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

Salvo, the name of this 30-something man who signed up for confession at the prison where I serve as a chaplain, kept on speaking.

I wasn't sure whether he was talking to God or to me. I just nodded.

Moments earlier, my hands were placed over his, which were in handcuffs, before he held them in front of his face to pray, half in English, half in Spanish.

The two of us, he in his orange jumpsuit and me in my black clerical shirt and trousers, sat next to each other at one of the hexagonal metal tables in the middle of the cell block, visible to other inmates in the tiers above and below us.

Some of them peered out of the small plastic windows on their cell doors.

The guard who brought Salvo down from "the Hole" 15 minutes earlier, after shackling his hands and feet with chains, glanced up from his desk about 10 yards away from us as I placed my hands back on the table.

I was aware of how intimate this praying looked. I didn't mind. The tears said it all, to God if not to anyone else.

Today was a day of tears.

Unusual for the men in prison, most of whom have to keep up a tough front. Often, they keep this stance with me too, even when in private, let alone when I meet them on the cell block instead of my office, as I have to meet those who are in protective custody.

I believe if they can find one space to weep and be real with another person and before God, it will lead to their peace of mind and ability to be strong.

I wait for them to pull themselves together before they go back to their cells.

The whole dynamic of hearing confessions in prison is incredible.

Quite a few guys have told me that they believe God got them into prison to save them from heading in the wrong direction.

I use this awesome role of confessor to encourage them to foster this spark of God's love for them, not to waste it.

To ask for forgiveness from Jesus who came for this reason. And most of all, to be determined to continue this prayer relationship with God that they have discovered on the inside of the prison when they get outside.

Usually when I finish a visit with one of them, whether it is a formal confession or not, I say, "Do you want to pray?"

"Yes," they invariably say, as though it is normal for two men to share their souls together.

I open my hands on the table between us, face up. As though they are children, they place their hands in mine.

I have no idea what these hands may have done — robbed? Sold drugs? Abused someone? "Go ahead," I say, waiting for them to start.

"Oh no, you do it," most respond.

"No, you do it," I say.

But I usually have to. They aren't quite ready to launch out into this God territory with a virtual stranger, even one they amazingly trust because I am "Father" to them.

I bow my head, feeling the calloused hands of a tough guy who would ordinarily never be resting his hands in another's so vulnerably. Continue reading

• Paul Morrissey, O.S.A., is a priest in residence at St. Augustine Church in Philadelphia, Penn. He served as a Catholic chaplain at the Philadelphia Prison from 2007 to 2019. This article has been excerpted from his forthcoming memoir Touched by God: Confessions of a Prison Chaplain.

Bishop Michel Santier (pictured), was quietly disciplined by the Vatican and, in 2021, he reported to his diocese he resigned for "health reasons".

However, the weekly Famille Chrétienne revealed Santier was also removed for "using his influence over two young adult men for sexual purposes" in the 1990s and abusing the sacrament of confession.

The Vatican ordered him to live "a life of prayer and penance" in an abbey in Normandy.

However, Archbishop Dominique Lebrun, Santier's metropolitan archbishop, announced last week that "other people" have since had come forward with allegations against Santier.

They claim the retired bishop had sexually abused them when they were young adults.

"Yesterday (October 19) after having heard directly from one of these victims, I immediately sent a report to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith via the apostolic nunciature," Lebrun said.

"There is no doubt that the dicastery will conduct a new investigation in the face of revelations that accentuate the seriousness of the facts of which Bishop Michel Santier is accused."

Santier resigned from his post two years earlier than the customary age of 75.

In a letter to his flock in June 2020, he explained that "the polluted air of the Paris region" did not suit him and had led to diagnoses of asthma and sleep apnoea.

He had been hospitalised with COVID-19 in April that year.

"I don't have the physical strength to continue my ministry among you until I am 75 years old", he said at the time. He also hinted he had undergone "other difficulties," but didn't specify what these were.

