The new measures follow recommendations from the Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Church (CIASE) which three years ago urged the Church to implement strict directives for confessors.

The guidelines specify where confessions can take place, when they are permissible and how absolution should be handled — even in cases involving serious offences.

New rules for Confession locations

The new guidelines outline strict conditions about where and how confessions can take place.

Confessions are prohibited in private rooms, and sessions outside traditional confession settings - such as churches and designated confessionals - are allowed only in exceptional situations, such as confessions for the sick and during pilgrimages.

All confessions must occur during daylight hours and priests must wear clerical attire. The guidelines state "This ensures a standardised and transparent environment that prioritises the safety of the penitent".

Confessions should be avoided in emotionally charged circumstances, with an emphasis on maintaining a stable and respectful setting for both the priest and penitent.

Handling abuse disclosures in Confession

If a victim discloses abuse when confessing, priests are bound by the absolute seal of the confessional - as indeed they have always been.

However, the guidelines advise priests to encourage victims to report their experiences. Priests are urged to use their "pastoral sensitivity to determine if the penitent has already confided in another trusted person".

If not, confessors must "strongly encourage" victims to do so.

Priests are also advised to keep contact information for victim support services readily available, ensuring immediate access to assistance for the penitent.

Absolution and accountability

The guidelines confirm that absolution remains dependent on the penitent's contrition and expressed confession. While absolution is not conditional, penitents are not absolved of their responsibility to answer for their actions.

"Absolution does not exonerate the penitent from the consequences of his or her actions" the guidelines say. Priests may suggest that penitents who have committed serious offences take steps toward reparation, including self-reporting to civil or ecclesiastical authorities.

Mandatory training for priests

To uphold these standards, the bishops' Conference has mandated ongoing training for all priests about the theological, psychological and legal aspects of confession. They are also assessing each priest's suitability to serve as a confessor.

The Church has recognised this as a critical step in preventing future abuse.

Sources

• The Pillar
• katholisch.de

Could it be true that your phone is "listening" to your private conversations?

It's a surprisingly difficult question to answer — and one that has bred enough uncertainty that bishops are starting to issue bans on smartphones in that most private of Catholic spaces: the confessional.

Here's what you need to know about the privacy concerns surrounding smartphones and how one Catholic diocese is responding.

Protecting the seal

Right off the bat, it's important to point out that the Catholic Church takes privacy in the confessional very seriously.

The sacrament of confession, also called reconciliation, was implemented by Jesus Christ as the means of forgiving sins. He passed the authority to forgive sins down to his apostles, who in turn passed it down to the priests of today.

The "seal of confession" binds priests to treat a penitent's privacy with the utmost solemnity; in fact, over the centuries, some priests have chosen death rather than reveal what they have heard.

If a priest reveals any information he learned in the context of confession, he will be excommunicated from the Church latae sententiae — essentially, automatically.

What about if someone else hears your confession, or you accidentally overhear someone else confessing their sins?

Well, in that instance, the person overhearing the confession is bound by what is known as the "secret" and is forbidden from sharing any of that information.

It's possible that a Catholic layperson could be excommunicated for breaking the secret, though normally it would involve a penal process rather than occurring automatically like it does for priests.

As you can imagine, intentionally recording someone's confession is also a big no-no.

The Church formally addressed this problem in a 1988 decree in which the Congregation (now Dicastery) for the Doctrine of the Faith wrote that anyone who records or divulges a person's confession is excommunicated from the Church latae sententiae.

Smartphones — worth the risk?

It's long been known that the "smart assistants" built into almost every modern phone, such as Apple's Siri, do indeed "listen" constantly for wake words such as "Hey Siri" unless a user specifically turns that setting off.

(The odds are good that most tech-savvy people who are concerned about privacy have already done this.)

Perhaps a deeper concern, though, is the myriad of smartphone apps that inexplicably ask for full access to a user's camera, microphone, and location — despite no clear need for control over those aspects of a user's phone.

Could those apps be "spying" on us?

This long-simmering fear was thrust back into the spotlight late last year when it came to light that CMG Local Solutions, a subsidiary of Cox Media Group, was openly bragging about its ability to listen through the microphones of people's smart devices to "identify buyers based on casual conversations in real time" using artificial intelligence.

