Posted on 05/29/2019 12:02:02 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Catholic priests in California would be legally obligated to report to police sexual abuse confessions brought to them by fellow priests and other church employees if a bill quickly moving through the state legislature becomes law.
Religious liberty advocates, including representatives of Catholic dioceses in California, challenge the legislation, saying it would invade a sacred space and direct priests to violate the “seal of confession.”
“Sometimes the best intentions can lead to bad legislation,” Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez said in a statement on California’s Senate Bill 360, which was approved by wide margins last week and now heads to the state Assembly.
Under Roman Catholic teachings, the sins confessed by a parishioner to a priest in the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation are secret to all but God, who absolves the sins through the instrument of the priest.
Current California law respects the “seal of confession,” requiring any member of the clergy (rabbis, priests or ministers) to report suspected sexual abuse of minors to authorities, except for suspicions raised via “penitential communication.”
The bill proposed by state Sen. Jerry Hill, San Francisco Democrat, would narrow that exemption for church employees, including priests, who admit to or suggest sexual abuse sins during confession.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Yeah, sure... W Bush made the Catholics part of government. Since, taxpayers have been charged billions for your fake charity
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”
Covering up criminal activities is part of religion?
“Aren’t the priest and penitent separated by an opaque partition in a catholic confessional, the priest therefore not necessarily sure who the penitent is?”
That sort of thing unfortunately mostly disappeared 50 years ago.
Illegals “Confess”? I rather doubt they think it’s a sin.
Making slimy innuendoes and borderline slanderous suggestions disguised as questions is part of your religion?
You resort to the same authority that invented a "right" to dismember babies with a dull knife.
“You resort to the same authority that invented a “right” to dismember babies with a dull knife. “
That authority has the power to imprison you, and to shoot you if you resist.
Besides, it was the PEOPLE OF ALABAMA that removed Judge Moore, not the feds. It was the people of Alabama that found his refusal to enforce the law made him unfit for the bench.
Canon law requires penitents to have the option to confess anonymously. This is done either with a screen, or by giving the penitent the option to kneel behind the priest where the priest can hear, but can't see, the penitent.
“Making slimy innuendoes and borderline slanderous suggestions disguised as questions is part of your religion?”
Bishop Juan Barros
Imagine how easily a priest could be set up with this law!
But resorting to the US Supreme Court for ultimate Constitutional interpretation is a dodgy business. Does the Constitution really protect as a matter of privacy the right to kill babies with a dull knife? Of course not. Roe v Wade was wrongly decided. Even the pro-death crowd admits it.
Yes, government has the power to kill you even when it's wrong to do so. Government has as much power as we let it seize.
It's dishonest to pretend that government's seizure of whatever power it wants is legal or constitutional.
Imagine how certain participants on this forum would approve such a “set up”.
Cardinal Bernard Law
Surveillance of private conversations without a court order based on probable cause is part of the behavior of a free government?
Do you have a point? Make it.
“Surveillance of private conversations without a court order based on probable cause is part of the behavior of a free government? “
If you are going to offer a straw-man you could at least word your offering correctly.
“Do you have a point? Make it.”
Resignation as Archbishop of Boston[edit]
In April 2002, following the Boston Globe’s public exposure of the cover up by Cardinal Law (and his predecessor Humberto Cardinal Medeiros) of scores of pedophile priests in the Boston Archdiocese, Law consulted with Pope John Paul II and other Vatican officials and said he was committed to staying on as archbishop and addressing the scandal: “It is my intent to address at length the record of the Archdiocese’s handling of these cases by reviewing the past in as systematic and comprehensive way as possible, so that legitimate questions which have been raised might be answered.”[26] Law submitted his resignation as Archbishop of Boston to the Vatican, which Pope John Paul II accepted on December 13, 2002.[25] Law wrote in a personal declaration, “The particular circumstances of this time suggest a quiet departure. Please keep me in your prayers.”[27] and moved to Rome. In July 2003, Seán Patrick O’Malley, O.F.M. Cap. was named the new Archbishop of Boston.[28] The Boston Globe said in an editorial the day after Law’s resignation was accepted that “Law had become the central figure in a scandal of criminal abuse, denial, payoff, and coverup that resonates around the world”.[25] A letter urging Law’s resignation had been signed by 58 priests, mostly diocesan priests who had sworn obedience to Law as their direct superior; the editorial said that this letter was “surely one of the precipitating events in his departure”.[29] The Globe’s exposé of the scandal was the subject of an Oscar-winning film, Spotlight released in the United States in November 2015, in which Law was portrayed by Len Cariou.[24]
In a statement, Cardinal Law said, “It is my fervent prayer that this action [his resignation] may help the Archdiocese of Boston to experience the healing, reconciliation and unity which are so desperately needed. To all those who have suffered from my shortcomings and mistakes I both apologize and from them beg forgiveness.”[30] While no longer Archbishop of Boston, Law remained a bishop and cardinal of the Catholic Church in good standing; as a cardinal, he participated in the 2005 papal conclave.[24] By the time of the 2013 papal conclave, he had become ineligible to vote as he was over the age of 80.[11]
Upon his death in 2017, The Guardian says that Law had become “a symbol of the Roman Catholic Church’s systematic protection of paedophile priests” because of his failure to stop sexual abuse in Boston.[31]
Move to Rome[edit]
Within weeks of his resignation, Law moved from Boston to Rome.[24] When the state attorney general issued his report entitled Child Sexual Abuse in the Archdiocese of Boston (July 23, 2003), he severely criticized Law, mentioning that “the Archdiocese has shown an institutional reluctance to adequately address the problem and, in fact, made choices that allowed the abuse to continue,” but did not allege that Law had tried to evade investigation.[24] He said that Cardinal Law had not broken any laws, because the law requiring abuse to be reported was not expanded to include priests until 2002.[32]
Law was a member of the Congregations for the Oriental Churches, the Clergy, Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments, Evangelisation of Peoples, Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, Catholic Education, Bishops as well as the Pontifical Council for the Family.[24][33] He held membership in all these congregations and of the council before resigning from the governance of the Archdiocese of Boston, and at that time was also a member of the Pontifical Council for Culture.[34] He became even more influential in those Vatican congregations and, being based in Rome, he could attend all their meetings, unlike cardinals based in other countries.[33]
In May 2004, Pope John Paul II appointed Law to a post in Rome, as Archpriest of the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore, a sinecure with only ceremonial duties.[35] Some saw this an attempt to shield Law from potential criminal prosecution as his new position conveyed citizenship in Vatican City. [36]
wiki
moved to Rome for withholding from the DA, Cardinal Mahoney LA
not confessions., personnel files.
Make your point. You have yet to do so.
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