These difficulties, Catholic magazine Famille Chrétienne reported earlier this month, were linked to the "spiritual abuse for sexual purposes perpetrated against two adult men" in the 1990s.

French bishops confirmed that Rome took "disciplinary action" against Santier in October 2021 for the acts, which emerged in 2019. The two men asked to remain anonymous.

Last Friday, the French bishops' conference president, Archbishop Éric de Moulins-Beaufort, acknowledged the revelations had provoked "shock" among French Catholics.

"The feeling of betrayal, the temptation to be discouraged are emotions that I understand and that run through us, as well as the incomprehension and anger of many before the acts themselves," he said.

"I also hear and receive the criticisms made about the lack of communication of the Roman measures when they were enacted.

"There can be no impunity in the Church, regardless of the function of the person involved."

Moulins-Beaufort said the French bishops would be reflecting on the way investigation results are communicated to Catholics when they meet at their plenary assembly in Lourdes next week.

"We will bring to Rome the fruit of our reflections and our proposals to improve what can be improved," he said.

French Catholics have learned of a series of abuse scandals in recent years.

The Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Church (CIASE) concluded in 2021 that as many as 330,000 children were abused from 1950 to 2020 in the French Catholic Church.

The French bishops then promised to undertake "a vast programme of renewal" of their governance practices.

Source

• The Pillar
• The Tablet

In Matthew 18:15-20, he sets out the steps for reconciliation.

First, "if your brother does something wrong, go and have it out with him alone".

If that works, well and good.

If it doesn't, then call him to the table with a couple of others to help resolve the matter.

If that doesn't work, report the matter to the whole community.

If that doesn't work, show him the door. Expel him or excommunicate him.

In each of these steps, the Matthean community, recalling the words of Jesus, was following the traditional contours for conflict resolution in the Judaean world of their time.

Then comes the distinctive theological gloss from Jesus: "I tell you solemnly, whatever you bind on earth shall be considered bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth shall be considered loosed in heaven."

Let's recall that earlier in the gospel at Capernaum, after Peter had made his profession of faith that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, Jesus had entrusted Peter with the keys of the kingdom: "Whatever you bind on earth shall be considered bound in heaven".

Now this power and commission is given to the whole community.

The scripture scholar Daniel Harrington says, "[T]hat power would seem to concern either the imposing (and lifting) of decrees of ex-communication or the forgiving (and not forgiving) of sins."

According to Harrington, this gospel passage "outlines a clear procedure designed to help the sinner recognise the sin and return to the community. It roots reconciliation and forgiveness of sins in God's mercy, and thus reveals the foolishness of those who try to set limits on their willingness to forgive others." (1)

In our Catholic tradition, the forgiveness of sins has been practised in recent times by the sacrament of confession whereby the penitent confesses their sins to a priest who is bound by the seal of confession.

Three years ago, I was called before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse because I had published an article stating that in all my years as a priest, I had never heard the confession of a paedophile and never expected to.

I said that any information I gleaned in confession about child sexual abuse was unlikely to be of any forensic value to police, as a penitent behind a screen was unlikely to identify himself, his victim, or the time and place of any offence.

I said that any state abolition of the seal of confession would render it even more unlikely that a paedophile would ever present for confession, and would simply take away one very remote possibility that a paedophile might come seeking help which could result in the paedophile being convinced to turn himself in to the authorities.

I appeared at the Royal Commission alongside the respected canon lawyer Fr Ian Waters who explained that the seal of confession covered the sins of the penitent, but not other matters.

I agreed with Fr Waters.

I gave the example of a little girl Sally who comes to confession and tells me that she stole the jelly beans and that her stepfather did something nasty to her.

I said that I could never reveal or act upon Sally's confession of having stolen the jelly beans, but I could act on Sally's assertion about her stepfather in the same way as I could if the assertion were made outside confession.

It would be a matter of pastoral prudence and care for Sally and her family.

There was a difference of opinion on the panel, with the one bishop in attendance, Bishop Terence Curtin who was chair of the Bishops' Commission for Doctrine and Morals, varying his testimony to agree more with the position put by Fr Waters.

I put a suggestion:

Father Brennan: Could I suggest the appropriate course would be to have Bishop Terry's committee of the Bishops Conference put in a particular submission to you articulating what is the received theological view of the Catholic Church in Australia on the seal of the confessional?

Bishop Curtin: Yes.

The Chair: Will we get one view?

Bishop Curtin: Yes, you would.

Father Brennan: That's the advantage of a hierarchy, your Honour.

A panel of the most senior archbishops then appeared before the commission a fortnight later.

Like many, I expected that by then the bishops would have worked out a clear united position on the limits of the seal of confession.

They did not; they publicly disagreed.

The Royal Commission recommended new laws which would abolish the seal of confession.

Those laws have now been enacted.

The Royal Commission recommended that the Australian 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 the confessional".

Awaiting this clarification, I have as far as possible avoided hearing individual confessions, unsuccessfully proposing to our bishops that we be permitted more often to practise the communal third rite of reconciliation.

On Friday the bishops finally published the Holy See's response that the seal includes "all the sins of both the penitent and others known from the penitent's confession, both mortal and venial, both occult and public, as manifested with regard to absolution and therefore known to the confessor by virtue of sacramental knowledge." (2)

They would say that the seal covers Sally's disclosure that she was abused by her stepfather.

Australian Catholic priests now need to consider three possible scenarios.

Scenario one

What happens if a penitent, now an adult, discloses in confession that he or she when a child was sexually abused by an adult?

In confession, I would simply urge the adult penitent to report the past offence to the relevant civil authorities.

I would not take any further action.

I would not foresee any problem with my complying with the state law while at the same time honouring the seal of confession.

Scenario two

What happens if a child penitent discloses in confession that he or she has been sexually abused by a named or identifiable adult? (3)

I would treat that information in the same way as if it were disclosed to me outside confession.

I would take appropriate action to set in train any mandatory reporting requirements of the state.

This would not be a breach of the seal of the confession as I understood the seal to be when I was ordained a priest 35 years ago.

It would not be a breach of the seal of confession as I have understood it to be, on receipt of competent canonical advice which I had sought a number of times in the lead up to the royal commission.

If my action were now deemed by the Holy See to be a breach of the seal, resulting in my ex-communication, I would take heart that Australia's one canonised saint Mary MacKillop was excommunicated for a time.

In good conscience, I could take no other path.

Scenario three

What happens if a penitent confesses child sexual abuse?

I would honour the seal of confession. I would not disclose the abuse to anyone.

I would be prepared conscientiously to refuse to comply with the new civil law on the basis that: it works an unwarranted interference with freedom of religion; it is a law which, if anything, will render children less safe; and it is a law which is unenforceable as a prosecution could occur only if the child abuser disclosed to authorities their confession.

As Justice Kennedy of the US Supreme Court would say, this law "seems inexplicable by anything but animus toward the class it affects". (4)

In my 35 years as a priest when the civil law honoured the seal of the confession, I never had a paedophile confess his sin to me in confession.

Now that the legal privilege over the seal has been withdrawn, I think it all but inconceivable that any abuse will be confessed.

Criminal lawyers, family lawyers and investigative journalists, all of whom continue to enjoy a privilege of non-disclosure, are far more likely than a priest in the confessional to hear the details of such abuse.

The only detailed human rights assessment made of the withdrawal of the privilege from priests was by retired Justice Dodds-Streeton who conducted an inquiry for the ACT Government investigating compliance with the ACT Human Rights Act 2004 which is supposed to guarantee "the freedom to demonstrate (one's) religion or belief in worship, observance, practice and teaching, either individually or as part of a community and whether in public or private".

She concluded, "In our opinion, the imposition of an obligation to report child sexual abuse based on information obtained in or in connection with a religious confession is unlikely to result in many detections of, or successful prosecutions for, either child sexual abuse or breaches of the reporting obligation itself.

Where sexual abusers of children are Roman Catholics who would otherwise attend confession, they will probably avoid confession altogether; or alternatively, they may exploit the potential under the rite of confession prevalent in Australia to confess anonymously and non-specifically, in order to avoid disclosures that will lead to their detection or oblige the priest to report." (5)

If she had any experience of the Catholic rite of confession, she could have added that any penitent is likely to confess in such generic terms as to leave the confessor completely ignorant of all key details of any offence.

In future, I will do all I can to avoid ex-communication or breach of the civil law. But I will not put children at risk.

I urge our bishops and the participants at the forthcoming plenary council to consider changes to church law in Australia so as to enhance the protection of children and to make the sacrament of reconciliation more fit for purpose in a society which decries the scourge of child sexual abuse and which denies the prospect of rehabilitation of child sex offenders.

The Catholic Catechism notes: "The power to "bind and loose" connotes the authority to absolve sins, to pronounce doctrinal judgements, and to make disciplinary decisions in the Church." (6)

We need doctrinal judgements and disciplinary decisions which give the highest priority to the protection of innocent children.

Our bishops and the plenary council delegates should take as their starting point the Holy See's expressed desire to ‘spare no effort in collaborating with civil authorities to pursue every avenue to end the scourge of sexual abuse.'

Contrary to the received wisdom of our recent royal commission, I should add that I agree completely with the pastoral and prudential observation of the Holy See:

"It should be recalled also that the confessional provides an opportunity - perhaps the only one - for those who have committed sexual abuse to admit to the fact.

"In that moment the possibility is created for the confessor to counsel and indeed to admonish the penitent, urging him to contrition, amendment of life and the restoration of justice.

"Were it to become the practice, however, for confessors to denounce those who confessed to child sexual abuse, no such penitent would ever approach the sacrament and a precious opportunity for repentance and reform would be lost."

We all have a responsibility to confront and arrest the wickedness of child sexual abuse in our community and in our church.

We need to put children first.

We need to maintain the hope that every person is redeemable.

We must heed those words of Ezekiel:

If I tell the wicked, "O wicked one, you shall surely die",
and you do not speak out to dissuade the wicked from his way,
the wicked shall die for his guilt,
but I will hold you responsible for his death.
But if you warn the wicked,
trying to turn him from his way,
and he refuses to turn from his way,
he shall die for his guilt,
but you shall save yourself.

• Fr Frank Brennan SJ is the Rector of Newman College, Melbourne, a professor of law and the former CEO of Catholic Social Services Australia.
• Extract from homily, 6 September 2020.
  [1] Harrington, D. J. (2007). The Gospel of Matthew. (D. J. Harrington, Ed.) (Vol. 1, p. 272). Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press.[2] See https://www.catholic.org.au/images/Observations_of_the_Holy_See_to_the_Recommendations_of_the_Royal_Commission.pdf[3] Justice Dodds Stretton, Analysis Report: Implementation Of Royal Commission Into Institutional Responses To Child Sexual Abuse Recommendations Regarding The Reporting Of Child Sexual Abuse, With Implications For The Confessional Seal , 14 January 2019, notes at p. 79: ‘s 327(5) of the Crimes Act 1958 (Vic) and s 316A(2)(f) of the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW) provide for a defence if the victim of an alleged offence does not wish the information to be disclosed, provided that the alleged victim is over the age of 16 (under the Victorian offence) or 18 (under the New South Wales offence). The Victorian offence requires that the victim have capacity to make an informed decision about whether or not the information ought to be disclosed.'[4] Romer v. Evans, 517 U.S. 620 (1996) at 632[5] Justice Dodds Stretton, Analysis Report: Implementation Of Royal Commission Into Institutional Responses To Child Sexual Abuse Recommendations Regarding The Reporting Of Child Sexual Abuse, With Implications For The Confessional Seal, 14 January 2019, page 24

  [6] Catechism of the Catholic Church, #553, at https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P1L.HT

"Are you a priest? A Catholic priest?" the man asked Father Dan Beeman of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in the Virginia city of Newport News. Read more

Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Parish in Quezon City, Philippines had advertised the event would be available by livestream, and was set to take place on April 3.

On Thursday, the parish issued a retraction and an apology.

"Fr. Nelson wants to correct himself. General absolution cannot be given via online," said a statement issued by the parish.

"The penitent must be physically present— meaning, the priest who absolves and the penitent who receives the absolution must be in the same place," the statement clarified. Read more

Maybe, but maybe not, said Father Giorgio Giovanelli, a professor of canon law at Rome's Pontifical Lateran University and pastor of St Maria Goretti Parish in Fano, about 180 miles northeast of Rome.

Under Italy's lockdown regulations and according the advice of the Italian bishops' conference, Father Giovanelli said that when a parishioner comes for confession, he takes him or her into the sacristy.

Wearing a mask, as prescribed by the bishops' conference, Father Giovanelli stands in one corner of the room and the penitent stands in the corner diagonally opposite.

The sacristy, he told Catholic News Service March 17, is the only room big enough to guarantee that he can stand more than three feet away and guarantee the secrecy of the confession at the same time.

Father Giovanelli recently formed "Jurists for Pastoral Work", a group of canon lawyers and Catholic civil lawyers focused on the pastoral applications of church law.

Church law requires, in most cases, that the priest and penitent be physically present to each other.

The penitent states his or her sins out loud and expresses contrition for them.

The priest present, as the Catechism of the Catholic Church says, fulfils "the ministry of the Good Shepherd who seeks the lost sheep, of the good Samaritan who binds up wounds, of the father who awaits the prodigal son and welcomes him on his return, and of the just and impartial judge whose judgment is both just and merciful. The priest is the sign and the instrument of God's merciful love for the sinner."

Confession under lockdown is not ideal, Father Giovanelli said, but with most of his parishioners, it is possible to fulfil the church's requirements for the sacrament, even with the pandemic guidelines of the bishops' conference.

And, he said, he does not believe the conditions exist for the bishops to authorise the use of general absolution without individual confessions.

The practice, generally reserved for communities which will go many months without a priest and groups facing imminent danger of death, still requires a gathering of penitents requesting absolution.

In lockdown, he said, "I can't just go outside in the courtyard and make the sign of the cross and give the town absolution. Or you can't put a priest in front of the hospital" and do the same for those inside, whether or not they express a desire to be forgiven.

"It is one thing to stand before a large group of people who want forgiveness," he said, and another to do something impersonal, generic for a group of people who may not even know that it is happening.

But Father Giovanelli said he has two groups of parishioners who deserve special, extraordinary attention: the elderly - to whom an asymptomatic person could transmit the virus - and those in the hospital who have tested positive for COVID-19, are in isolation and in danger of death. Continue reading

His decision comes just five days after authorising priests in his diocese to do so.

Last week, Bishop Reinhold Nann told priests of his diocese that while they could not hold public Masses or religious services, they could hear sacramental confessions by telephone.

He felt the COVID-19 pandemic and obligatory social isolation in Peru should allow confessions to be heard this way.

Nann has since had to retract his decision, saying the of confessions by telephone "is annulled" in light of Vatican guidance.

That guidance called for "prudent measures to be adopted in the individual celebration of sacramental reconciliation, such as the celebration in a ventilated place outside the confessional, the adoption of a convenient distance, [and] the use of protective masks."

Nann said as the guidance "did not make mention of confession on the telephone," he changed his instructions.

Fr James Bradley, an assistant professor of canon law at The Catholic University of America, is says offering confession through the telephone wouldn't be right.

"The nature of confession, like all the sacraments, involves a personal and ecclesial encounter with Jesus Christ, who is the Word made Flesh.

"A virtual reality can never replace the reality of the incarnation. We can deepen our faith through watching a livestream of Mass, but we all know: it's not the same as being physically present," he saysA.

There are also practical issues that relate to the nature of the sacrament of confession, Bradley said.

For example, a telephone call or online meeting raises concerns about privacy, anonymity, and safeguarding.

Fr Thomas Weinandy, who is a member of the Vatican's International Theological Commission, says a "physical presence is absolutely needed for the validity of the enactment of the sacrament."

"The reason I say that is because the sacrament is the action of Christ performed by the minister, and for that action to take place, the priest and the penitent must be in communion with one another, in a physical manner."

He went on to explain this further:

"The sacraments flow from the Incarnation, and because of that, there has to be a bodily presence of the one who is enacting the sacrament, and the one who is receiving the sacrament. They're doing the sacrament together.

"The Incarnation sets the framework for the sacramental order. Sacraments by their very nature, are incarnational signs that effect what they symbolize and symbolize what they effect, and one must be a part of that sign and reality to participate in the sacrament," he said.

Source

• Catholic Herald
• Image: America Magazine

During the parish's normal 11:30-noon weekday confession times, penitents on their lunch breaks line up, often 20 people or more deep, for absolution and sacramental grace, before returning to work, or before attending the 12:10 p.m. Mass.

"It's a big ministry," Fr. Douglas Dietrich, the pastor of St. Mary's, told CNA.

"And then we have a lot of people who come by the door and call up and just want to go to confession; that's great."

"I always joked about how I should just put up a walk-up confessional" available outside his rectory office window, Dietrich told CNA.

These days, the usual daily confession lines would violate new state and federal coronavirus guidelines, which dictate that no more than 10 people should be gathered in any space.

To further complicate matters, the Diocese of Lincoln announced on Monday that public Masses would be suspended until further notice, also in an effort to combat coronavirus.

But Fr. Dietrich is not deterred.

What started out as a joke has now become a reality, in an effort to keep the sacraments available to Nebraska's Catholics during this uncharted time of restrictions on public gatherings.

"When we got the word that they were suspending all public liturgies and the churches were basically shut down, that was my first concern was - what about people who have to get to confession?"

Starting just one day after the new restrictions, Fr. Dietrich set up shop at his office window, and advertised the new set-up to his parishioners.

The line was a little shorter than usual, but Dietrich said he heard confessions until a little past noon.

Dietrich is not the only priest getting creative at this time of unprecedented closures of liturgies and churches in the United States and beyond.

Over the weekend, a photo circulated on social media of Fr. Scott Holmer of St. Edward the Confessor Catholic Church in Bowie, Md., offering drive-up confessions.

Holmer sat on a chair outside in the church parking lot, a safe six feet away from cars, which lined up behind traffic cones for the sacrament.

In a note on his parish website, Holmer said that while it was a "great sorrow" to be unable to offer public Mass, the "drive-through confessional" was one way he could offer sacraments to the people at this time. Continue reading

We are going to see a rerun of the show" The Seven Deadly Sins."

"Not again!" Jesus sighs

We sit in comfortable seats near the back of the theatre but even from a distance, the players look tired, more dead than deadly.

They were shuffling aimlessly around the stage.

Jesus yawns. "Which one is yours?"

I know I have to put the players in some order, so go up to the stage.

Yes, they are indeed, a sorry lot.

Pride is half asleep. Anger wants to be somewhere else. Lust offers a hopeful smile, but I put it to the back of the group. Lust always looks ridiculous in public.

Finally, I pull out Gluttony, make it stand at the front of the stage, and I go back to my seat.

My friend Jesus is not impressed. "Where are the real sins?" he asks.

They're all there," I wave my hand at the stage.

He shakes his head. "These are small self-indulgence. Where ate the big players?"

Big players? I don't know what that means.

He says, "It's a plot as old as humanity. The little characters are put out on the stage while the big players work behind the scenes, unnoticed."

"What big players?" I ask.

"Do you really want to know?"