CMG quickly backpedaled when challenged, claiming that it had never listened to anyone's private conversations and didn't have access to anything beyond "third-party aggregated, anonymized, and encrypted data used for ad placement."

Despite CMG having ties to Google, Amazon, and Facebook through those companies' ad partner programs, all three of those companies denied they were ever a part of CMG's "Active Listening" program. But many have found these denials unconvincing.

Browsing online, you'll find page after page of warnings that yes, indeed, your smartphone is listening in on you.

(Granted, many of them are blog posts from cybersecurity companies that are selling privacy-related products, which makes them either more or less credible, depending on how you look at it.)

Plus, the revelation from CMG throws some additional uncertainty into the mix.

So what does the evidence say? Read more

• Jonah McKeown is a staff writer and podcast producer for Catholic News Agency.

The proposed legislation the diocese is referring to is Article 23, a locally developed national security bill that Hong Kong is fast-tracking into law.

It follows the one Beijing imposed in 2020 after quashing pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.

The bill is expected to be put to a legislature vote within days.

About the new law

The new law proposes a maximum jail term of 14 years for anyone who knows someone will commit treason but fails to report it to the police. In a three-sentence statement published on its website, the Diocese of Hong Kong says citizens "have an obligation to ensure national security".

However, according to the Diocese, this does not apply to Catholics who confess their sins.

The diocese also says that fears such a law could force Catholic priests to divulge information they heard in Confession to authorities are unnecessary.

Confessions to priests will remain confidential the diocesan office confirms.

Voiced concerns

UK-based activist group Hong Kong Watch has said this "directly threatens religious freedom" because it could compromise the confidentiality of confession.

The group thought it would force priests to reveal what was said in the confessional.

Hong Kong authorities defended the law's proposed criminal offence - which used to be called "misprision of treason".

Officials say it has long existed in the city and other common law countries. It does not have "anything to do with freedom of religion".

Responding to a lawmaker's question last week, Secretary for Justice Paul Lam said it would be "very difficult to create exceptions" for people like clergy and social workers regarding the offence.

Source

• Catholic News Agency
• UCANews.com
• South China Morning Post

"If the church did more to help confessors be empathetic listeners as well as skilled interpreters of the church's moral teaching, it would make it clearer that the sacrament of reconciliation can be an instrument in the fight against abuse."

It must explain why it does not protect abusers or other serious criminals from justice and why the confessional seal can help safeguard children and vulnerable adults. If not, legislators may target the confessional seal's inviolability, he said.

Zollner's article followed an independent commission's report that estimated over 330,000 children in France were abused by church personnel since the 1950s.

The report provoked the question that had been raised after the publication of similar reports elsewhere: "Should it be mandatory for a priest who hears about sexual abuse committed against a minor in confession to report it to the secular authorities?"

There is no "compelling evidence showing that abuse would be prevented by removing the seal" of the confessional," Zollner wrote.

The Code of Canon Law forbids a priest from revealing anything he has learned in the confessional for any reason.

While the church's poor record of preventing abuse and handling allegations has created suspicion about its protection of the secrecy of the confessional, Zollner said that secrecy makes "people feel free to say things in confession they wouldn't say anywhere else."

That "safe space" is used much more often by survivors and victims than by abusers.

"With the exception of prison chaplains, priests are highly unlikely to ever hear a confession from a perpetrator of sexual abuse of children."

Zollner said he's only ever heard of one priest hearing a confession from an abuser - "and that was on just one occasion,".

But many victims feel guilty and find it extremely difficult to speak for the first time about the unspeakable, he acknowledged.

If you cannot be absolutely sure that what you say in confession will remain confidential, one of the few safe places where starting to talk about an experience of abuse is possible may be lost, he said.

To assist victims, protect the sacramental seal and promote justice, the Church should issue better guidelines for priests who hear confessions, so they know what to do in abuse or suspected abuse.

It would reiterate obligations to respect the laws for reporting abuse outside of the confessional and reaffirm the seal.

It would also emphasize the confessor's responsibilities, including "the requirement to call on a perpetrator to stop the abuse, to report themselves to the statutory authorities, and to seek therapeutic help."

