Posted on 08/14/2017 7:41:56 PM PDT by marshmallow
The report called for legislation to criminalise priests who fail to break the seal of the confessional
Priests who do not inform the police after learning about child abuse in confession should face criminal charges, an Australian inquiry has said.
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse recommended all states and territories in the country should introduce legislation to punish priests for not breaking the seal of the confessional.
“The right to practice one’s religious beliefs must accommodate civil society’s obligation to provide for the safety of all and, in particular, children’s safety from sexual abuse,” the commission wrote.
“Institutions directed to caring for and providing services for children, including religious institutions, must provide an environment where children are safe from sexual abuse. Reporting information relevant to child sexual abuse to the police is critical to ensuring the safety of children.”
The recommendation will likely be strongly resisted by the Church, which has always guarded the absolute confidentiality of confession.
Under canon law, priests may never break the seal of the confessional, even under threat of death. Any priest who breaks the seal faces automatic excommunication.
Archbishop of Melbourne Denis J Hart said in a statement: “Confession in the Catholic Church is a spiritual encounter with God through the priest. It is a fundamental part of the freedom of religion, and it is recognised in the Law of Australia and many other countries. It must remain so here in Australia.
(Excerpt) Read more at catholicherald.co.uk ...
The penitent is always supposed to have the option to confess anonymously. Usually, they have things arranged now so that the priest sits behind a partial screen, and can’t see the penitent when he enters the room. The penitent can either kneel on his side of the screen, or sit in a chair on the priest’s side of the screen.
That's always a big part of it. Leftists cannot abide any secrets withheld from from the State.
Preach it, brother!
I see the face to face a lot around here. I go to parish that only has the screen, but it wasn’t always like that. Before, it was face to face only.
Reporting what they heard in confession, as well as being a serious crime in itself under church law, is merely hearsay in the civil law. A competent defense attorney would demolish it in an instant. The agenda here is to damage the Church, not to protect children.
I would be curious to know the extent to which, if any, the sanctity of the confession seal influenced attorney client privelege in the English legal tradition. It would seem a logical precursor.
“By elinating the possibility of confessing one’s sins you are arguably promoting more such sins because if a rapist confesses it means he has remorse of fear for his soul and might well go and do that sin any more. Without the confessional there is not that possibility.”
Priests are not necessary for confession, nor forgiveness in Scripture. Anyone can confess directly to God.
False argument.
It hasn’t.
“Conservatives who advocate shutting down the Church are not conservatives.”
Then it’s a good thing I never did that.
L
Murder/pedophilia/physical abuse need to be reported (don't care about robbery and such that aren't physical in nature). Let the laws of men exact punishment for crimes against others and let God worry about whether or not they have been saved by the blood of Jesus - there should be no conflict with this line of reasoning - unless one wants to make a "sharia" type claim where the religion overrides everything else....
Confession, other than as a psychological tool to help ease one's mental anguish, like prayer, can be done privately and just between one and God.
I take it you might be one of the folks celebrating a certain anniversary this October 31rst...? :-)
That is precisely what you did.
I guess for heretics that works, but Heaven is at a far remove from them.
And that's the point. The Total State resents and cannot abide any authority (moral or otherwise) it does not directly control. Thus, the Total State must destroy the family, civic organizations, and religious institutions. We saw this mentality in its full flower in National Socialist Germany, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and the Peoples' Republic of China. For example. We also see it in the various Islamic States.
And we're increasingly seeing it in the increasingly misnamed "Free World".
This seems like a way to sue them into oblivion. How can anyone defend themselves about was allegedly told to you in private? What are they going to do, start recorded sting operations? Allow child abusers a deal if they claim they confessed their crimes to a priest or what? How is this supposed to work?
Freegards
“I guess for heretics that works, but Heaven is at a far remove from them.”
Not according to the Scriptures.
If you believe that the Catholic church played a role in the development of Western civilization, then I think you have to at least consider the posibility that it served as a model for attorney / client privilege as both relationships deal with communications that can't be violated.
If you don't think the Catholic church influenced other Western institutions, then you may have a point.
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