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 ...
You are neglecting the Orthodox and Coptics who are not Romans but believe in the necessity of confession and absolution for the forgiveness of mortal sins as well. The idea of a practicing Christian not confessing and seeking absolution is a fairly modern innovation held by only a small fraction of the world’s Christians, the slothful not counted.
I don’t recall the Bible saying anywhere “go tell God in secret about what you think your sins are and all will be forgiven.” On the contrary the Bible gives the apostles, and by extension their successors, the power to bind and to loose.
As to the practice, lots of people give up on the Christian faith, to quote Chesterton, “not because it was tried and found wanting but because it was found difficult and not tried.” Plenty of Protestants fall into the practical Atheist and Agnostic categories as well. Telling another person about your wrong doings isn’t comfortable or easy but a good confessor can help to get to root of the sins and you recognize other sins by pointing out the blind spots we all have when looking at ourselves.
“You are neglecting the Orthodox and Coptics
No, I considered them
“The idea of a practicing Christian not confessing and seeking absolution is a fairly modern innovation
No, the Scriptures were written 2,000 years ago.
“I don’t recall the Bible saying anywhere “go tell God in secret about what you think your sins are and all will be forgiven.”
No need to. Christians have direct access to God for forgiveness.
“On the contrary the Bible gives the apostles, and by extension their successors, the power to bind and to loose.”
No, if you read Greek, it does not say that - nor that there is succession of this.
“LOL! Are you trying to say that the Greeks, who have the sacrament of confession just as much as the Romans do, do so because they don’t know Greek .... seriously?
LOL! I think you know I didn’t say that.
You pretty clearly said above that a correct reading of the Greek makes confession unnecessary. Those wascally Greeks — if they only understood their own language, they’d all be good Presbyterians or Baptists!
“You pretty clearly said above that a correct reading of the Greek makes confession unnecessary.
No Campion, I did not make that argument.
I said the Apostles did not receive a power to loosen or bind.
The Greek says something very different.
And the Greeks themselves don’t know that because...?
“And the Greeks themselves don’t know that because...?
For the same reason any language group fails to follow God’s instructions - the lure of pagan and religious ritual.
Why did the Israelites make a golden calf and worship it - despite having God’s 10 Commandments in their own language?
A terrible crime such as child abuse should NEVER be allowed to just "go away" after some priest grants forgiveness. Forgiveness from God will only truly come when we genuinely acknowledge our sin - name it as HE names it, seek reconciliation if at all possible, face the music for any legal or civil remedy and humbly resolve through the grace of God to NEVER commit such acts again. I think far too many people just slide on by confident that "going to confession" and saying some prayers for penance is all they need to do. It's no wonder so many keep doing the same wrongs.
Question: Since it was Jesus who established the sacrament of Penance, why is it that Protestants do not confess their sins to a priest?
Answer: Confession to a priest is not a biblical practice; it is not even a custom of the early church.
Our Lord taught us to confess our sins directly to God the Father. He told us to pray, "Our Father in heaven...forgive us our sins as we forgive those who trespass against us." Reading the New Testament we do not find a single instance of the apostles hearing private confession; nor do we find the disciples confessing to a priest.
There was no auricular confession to a priest in the early church either. Augustine gives us a snapshot of the church in the 4th and 5th century. In his Sermon to Catechumens on the Creed, Augustine writes:
How did Christians deal with sin at that time? They dealt severely with those who committed grievous sins, casting them out of the church. A period of "penance" was required before the repentant sinner was re-admitted. But what about the daily sins that all Christians commit? Did they confess them to a priest? No, they confessed directly to God in prayer, asking the Father for forgiveness. Prayer was considered sufficient for daily cleaning.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church admits that private confession first came on the scene in the seventh century:
So, private confession was introduced a full seven centuries after Christ and His apostles. Ironically the Roman Church curses us if we dare assert the plain historical fact that secret confession to a priest was not observed from the beginning:
Friend, I urge you to disregard Rome’s vain threats; you cannot deny the truth. If you want to follow the teaching of the Bible, and the practice of the early church, stop once and for all going to private confession to a priest. Pray to God. He knows your heart and He hears your prayers. He will certainly forgive you if you repent and believe in His Son, Jesus Christ. http://www.justforcatholics.org/a23.htm
Sorry sicko - I believe in Jesus. Nothing I said has indicated jumping this shark makes any sense at all.
Gosh - what have I said that makes the two of you think that? Been proclaiming Jesus as my Lord and Savior throughout. I don’t pray to dead mortals no matter what sainthood they may have had put upon them by other mortals. Jesus told us how to pray and made it clear we had a direct path w/o mortal intermediaries. When you think of it - you, who adore dead mortals are more apt to celebrate the old pagan holiday w/o even recognizing it.
Pretty big stretch. I only believe they ought to have to “rat out” those who have committed physical crimes against other human beings - since no man can really know what’s in another man’s heart/thoughts, priests would have an easy out from your scenario. If a man says he raped a 4 year old, the priest shouldn’t hesitate to turn him in on suspicion of having raped a 4 year old - no other info needed - let the cops/detectives put the dots together.
What I don’t understand is how the state enforces a law mandating priests ‘rat out’ someone who confessed a certain sin. Sting operations, plea deals for sex abusers, use it in civil cases, how?
Freegards
As an AA sponsor, I've heard a number of 5th steps which are supposedly confidential. I tell them up front that if they stole something or committed other like crimes, I will keep it until I die, but depending on what the crime may have been, I urge them to pray and meditate on it to see if they can find it within themselves to actually atone by doing everything in their power to set it right. If they admit killing someone, abusing a child sexually, etc., they better not tell me because I will take that sort of info to law enforcement.
I have trouble with a priest telling a murderer/pedophile that doing a couple rosaries will make it all OK - they either took it to God or they didn't, and either He forgives them or He doesn't. Getting it off their chest with another person gives them emotional relief they don't deserve.
Even if a priest opts to keep "the sanctity of the confessional" (useful for those who fear having embarrassing moments disclosed, but repugnant as a religious practice for those who "If anyone causes one of these little ones--those who believe in me--to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea." and are not vigorously pushed to come clean with the law.
Thank you for your response. Then why pass a law saying they must do it? I mean that is what this thread is about to my understanding. Seems like it would never be enforceable. If priests can’t even admit they heard a particular confession, much less what was said in it, would this law just require the prosecution to go with what the accuser says against the priest or what?
Freegards
FWIW, I was being a bit snarky,
Maybe that's not what God's instructions really say. It's much more likely that you are understanding the Greek wrong than it is that millions of Greek-speaking people, for whom it is their native language, have understood it wrong for 2000 years. Occam's razor.
BTW, there is no "lure," "pagan" or otherwise, to going to confession. It's painful and humiliating. It's supposed to be. It's just not as painful and humiliating as the punishment Christ suffered for those same sins.
Occam’s razoR isnt about syncretic paganism, the human heart, nor religion.
“It’s supposed to be.
Not according to Scripture.
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