The instruction would make clear that "absolution for the sin of abuse cannot be given unless not only has sincere contrition been shown but the willingness to make up for the harm done has been demonstrated."

It would also clarify that in the case of a victim speaking about being abused, the confessor must listen with empathy and respect."

Source

• America Magazine
• Image: America Magazine

Although the bishops say Dalle's "trial period has not been confirmed" she says she had "been fired".

Her dismissal follows various slip-ups in communications after the release of an independent report into sexual abuse in the Church in France between 1950 and 2020.

The news came only a few days after the conclusion of the French bishops' plenary assembly in Lourdes. This focused on ways to apply the recommendations made by the independent commission in October.

Dalle's short employment with the Conference began just before the "explosive" report from the Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church (CIASE) was released.

The spokeswoman had a solid reputation for managing various crisis situations. This, plus her clear-and-straightforward communication style saw her appointed to undertake the delicate mission of managing the French bishops' press communications when the report was released to the public. A furore was expected.

After accepting the report, which said priests who learn of abuse in Confession must report it to secular authorities, Conference head Archbishop Éric de Moulins-Beaufort fumbled badly.

He insisted the seal of the confessional was above the laws of France's secular republic.

The difficulty with this comment, however, is that while French law has always respected confessional secrecy, more recently radical imams have been insisting sharia trumps civil law. This has forced the secular state to reassert its primacy in legal affairs.

If Muslims have been called to order, Catholics had to be too.

Ideally, Dalle would have anticipated this political minefield and issued a bland statement letting the state avoid a confrontation with its majority faith.

Instead, Moulins-Beaufort trumpeted the supremacy of canon law over French law.

The interior minister became involved.

Afterwards, both sought to calm the waters and agreed the confessional seal would remain inviolable.

Dalle continued the already signed-off battle alone, defending the Church's position, complaining anti-clericals misunderstood the issue. She mentioned the media. Politicians could not but feel this also meant them.

In a series of tweets that were subsequently deleted, she contextualized the data and figures contained in the report.

She recalled, for example, that the 330,000 victims was only an estimate.

Responding to people who were ascribing these abuse cases to the celibacy of priests, she said over a third were committed by laypeople.

In his closing speech at the plenary, however, Moulins-Beaufort made it clear the Church accepted full responsibility for any abuse.

To date only 17 dioceses have signed protocols with local judicial authorities to report abuse priests learn of.

Since few cases come through Confession, priests can report other cases they think are serious. This is widely seen as a reasonable compromise both sides can live with.

The bishops' conference has recommended other dioceses adopt this policy.

Source

• National Catholic Register
• The Tablet
• Image: News in 24

The confessional legislation removes civil law protections to the confidentiality of the seal of confession.

The confessional experience is a personal encounter between that person and Christ, Costelloe wrote in a pastoral letter published last week.

He said the state parliament's decision not only potentially criminalises a priest's faithfulness to his role, there's no guarantee any child will be better protected because of the new legislation.

"It is particularly concerning and troubling that the majority opinion of the legislative committee established by the government to look into this matter was not accepted by the parliament," Costelloe wrote.

"In a 3-2 majority decision this committee recommended that disclosures made in the context of a religious confession should not be subject to the new mandatory reporting laws."

Queensland and Victoria have also implemented similar legislation.

Costelloe said some people mistakenly think if a person discloses abuse during confession that the priest can and will do nothing.

"A priest will do everything he can to provide advice, support and accompaniment if the person making the disclosure is open to this."

Priests are allowed to act if the person discloses information outside the context of confession, but anything they are told during confession is completely private.

This is because in Catholic teaching the priest acts in the person of Christ in this encounter.

"In a very real sense the disclosure is made to Christ who, in the person of the priest, listens, advises, encourages and assists that person in every way possible. He does not betray that person's confidence."

Silliness reaches it peak

If an abuser comes to confession, the priest will do everything in his power to convince them to hand themselves into the police.

However, it is not Catholic teaching that people need to show some form of ID before confessing the sins; the nature of confession is it is generally anonymous and the priest does not necessarily know the person confessing their sins.

Costelloe said the passage of the new law means it's almost inconceivable that a perpetrator would put themselves at risk of discovery by making a confession.

