Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

The Seal of the Confessional Is Under Attack in California
The National Catholic Register ^ | 5/8/19 | Patti Armstrrong

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 ...


TOPICS: Catholic; Current Events; Ministry/Outreach; Religion & Politics
KEYWORDS: anticatholic; ca; catechism; catholic; confessional
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-76 next last

1 posted on 05/10/2019 8:52:09 PM PDT by marshmallow
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: marshmallow

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?


2 posted on 05/10/2019 8:59:20 PM PDT by ifinnegan (Democrats kill babies and harvest their organs to sell)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: marshmallow

It’s the slippery slope. Started when they made Trump’s lawyers testify against him.


3 posted on 05/10/2019 8:59:50 PM PDT by o-n-money
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: o-n-money

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.


4 posted on 05/10/2019 9:05:58 PM PDT by CondorFlight
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: marshmallow

Fr. Richard Heilman said if they get rid of face to face confession that would alleviate this problem.


5 posted on 05/10/2019 9:11:18 PM PDT by JPII Be Not Afraid
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: marshmallow
Sooo ... criminal activity is protected? Guess what ... God keeps the perfect record and He will bring judgment... regardless of what some denomination claims. Get ready for it.
6 posted on 05/10/2019 9:14:17 PM PDT by Just mythoughts
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: CondorFlight
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.

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?

7 posted on 05/10/2019 9:19:53 PM PDT by Just mythoughts
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: CondorFlight
Typically it's the victim, not the perpetrator, whose confidence would be broken by this.

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.

8 posted on 05/10/2019 9:33:12 PM PDT by Campion ((marine dad))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Just mythoughts
Oh, so the victim comes in and ‘confesses’ they have been abused ... got it .. ah, so at what age is a ‘victim’ allowed to confess they have been abused.... After their transition from prepubescent - first communion? Quite a scam going on here.
9 posted on 05/10/2019 9:43:09 PM PDT by Just mythoughts
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: marshmallow

The end of the confessional if the priests are required to report what you say to Caesar and his law enforcement or prosecutorial minions.


10 posted on 05/10/2019 9:43:16 PM PDT by faithhopecharity ( “Politicians are not born; they are excreted.” Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 to 43 BCE))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: faithhopecharity
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.

11 posted on 05/10/2019 9:45:34 PM PDT by Just mythoughts
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: Just mythoughts

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.


12 posted on 05/10/2019 9:54:56 PM PDT by faithhopecharity ( “Politicians are not born; they are excreted.” Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 to 43 BCE))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: faithhopecharity

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?


13 posted on 05/10/2019 10:08:28 PM PDT by Just mythoughts
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: marshmallow

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?


14 posted on 05/10/2019 10:19:55 PM PDT by agere_contra (Please pray for Pope Benedict XVI)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: agere_contra

You might begin by showing where ‘God’s mercy’ is housed in a confessional.


15 posted on 05/10/2019 10:24:32 PM PDT by Just mythoughts
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: marshmallow

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.


16 posted on 05/10/2019 10:31:02 PM PDT by Clemenza (Lurking)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: marshmallow

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.


17 posted on 05/10/2019 10:33:45 PM PDT by oldbill
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: oldbill
Figured it wouldn’t take long before the anti-Catholic bigots and the theologically ignorant would chime in on this one.

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'...

18 posted on 05/10/2019 10:50:49 PM PDT by Just mythoughts
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: Clemenza
I have zero respect for anyone who accords instant respect and reverence for the cassock and collar set.

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.

19 posted on 05/10/2019 11:04:43 PM PDT by pbear8 (the Lord is my light and my salvation)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: ifinnegan

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.


20 posted on 05/11/2019 1:47:16 AM PDT by arthurus (yio)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-76 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson