted on 05/10/2019 8:52:09 PM PDT by marshmallow
In response to pending bill requiring Catholic priests to report child sex abuse learned about through the sacrament, priests insist on upholding sacred trust.
California state Sen. Jerry Hill introduced a bill to the state Legislature on Feb. 20 that would require Catholic priests to report child sex abuse learned about in the confessional. The clergy and more than 40 other professions are already mandatory reporters there, but crimes disclosed during confession have been exempt. According to Hill, “The exemption for clergy only protects the abuser and places children at further risk.” The bill is currently awaiting a hearing.
Although a similar law was passed in South Australia last October, bishops and priests there have publicly vowed never to break the seal of the confessional. Quoting canon law, the Catechism of the Catholic Church states: “... It is a crime for a confessor in any way to betray a penitent by word or in any other manner or for any reason. A priest, therefore, cannot break the seal to save his own life, to protect his good name, to refute a false accusation, to save the life of another, to aid the course of justice (like reporting a crime), or to avert a public calamity” (2490). Automatic excommunication is incurred on any priest breaking that seal.
Adding fuel to the fire, Father James E. Connell of the Milwaukee Archdiocese, a canon lawyer and advocate for victims/survivors of sexual abuse, wrote in a recent commentary that it is time to modify the Church’s seal of the confessional for abuse of minors. He acknowledged that the law against a priest revealing sins told in confession can be found at least by the 12th century but said that public penances were once imposed for grave sins. According to him, that proves......
(Excerpt) Read more at ncregister.com ...
It’s not a true confession if they don’t face the consequences.
Confession is not a get off scott free with no guilt scam, is it?
It’s the slippery slope. Started when they made Trump’s lawyers testify against him.
Nobody will confess to those sins if they are not confidential. The only ones doing so will be reporters
or prosecutors to see if they can catch a priest not reporting them.
Fr. Richard Heilman said if they get rid of face to face confession that would alleviate this problem.
Seriously? Obviously you have NO clue what your words expose. Do you think for one second that our Heavenly Father is not recording these evil deeds... By the perp and the fake priest that refuses to turn the criminal in? How much does it cost to 'confess' crimes against children? None can claim these acts come from Christ.. . well there is, as it is written a fake Christ. Catholics have a stay out of jail card, held by the local priest?
The confessor is completely free to tell the penitent who confesses that he has abused someone that no absolution is possible unless he turns himself into the police, therefore, the abusers won't bother to confess their sins. (If they actually believed in the faith, they wouldn't abuse to begin with.)
The persons whose confidence the law will break, practically speaking, are the victims who mention abuse in confession.
The end of the confessional if the priests are required to report what you say to Caesar and his law enforcement or prosecutorial minions.
'We the people' are government, NOT some Caesar... IF some brute comes in and 'confesses' to a crime, they should NOT be protected.
Almost nobody will confess to anything serious if their confessions are piped into the police and/ or state prosecutors. You might still get some confessions to jaywalking but that’s about it So it won’t result in its stated objective. But it will mean the near-destruction of the Confessional. Which has been a significant part of Catholic practice for many years.
The tradition does not come from Christ. Priests should not be exempt from hiding criminal acts. That is the same as sanctioning the criminal acts. Say a priest comes in and confesses a crime against a child, they are allowed to waltz out and repeat their crime of choice?
Wow.
A lot of you want to criminalise access to God’s mercy.
Whom do you really serve?
People do, or are tempted to do, the most appalling things.
Some of them, driven by horror of what they have done, or what they contemplate doing, will lay their wicked compulsions before Christ.
If they do this, they do not magically become immune to prosecution. How can any of you be confused on this point?
These malefactors expose their sinful souls to God, and repent. Or they don’t repent, and their confession is a lie.
In either event, what business is it of Government? Why would FReepers demand that our relationship with God be policed by the State?
You might begin by showing where ‘God’s mercy’ is housed in a confessional.
I have zero respect for anyone who accords instant respect and reverence for the cassock and collar set. Thomas Jefferson was right about clerical-fetishists.
Figured it wouldn’t take long before the anti-Catholic bigots and the theologically ignorant would chime in on this one.
Now let’s ask them if they want to throw out all them other Privileges, like husband-wife, attorney-client, doctor-patient, etc.
OLDbill ... it does not take long to discern just how far away from the WORD some denominations have strayed. It is a greater sin to be 'anti-Christ' than to be 'anti-Catholic'.. especially when the doctrine never came from Christ, and I have NO clue what doctrine, the bigot accusations flows from, but it too is NOT from Christ.
Now let’s ask them if they want to throw out all them other Privileges, like husband-wife, attorney-client, doctor-patient, etc.
At least you acknowledge covering up criminal behavior is a 'privilege'...
We spent most of the day with a cassock and collar guy, and would far rather be with him then someone who makes blanket condemnations.
It is not. California is not trying to find out more about child abuse. It is trying to eliminate the Catholic Church as a factor in peoples’ lives. There will be no such information forthcoming. Priests will not comply and Confessions will dry up as people worry that what they tell their priests will end up in police data banks and that fear will be all encompassing. It will not be limited to those who might confess to child abuse because if the seal can be broken for one thing it will be broken altogether very shortly. It is another argument for unmarried priests. Priests don’t have to worry about their families if they face jail time.
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