"And of course, if a perpetrator did take the "risk" of going to confession, he or she would certainly go to a priest who could not identify them, and who conducted confession in a setting which guaranteed anonymity."

Costelloe acknowledged many people will unfairly criticise him and the Church for its opposition to this legislative change.

"The Catholic Church right across the country ... has taken many constructive steps to address this terrible reality ...," he said.

He noted the Perth archdiocese was the first in the world to launch a Safeguarding Office in 2015. It has over 250 trained Safeguarding Officers across more than 105 parishes.

Costelloe concluded his Pastoral Letter emphasising three points.

Firstly, his commitment to the safety and well-being of our children and young people is unwavering.

"Secondly, that we will continue to respond with openness, compassion and generosity to those who have been victims and are now survivors of the terrible crime and sin of sexual abuse by people associated with the Catholic Church.

"And thirdly that our priests will continue to put themselves at your service seeking as best they can to be living and effective signs and bearers of the presence of the Good Shepherd among you."

Source

• The Record
• Image: FSSPX News

Last week it was widely reported that the conference would break the seal in abuse cases.

"One cannot change the canon law for France as it is international. A priest who today would violate the secrecy of the confession would be excommunicated," says Karine Dalle (pictured), the communications director of the French bishops' conference.

"This is what Archbishop Moulins-Beaufort wanted to say last week after the publication of the Sauvé report, when he said that the seal of confession was above the laws of the Republic," she says.

In no way did he say the seal of the confessional could or would be broken, Dalle emphasises.

De Moulins-Beaufort, who is the president of the French bishops' conference, did say, however, that protecting children is an "absolute priority" for the Catholic Church.

"He spoke the truth, but this truth is not audible in France for those who are not Catholic, and not understandable in France in the midst of debates on so-called ‘religious separatism,'" Dalle says.

Last week it seemed a French radio station reported bishops' conference president Moulins-Beaufort as saying protecting children from sexual abuse overrules confessional secrecy.

The radio also announced that the archbishop had conceded that priests should inform police of admissions of abuse made by penitents during confession, after meeting with French interior minister Gérald Darmanin.

The reports about breaking the confessional seal provoked consternation among Catholics.

While French law has long recognized the Church's strict rules about the confidentiality of the sacrament, the government is now contemplating amending the law for confessors. It has already pushed through changes to client confidentiality laws with lawyers and other secular professionals.

"If a lawyer or a doctor has knowledge of the abuse of a minor under 15 years of age, he or she is obliged not to respect professional secrecy. This is to prevent further crimes, because pedophile criminality is compulsive," Dalle says.

"What Interior Minister Darmanin said is that in the future, the seal of confession could fit into this framework. It wouldn't concern all confessional secrecy, of course, but I don't know where that will lead.

"But if the state tells us [that priests must report crimes against minors revealed in confession] there would be an obligation to leave the secrecy of confession. This would mean that the priests concerned would be excommunicated by Rome.

"There will certainly be some adjustments proposed, which Rome will accept or not.

Among the report's 45 recommendations was a request for the Church to reconsider whether to uphold the confessional seal in cases of abuse.

Source

• CNA
• CathNews
• Image: ESSCA Alumini

Echoing recommendations from Australia's Royal Commission Into Child Sexual Abuse, Queensland's Parliament passed the new law on Tuesday.

Australia's Catholic leaders have always vowed to maintain the seal of confession even if it resulted in them facing criminal charges.

Support for their stance was underlined in a note approved by Pope Francis and published by the Vatican in mid-2019. In it, the Apostolic Penitentiary affirmed the absolute secrecy of everything said in confession.

The Penitentiary called on priests to defend it at all costs, even at the cost of their lives.

This is because the "priest ... comes to know of the sins of the penitent 'non ut homo sed ut Deus' — not as a man, but as God — to the point that he simply 'does not know' what was said in the confessional because he did not listen as a man, but precisely in the name of God," the note says.

"A confessor's defense of the sacramental seal, if necessary, even to the point of shedding blood, is not only an obligatory act of allegiance to the penitent but is much more: it is a necessary witness — a martyrdom — to the unique and universal saving power of Christ and his church."

Bishop Tim Harris of Townsville reiterated the Church's view on Tuesday, tweeting "Catholic priests cannot break the seal of confession."

The new legislation will have a flow-on effect which will upset privacy rules for other professions says Stephen Andrew.

The Queensland One Nation politician says the new law will "set a dangerous precedent which may be relied on in the future to remove or restrict other forms of professional privilege."

It will eventually see journalists compelled to give up their sources and doctors, psychologists and lawyers required to report their clients if they have evidence indicating they had abused a child, he says.

"Any anti-discrimination lawyer in the country will now be able to legitimately argue 'why should these other professions have the right to protect their sources when they, in effect, serve to protect criminals.'

"At stake here is not just freedom of religion but all rights to legal privilege, freedom of the press and confidentiality provisions."

The state's teachers, doctors, nurses, childcare workers and school principals already have to report crimes against children to authorities.

Set featured image

Source

• Brisbane Times
• NCR Online
• Image: The Times

The seal has now been lifted for the suspected sexual abuse of children, with spiritual and religious leaders required to report the abuse or face up to three years in prison.

"From [Monday], our promise to put the safety of children ahead of the secrecy of the confession is in full effect and there is no excuse for people who fail to report abuse," said Attorney-General Jill Hennessy. Read more

Of this, there is no doubt.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse cast a much-needed light on the failures of many institutions across Australia, including government and church institutions, and most prominently my own church.

It grieves me daily to know that young, and now adult lives, have been devastated and destroyed through multiple failures by the Catholic Church.

We failed to hear, to believe, and to act on credible information regarding child sexual abuse.

There is no stepping aside from this fact, and it drives my ongoing commitment to personally do everything in my power to create and maintain safe environments for children in our schools and parishes.

• I share the concern of our civic leaders that religious leaders like myself follow the laws of our land.
• I support religious ministers holding mandatory reporting responsibilities, a change the Catholic Church proposed in 2013.
• I have committed the Archdiocese of Melbourne to organisational and cultural change.

We have policies, procedures and processes to achieve compliance with the Child Safe Standards; we are providing reports to the Commission for Children and Young People under the Reportable Conduct Scheme; we offer professional development of leaders and workers; we ensure accreditation of those involved in child related employment, and train our clergy and people in constant improvement in building a culture that recognises, respects and defends the rights of children and young people.

Alongside this commitment I will also uphold the Seal of Confession.

I recognise that many people find it hard to understand, or relate, to the importance of Confession in the lives of many Christians.

Even some Catholics who haven't "called in" for a long time only remember aspects of what it was once like.

So why, when faced with Victoria's proposed new laws on mandatory reporting of child abuse, which would include information revealed in Confession, would any reasonable Catholic person, or any person for that matter, express concern?

Violating the Seal of Confession does not address any reform needed to protect children from abuse in institutions and other contexts, which is the fundamental point of the royal commission.

We learned a great deal from that work, including the need for ongoing supervision of those who work with children, regular review of relevant policies, transparency and accreditation for religious ministers, none of which are addressed by removing the Seal of Confession.

Let me name some of my other deep concerns with the current draft of the bill. Continue reading

• Image: The Age

The Victorian Premier, a practicing Catholic, says Melbourne Archbishop Peter Comensoli is wrong to compare priests refusing to disclose allegations heard during confession to confidentiality between journalists and their sources or lawyers and their clients.

"I don't accept that comparison at all..." Andrews says.

Despite Andrews's protests, Comensoli says the Catholic community has "not been afforded the opportunity to view and provide comment on the draft bill prior to its public release".

Under laws introduced to parliament on 14 August priests can be jailed for up to three years if they flout the mandatory reporting rules. These rules currently apply to professions including teachers, medical practitioners and police.

Comensoli says while he supports mandatory reporting, he is prepared to go to jail rather than break the confessional seal.

"Confession is a religious encounter of a deeply personal nature. It deserves confidentiality," he says.

"Confession doesn't place people above the law. Priests should be mandatory reporters, but in a similar way to protections to the lawyer/client relationship and protection for journalists' sources."

Victoria's Liberal-National opposition went to the election with a similar policy, which they are currently reviewing.

