It already is. If anyone confesses the crime, they’re told to turn themselves in to the police.
But priests must never tell anyone what was said in a Confession. Priests have died to defend the Seal of Confession.
Fr. Fernando Olmedo Reguera.
Fr. Felipe Císcar Puig.
St. Mateo Correa Magallanes.
St. John Nepomucene .
God give our priests the strength to lay down their lives.
I do respect it, and understand the slippery slope. But it sure looks bad after all the church has been through with pedophiles to draw a hard line about keeping their secret from the police.
Another part of me wonders if Jesus and the moneychangers being driven from the Temple fits here. Imagine if before the world, a priest hearing about sodomy grabbed a pedophile by the scruff of the neck and marched him out the front door, slapped his face and kicked him down the steps.
The pews would fill up again. It might be the Trump style turn around the church could use. For the world to see dramatically that. Nobody could ever accuse the church again if they took a zero tolerance stand and made sure everyone knew it.
I know that won’t ever happen, but what would have happened in some Boston or New York church in say, 1905 if some priest found out some guy molested boys. I bet it would have been much rougher than today.
“God give our priests the strength to lay down their lives.”
I just bet you don’t read a lot of war books.
Look up Chesty Puller. I think he was an episcopal or something.
“On New Guinea one Protestant chaplain complained to Puller that the Catholic chaplains were making converts among the Protestants. Puller told the chaplain that he should work harder and not come whining to him.”
he commented that the RCC sent virile younger men as chaplains who kept up in the field, ran the risks, and showed bravery. Your comment about needing priests who will lay down their lives reminded me of that.