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Australian Inquiry: Priests Should Face Criminal Charges for Not Reporting Abuse Heard in Confession
The Catholic Herald (UK) ^
| 7/14/17
| Staff Reporter
Posted on 08/14/2017 7:41:56 PM PDT by marshmallow
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To: soycd; bgill; Lurker
Conservatives who advocate shutting down the Church are not conservatives. They are Statists who brook no authority higher than the State. If there were such a law it would result in NO "justice" for anyone implicated in a confessional simply because no one would enter a confessional. Your virtue signalling accomplishes only making you feel righteous. When there are no resulting confessions of child abuse will you then demand that priests be held liable for there being no confessions?
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.
In the confessional if the confessor is serious he is forgiven that sin. If he is not serious he is not forgiven. That does not depend on the priest's judgment of seriousness and the priest will apprise the penitent of that. He will also tell the penitent that to be forgiven he must turn himself in for his crime if crime it be and make restitution for his sin i.e. undergo whatever the law and the justice court prescribes.
21
posted on
08/14/2017 8:10:41 PM PDT
by
arthurus
To: virgil
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.
22
posted on
08/14/2017 8:11:54 PM PDT
by
Campion
(Halten Sie sich unbedingt an die Lehre!)
To: ClearCase_guy
that's the whole point of this silly ideaThat's always a big part of it. Leftists cannot abide any secrets withheld from from the State.
23
posted on
08/14/2017 8:12:54 PM PDT
by
arthurus
To: arthurus
Conservatives who advocate shutting down the Church are not conservatives. They are Statists who brook no authority higher than the State. Preach it, brother!
24
posted on
08/14/2017 8:13:21 PM PDT
by
Campion
(Halten Sie sich unbedingt an die Lehre!)
To: Campion
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.
25
posted on
08/14/2017 8:14:24 PM PDT
by
virgil
(The evil that men do lives after them)
To: bgill
If they witness the abuse, or have material evidence of it, then they should report that.
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.
26
posted on
08/14/2017 8:15:57 PM PDT
by
Campion
(Halten Sie sich unbedingt an die Lehre!)
To: cpdiii
Sadly both my church and the legal profession are corrupt today. 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.
To: arthurus
“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.
To: Poison Pill
29
posted on
08/14/2017 9:01:31 PM PDT
by
Salvation
("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
To: arthurus
“Conservatives who advocate shutting down the Church are not conservatives.”
Then it’s a good thing I never did that.
L
30
posted on
08/15/2017 1:07:30 AM PDT
by
Lurker
(President Trump isn't our last chance. President Trump is THEIR last chance.)
To: tsomer
Thought crimes can remain fully a theological area. They need to be removed from the books of the laws of men.
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....
31
posted on
08/15/2017 3:56:52 AM PDT
by
trebb
(Where in the the hell has my country gone?)
To: marshmallow
One of the problems of requiring a mortal intermediary as a basis of one's religion......One can confess/repent directly with God and take care of his soul and not require another man to remain silent about his atrocities.
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.
32
posted on
08/15/2017 4:00:07 AM PDT
by
trebb
(Where in the the hell has my country gone?)
To: trebb
I take it you might be one of the folks celebrating a certain anniversary this October 31rst...? :-)
33
posted on
08/15/2017 4:29:34 AM PDT
by
mewzilla
(Was Obama surveilling John Roberts? Might explain a lot.)
To: aMorePerfectUnion
1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
34
posted on
08/15/2017 5:54:40 AM PDT
by
metmom
( ...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith..)
To: Lurker
That is precisely what you did.
35
posted on
08/15/2017 6:03:56 AM PDT
by
arthurus
To: aMorePerfectUnion
I guess for heretics that works, but Heaven is at a far remove from them.
36
posted on
08/15/2017 6:05:18 AM PDT
by
arthurus
To: arthurus
It would accomplish nothing except to end the Confessional. 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".
37
posted on
08/15/2017 6:10:29 AM PDT
by
NorthMountain
(The Democrats ... have lost their grip on reality -DJT)
To: marshmallow
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
38
posted on
08/15/2017 6:12:55 AM PDT
by
Ransomed
To: arthurus
“I guess for heretics that works, but Heaven is at a far remove from them.”
Not according to the Scriptures.
To: Salvation
It hasnt. 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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