Opposition leader Michael O'Brien says while he expects everyone including members of the church to obey state laws and that child safety is paramount, he also is concerned about religious freedom.

"What I do want to see though, is have the laws that are proposed been drafted in a way which achieves that end, and do they not unnecessarily go and infringe on other religious freedoms."

Andrews has attacked O'Brien for what he calls a "disgraceful" about-turn.

"No religion, no church, no person, no priest, no politician is free to do anything other than put the safety of our kids first," Andrews says.

"This was his [O'Brien's] policy, for heaven's sake, only a few months ago."

Clergy are already subject to mandatory reporting laws in South Australia and the Northern Territory, while Western Australia and Tasmania have announced plans to compel religious leaders to disclose knowledge of abuse.

Victoria's reforms will also allow survivors of institutional abuse to apply to the Supreme Court to overturn "unfair" compensation settlements previously signed with churches.

Source

• The Age
• 9 News
• Image:Crux Now

He was referring to a bill in Victoria's parliament which will make it mandatory for priests to report suspected child abuse to authorities, including abuse revealed in the confessional.

Under current law, various professionals working with children must tell authorities if they develop a reasonable belief that a child has been abused or face up to three years in jail.

Amendments to the law - which follow Royal Commission into Child Abuse recommendations - mean religious leaders will be compelled to tell police of disclosures of abuse during reconciliation.

Last year the Church formally rejected legally forcing clergy to report abuse revealed during confessions.

Comensoli says he doesn't see the principles of mandatory reporting and the seal of confession as being "mutually exclusive".

He says he would encourage someone who admitted to abuse to tell police and to speak to him again outside the confessional. This way he could report the abuse without breaking the seal of confession.

However, he would break the law rather than the confessional seal if the person did not want to speak to him outside of confession.

Catholic priests who break the seal of confession currently face excommunication from the church.

Victoria's Child Protection Minister says the amendments will bring about "cultural change" to make future generations of Victorian children safer.

Anti-abuse advocate Chrissie Foster says the legislation is a breakthrough.

She cited the case of Catholic priest Michael McArdle — who claimed in an affidavit to have confessed he was sexually abusing boys over a 25-year period — as an example of why the laws were needed.

"Instead of him offending for 25 years, now he'll be mandatorily reported at the first confession, not allowed 1,500 other confessions after that," she said.

Father Kevin Dillon, who has been an outspoken advocate for victims of church abuse, says the new laws offer an opportunity to revisit the canon surrounding the confessional seal.

"I think there's a certain amount of burying the head in the sand in terms of the way in which the church has got to react to this," he says.

"I don't see the seal of the confessional as so much a teaching as a practice, and practice can be altered."

"I would have to follow my conscience at the time to do what I believe was the right thing to do."

Source

• ABC News
• Image: ABC

S.B. Bill 360 was withdrawn the day before a scheduled July 9 hearing in the California Assembly Public Safety Committee, effectively removing it from any further consideration this year.

"S.B. 360 was a dangerous piece of legislation," said Los Angeles Archbishop Jose H. Gomez, who had led the California bishops in opposing the bill. Read more

"Every political or legislative initiative intended to ‘force' the inviolability of the sacramental seal would constitute an unacceptable offense against the libertas Ecclesiae (freedom of the Church), which does not receive its legitimacy from individual states, but from God," the statement issued by Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, was approved by Pope Francis June 21 and published July 1. Read more

The working party's focus was on whether the law could be changed to enable priests to report the abuse, or suspected abuse, of children and vulnerable adults.

As is the case in the Catholic church, the seal of confession is the priest's obligation under canon law to hear a person's confession of sin, or imagined sin, in complete confidence.

Nothing the priest is told in that context will be repeated or disclosed under any circumstances.

The working party's report was completed in 2017 and has a publication date of March 2018 - but was released only on Wednesday last week — more than a year later.

It does not make any recommendations (which would be brought before the General Synod) either to abolish or to change canon law on the issue, because the working party could not reach agreement.

It states: "The decision whether to invite the General Synod to legislate on this matter is one for the House of Bishops and the Archbishops' Council.

"Had the members of the group reached a common mind on that issue, we would have included an appropriate recommendation in this report. Unfortunately, despite much discussion, we have failed to reach that common mind. We can only offer our report to the House of Bishops and the Archbishops' Council to assist them in reaching a decision."

