Posted on 02/24/2019 7:11:03 AM PST by marshmallow
A California state lawmaker introduced a proposal on Wednesday that would require clergy to report child abuse or neglect disclosed during confession.
The bill is expected to inspire a moral debate at the Capitol about the right to private penance versus a desire to protect children, and will force legislators to wade into the debate over the intersection of religion and public safety.
SB 360 is about the safety and protection of children, said Sen. Jerry Hill (D-San Mateo), who introduced the proposal. The law should apply equally to all professionals who have been designated as mandated reporters of these crimes with no exceptions, period. The exemption for clergy only protects the abuser and places children at further risk.
Clergy, doctors, psychologists, marriage and family therapists and social workers are among some 46 categories of professionals required to report any suspicion of abuse or neglect to law enforcement.
But state law offers an exemption for any clergy member who acquires knowledge or a reasonable suspicion of child abuse or neglect during a penitential communication, defined as a sacramental confession or other communication made in confidence.
The proposal received swift backlash from the California Catholic Conference, the public policy arm of the Catholic Church.
Inserting government into the Confessional does nothing to protect children and everything to erode the fundamental constitutional rights and liberties we enjoy as Americans, said Steve Pehanich, director of communications and advocacy for the California Catholic Conference.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
The gun grabbers might disagree with you. Every aspect of the constitution has limits based on other legislation.
Your attempt to use Scripture does not support your contention.
Boatbums already posted the Catholic history of their form of confession and it doesn not line up with what that ascripture passage says.
It does not lay out procedure for how it is to be done, the confessional, anonymously, etc.
And likewise Catholics cannot impose theor interpretation of Scripture on others either, although they do not stop trying.
No, thats not what the first amendment does.
It says..... Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof
It says nothing about opinions of Scirpture interpretation or telling someone their interpretation is wrong.
It appears that your understanding of the Constitution is as bad as your interpretation of Scripture.
In fact, scripture would go against the CC ignoring this law if passed.
Romans 13:1-2
OF COURSE the gun-grabbers disagree with me. If you're using the likes of Chuck Schumer to bolster your position, please decamp to DU.
And this thread is about a State Legislature (Amendment I has been "incorporated", so it applies to them as well as to the Congress) attempting to pass legislation prohibiting the free exercise of a particular religion.
It appears that your inability to follow a thread is as bad as your inability to understand the Scriptures.
(See ... two can play that game.)
Why do I even bother? You show no interest in actually learning anything.
From reading other Catholic sources, it appears that although public confession was used in the early days, it was not mandatory and that private confession had also been used since the beginning.
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