“said clergy should face prosecution if they fail to report evidence of pedophilia heard in the confessional”
The privacy of the confessional should always be respected.
Every professional group has a code of ethics that require confidentiality even in instances where it may hamper the law. The priest is not an agent of the court. He is acting as Christ and loosing a person’s sin. That sacrament is central to Catholic teaching as is the canon law of confidentiality.
The privacy of the confessional should always be respected.
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That’s a tough one. If pedophilia or any other kind of major crime is confessed to the priest, would it not be prudent and acceptable, for the priest to pronounce the penance to be turning oneself in, in addition to the normal penance the confessing person is given to perform?