The report recommends better training for clergy, diocesan safeguarding officers and senior clergy.

In addition, it recommends the appointment of a "Bishop's Adviser in the Sacramental Ministry of Reconciliation" in each diocese, and that resources should be posted on the national C of E website which "fully explain the nature of the Sacramental Ministry of Reconciliation, including explanatory material for penitents".

Source

• Church Times
• The Guardian
• Image: SSPX

A proposed change in law in California would legally require priests to violate the sacramental seal of confession in suspected cases of child abuse or neglect.

Fr Pius Pietrzyk OP, who is an assistant professor of canon law, says the bill would force a priest who in the confessional hears about sins regarding sexual abuse to choose to "face possible imprisonment or to betray that confidentiality and violate his deepest conscience and the laws of God and the Roman Catholic Church".

Under the Seal of Confession, priests are not allowed to disclose anything they learn during the course of the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

"If a core principle as deeply ingrained in Catholic tradition and doctrine can be wiped away this easily by the state, no fundamental rights of religion or conscience are safe."

In his view, the bill is "nothing less than an attempt to jail innocent priests".

Although he thinks the purpose of mandatory reporting statutes is good, he says "there is no evidence that forcing priests to disclose cases of abuse learned of in the confessional would have prevented a single case of child abuse".

Instead, he says, "There is every reason to believe the elimination of the privilege would mean that perpetrators would simply not bring it to confession".

In California, over 40 professions, including clergy, are already covered by state law requiring them to notify civil authorities in cases of suspected abuse or neglect of children.

However, current law provides an exemption for "penitential communications" between individuals and their ministers if the requirement of confidentiality is rooted in church doctrine.

The senator who introduced the bill says the law "should apply equally to all professionals who have been designated as mandated reporters of these crimes — with no exceptions, period".

He says exempting clergy only "protects the abuser and places children at further risk".

Source

• Catholic News Agency
• The Boston Pilot
• Image: American Greatness

"We don't believe it will make children safer, and in certain cases, we think it could make children less safe.

Any suggestion that a perpetrator may, in fact, confess is removed all but certainly by the imposition of a law such as this."

He was speaking after the publication of The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference and Catholic Religious Australia's Response to the Royal Commission into Institutional Child Sexual Abuse.

In the response, the bishops and religious said they agree with 98 percent of the recommendations and are committed to safeguarding children and vulnerable people, but they are adamant the confessional seal is inviolable.

The Royal Commission had recommended the bishops consult with the Holy See to clarify whether "information received from a child during the sacrament of reconciliation that they have been sexually abused is covered by the seal of confession."

The report labelled the suggestion of removing the seal of the confession as "inimical to religious liberty," not just for the Catholic Church but for other religions as well.

The Response states: "Children will be less rather than more safe if mandatory reporting of confessions were required: the rare instance where a perpetrator or victim might have raised this in confession would be less likely to occur if confidence in the sacramental seal were undermined; and so an opportunity would be lost to encourage a perpetrator to self-report to civil authorities or victims to seek safety."

Two of Australia's eight states and territories have introduced laws making it a crime for priests to withhold information about abuse heard in the confessional, while the others have said they are considering their response.

This means priests are required by law in those states to report abuse to the police when they hear about it in confession.

Source

• The Tablet
• Aljazeera
• CruxNow
• Image: YouTube

In his view the government needs to further consider 24 of the recommendations made by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

He says of the commission's recommendations, the Victoria government has accepted 128 and agreed another 165 in principle.

Pakula also says, rather than individual states making decisions about breaking the seal of confession, a "degree of national agreement" is needed.

Various decisions have been made by Australia's state governments about the Royal Commission's recommendations.

As an example, the Australian Capital Territory, South Australia and Tasmania have already adopted laws making it illegal for priests to fail to report the confession of a child sex abuse crime.

However, as from October, in South Australia, priests who fail to report child sex abuse confessions will face a $7,400 fine.

In New South Wales, the state government is putting extra thought into the royal commission's confessional seal recommendation.

It says this is a complex issue which it has referred to "the Council of Attorneys-General for national consideration."

