In Australia, a proposed new law could require priests to turn over anyone who confesses child abuse to the police. And Australia’s not alone. In fact, it’s something of a trend.
The Irish Justice Minister introduced a bill earlier this year making it a criminal offense to fail to disclose information to police which would “assist in prosecuting a person who commits a serious offence against a child or vulnerable adult.” That includes priests being mandated to break the seal of the confessional.
Hey what a great idea following on Ireland’s decision to do the same. This is really going to knock out a lot of abuse since child molesters are known for going to confession. Plus now with the new law you know child abusers will really be seeking priests out for confession.
While we are at it let us get rid of lawyer-client confidentiality. Lawyers can plead guilty against the client’s wishes if they are aware of them committing a crime. Why should any relationship be protected if it covers up a crime?
It is certainly understandable a reaction such as this against child abuse, a crime so heinous. Yet as bad as child abuse is what about murder? Shouldn’t the priest or lawyer also be forced to give up any information they have if violating such confidentiality is a good in itself. How about client-doctor also whether medical or psychiatry if they come across information? The law seems very narrow in scope being directed only towards priests.
Besides the practicality of the whole thing seems more like an agenda than being directed towards any actual fruitful end. How would they know that the law was violated in the first place? Sting operations against priests with false confessions to see if they go to the police? Or arrested child molesters making an accusation that they admitted this in confession – something the priest could neither confirm or deny? That scenario has the earmarking of another movie in the vein of “I Confess” by Alfred Hitchcock.
St John of Nepomuk pray for us.
14 comments
Wow.
You are against catching child molesters,
Your arguments are ridiculous, if it saves one child one time than it’s worth it.
It’s simple, your priest hears some freak say he had sex with a child and he then takes the information he knows to the police and they take it from there.
This is what any sane, decent human being would do how it impacts themselves or their jobs notwithstanding.
Makes me wonder too, are some things truly unforgivable? Salvage may be a gadfly, but even the wildest arrow does hit a target.
Read a story once, about a priest who hears such things and becomes a serial killer stalking the completely irredeemable .
To err is human.
To forgive, divine.
Neither is in the Marine Corp policy.
Panda Rosa,
The seal of confession must be absolute. That includes not only speaking on confessions or acting upon the information in any way.
If nothing happens in the sacrament of Reconciliation, then the criticism makes some sense. But if the soul is truly cleansed of sin, then we need to preserve the silence. Allow me to elaborate:
If a priest has the power to pick and choose what sins to report, then no one would have trust to confess all of their sins, particularly their mortal sins.
If no one has this trust, then many will remain in their mortal sins even to the point of death.
If you die in a state of mortal sin, the Church teaches that you go to everlasting damnation. Do not pass go, do not collect $200.
Matt 10:28 says “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”
But if you do not believe in mortal sin nor in the power of the confessional to remove mortal sin from the soul, thus saving it, then I can understand people who want the seal broken.
But if the supernatural miracle, the greatest of all healing miracles, which is the forgiveness of sins DOES occur in the confessional, then the seal must be guarded to the point of death.
I’d recommend reading the story of St. John Nepomucene.
Thoughts?
Hard for this Protestant to say right off. I do know Confession is NOT a chance to “get away” with doing something horrible. But child abuse/molestation is a difficult thing to deal with, and if someone has the chance to stop this situation, then by all accounts they should. To pause for any reason shames all involved. Some things God can forgive, but not men, and I fear this ranks near the top, this shapes our laws and moreso the court of public opinion. To know someone deliberately take a child”s innocence away would be a test of faith like no other, and I can’t answer it now.
I’m not Salvage, I don’t think it’s hypocrisy, but it is distressing to think that a priest could hear of such abuse and be able to do nothing. Abuse does come too near to mortally wounding the soul, ask anyone who’s been there. On the other hand, how often do such abusers come to confession?
You’ve given me something to think on. Real redemption, is it truly possible for such broken reeds as us?
Will look up St. John Nepocene,
I don’t think it’s hypocrisy, I think it’s selfish and evil.
They put and they have put their superstitions ahead of the welfare of children. That’s why the world-wide abuse was allowed to continue, why they never called the police, why to this day they fight it all tooth and nail while the Pope weeps tears that would make a crocodile cringe.
They want the protection of the church and the promised afterlife and if a few hundred thousand children need to get raped along the way well a bargain at half the price.
At any rate their depravity doesn’t matter, laws like this will continue to be written and passed. It’s clear the Catholic Church can’t manage their own moral compasses so society will have to do it for them.
Panda Rosa,
I appreciate your apprehension at not breaking the seal, and I apologize if I was at all dismissive of the concern. The case of child molestation is a truly horrid one. The damage done to the mind and soul of a child in this case is unspeakable.
Unlike our brother salvage (who does not know what the good is so I am not sure how he understands the bad), your concern over ungodly behavior is intelligible. I am not sure I have the words to speak to the heart, but I will continue to try to address the intellectual answer.
You said that there are some things that God can forgive, but not men. In the confessional, the priest does represent Man as a representative of the entire Church. But the priest also speaks for God. It is Christ, through the priest who gives the forgiveness.
The words of the confessional are: “God, the Father of Mercies, through the death and resurrection of his Son has reconciled the world to himself and sent the Holy Spirit among us for the forgiveness of sins; through the ministry of the Church may God give you pardon and peace, and I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.”
Forgive the extended quote, but the words of absolution truly take away sin because it is God who is doing the forgiving through His priest.
And as God will forgive all who repent, so too must His priest in the confessional.
Thoughts?
I remember someone (Chesterton or Mark Shea, maybe?) saying that for many people the most difficult thing to accept in Christianity is the idea that God is ready to forgive ANY sin. We tend to think that some sins are unforgivable, but the only one that is explicitly mentioned as unforgivable is the “sin against the Holy Spirit”, and that in a context that clearly suggests the finality of such a sin and the sinner’s refusal to repent.
Of course that does not mean that in this world we should not seek redress and punishment through appropriate laws, but when it comes to confession, the only time the priest can refuse absolution (hence granting of divine forgiveness) is if the confessing person is not repentant.
For instance I seem to recall that in the situation (often presented in movies) where someone “confesses” a crime to a priest just to taunt him, but not in a sacramental effort, the priest is not bound by silence, since the person told him something, but not for a real confession. But I may be wrong there. Corrections from anyone knowledgeable on canonical matters?
It’s weird how you god created all these sins, hates them yet forgives them if the correct rituals are performed.
You’d think for the sake of efficiency if anything else it would have just not made them.
Ave Maria
Ave Maria
I don’t believe in dentists.
I mean if dentists really existed why do so many people have bad, horrible, broken teeth and misaligned teeth, disgusting and sick gums. How could dentists exist and let these things continue in the world?
Oops hit submit before I credited the statement. I paraphrased it from a video. THought it was funny.
The original is better find it here
http://youtu.be/fZftyGcMZ9Q
Dentists exist and they do everything they can within thier power to prevent such things.
Your god claims to be against bad things, claims to be allpowerful yet doesn’t do anything.
If dentists were like your god they would refuse to take appointment, refer everyone to a book on dental surgery written between 6,000 years ago and then send people to Hell for getting cavities.
Msgr. William J. Lynn was sentenced to 3 to 6 years in state prison Tuesday for child endangerment by a judge who said he turned a blind eye while “monsters in clerical garb” sexually abused children and devastated the church and community.
philly.com/philly/news/breaking/20120724_Lynne_scheduled_for_sentencing_today_in_priest_abuse_case.html
And this is why your church cannot be trusted to do the right thing and that laws need to be crafted to force the issue.