The Catholic Church in Australia has opposed laws mandating reporting from the confessional. Many priests have said they would go to jail before violating the seal.

The Code of Canon Law says "The sacramental seal is inviolable; therefore it is absolutely forbidden for a confessor to betray in any way a penitent in words or in any manner and for any reason."

Priests who intentionally violate the seal are automatically excommunicated.

In addition, the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches: "Every priest who hears confessions is bound under severe penalties to keep absolute secrecy regarding the sins that his penitents have confessed to him," due to the "delicacy and greatness of this ministry and the respect due to persons."

Source

• CruxNow
• The Canberra Times
• Image: The Catholic Leader

The priests are responding to South Australia's decision to join the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) to create laws to force Catholic priests to break the seal of confession, to report paedophiles to police.

The new laws, which will come into effect in South Australia in October, will see priests who fail to report child abuse to Police facing fines of up to A$10,000 (£5,600).

Bishop Greg O'Kelly, Acting Adelaide Archbishop, says while politicians can change the law, "we can't change the nature of the confessional, which is a sacred encounter between a penitent and someone seeking forgiveness and a priest representing Christ."

Changing the law doesn't affect priests who have "an understanding of the seal of confession that is in the area of the sacred," he says.

"Canon law lays down that 'it is absolutely forbidden for a confessor to betray in any way a penitent in words or in any manner and for any reason'"

O'Kelly says the church was not made aware of the change, which was legislated last year, until last Thursday.

The new law forms part of the South Australian government's response to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse.

The New South Wales Government says it will respond later this month about whether priests would be legally obliged to report confessions of child sex abuse.

"The state will be requiring us as Catholic priests to commit what we regard as the most serious crime and I'm not willing to do that," says Father Michael Whelan, the parish priest in St Patrick's Church Hill in Sydney.

"I expect every jurisdiction in Australia now will follow that recommendation and I expect the Church throughout will simply not observe it."

Whelan says while the Church is not above the law, if the state intervenes on religious freedom and undermines "the essence of what it means to be a Catholic, we will resist.

"The only way they [the state] would be able to see whether the law was being observed or not is to try and entrap priests," he says.

Source

• ABC
• The Tablet
• Image: Catholic Herald

Priests are not using the seal of confession to protect child abusers.

Removing a priest's legal protection will not make children safer, Coleridge says.

While he agrees children's safety is paramount, he says safety measures must be realistic and effective.

Australia's Royal Commission into Child Abuse recommendations are being adopted by a number of Australian states.

These recommendations could see priests facing criminal charges for failing to report child abuse revealed in confession.

Coleridge said the royal commission did not find a systemic problem with the sacrament of penance in terms of child safety.

"Priests from a range of different backgrounds and pastoral experiences have said the sacrament isn't being abused to protect those who commit crimes against children.

"The church doesn't want to protect criminals. It wants children to be safe from them."

The church wants measures that will genuinely make environments safer for children, he says.

"There's nothing to suggest that legal abolition of the seal will help in that regard."

Coleridge says the church does not view the sacramental seal as incompatible with maintaining child safety.

However, the royal commission saw the matter differently.

It had heard the testimonies of more than 8,000 survivors of child sex abuse. Of those who were abused in religious institutions, 62 percent were Catholics.

It found the sacrament of reconciliation (penance) was a factor that contributed to both the occurrence of child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church and to the church's inadequate response to the abuse.

New South Wales (NSW), the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) and South Australia (SA) have either extended their mandatory reporting laws or introduced new failure-to-report offences. The ACT and SA laws include confessions.

In SA the confessional would not be exempt from the reporting law coming into effect in October. Breaches of the law will attract a maximum $10,000 fine.

In NSW, failure to report offences will apply to clergy and ministers of religion. Failure to report offences will attract up to two years' jail. The government says the religious confession privilege comes under uniform evidence law that applies in multiple jurisdictions.

Other royal commission recommendations include:

• reporting to police any child abuse disclosed during Catholic confession
• the Australian Catholic Church seeking permission from the Vatican to introduce voluntary celibacy for the clergy.

Source

• Crux Now
• 9 News
• The Catholic Leader
• Image: Wikipedia