"Yes, I do."

"I will mention two. They are hard to recognize because they usually wear the garments of virtue.

"The first big player is competition."

"Competition," I repeat.

"That is the dominator. Competition wants to be better than others." Jesus pauses. "I had this player in my own team."

I remember that Jesus taught equality. I remind him, "You said that he who would be first must come last and be servant of all."

"That didn't stop the competition amongst my followers." He looks thoughtful.

"What's the other big player?"

"Judgmental thinking. If competition is the dominator, Judgmental thinking is the divider."

"Haven't they both got good aspects?" I ask.

"Don't get me wrong," he says. "The human instincts for competition and judgment are meant to be self-directed. Applied to self, they can help spiritual growth. But people project them on others and create all kinds of wars."

"You said a lot in the gospels about love and peace," I tell him.

"That hasn't made much difference, either," he says. "People make judgments about folk they have never met, and situations they've never been in."

This makes me wonder where Competition and Judgmental thinking lurk in the Theatre of my Life.

I'm sure they're hiding somewhere backstage.

Jesus continues.

"Those two are big players, but they are not the biggest. They work for the biggest player which can't be called a sin.

In fact, the biggest player is actually absence."

"Absence?" I find myself repeating what I don't understand.

"Yes," he says. The bggest player is Ignorance. Once we know that all of creation is an aspect of God's loving presence, the notion of separation is impossible."

The word "ignorance "becomes huge.

I think of Jesus on the cross saying, "Father forgive them. they know not what they do."

And I feel close to tears.

But Jesus is now smiling. He stands. "That's enough for today."

I indicate the seven characters still waiting on the stage. "What about these?"

"Tell then to go home and sleep.

They look exhausted."

Then his smile expands to a grin.

"And you might tell Gluttony that I warmly remember his occasional company at table."

• Joy Cowley is a wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and retreat facilitator.

Father Patrick Baikauskas is director of Campus Ministry at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church on the campus of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. To better reach the faithful, he's launched what he calls a "confession to-go cart."

"If this is a really important sacrament let's show it," Baikauskas told WLFI News 18. "Let's get out where the people are, where the students are [and] take this golf cart out and do confessions on the go."

He added that while it was important to honor Catholic traditions, "we don't want to be traditionalists."

"We don't want to be so stayed and so off-putting that we get stuck in the traditions without recognizing how we can bring them to people in a new way," he said. Read more

It's been a precept of the church for centuries.

Penitents enter the booth to confess their sins and transgressions to a priest to receive spiritual comfort, advice and absolution.

A forgiving of the sin in the eyes of God's representative on Earth.

But not in Victoria Australia where legislation has been introduced to the state parliament which would effectively force priests to report suspected child abuse revealed to them in the confessional.

There are people in New Zealand who want to do this too.

Priests are obviously aghast at the idea.

Because under their laws any priest that does break the seal stands to be excommunicated. Thrown out of the church.

That's pretty heavy and so no wonder the Archbishop of Victoria has said that he would rather go to jail than break the confessional seal.

Under the legislation penalties of up to three years behind bars could apply for priests who are found to have knowingly concealed child abuse information.

Now I can see why someone in the legislature might see this as a good idea.

After all the safety of children in particular should be paramount and the Catholic Church has not covered itself with glory in field of sexual abuse, particularly of minors.

So if they're hearing about crimes then why shouldn't they be compelled to report that to the authorities.

But step back a second and think of the consequences.

Firstly if you, as a civilian, heard about a crime are you compelled to report it?

Of course not.

It's your personal decision to inform the authorities. But you don't face sentences if you choose to keep your silence. It's the flipside of freedom of speech which is the right to silence.

While a pedo or sexual offender may admit guilt to a priest, to get a conviction is going to take a lot more than that.

Evidence for a start.

The co-operation and bravery and testimony of the victim is needed. So confessional testimony will not be a silver bullet.

Meanwhile to confirm his testimony a priest would be required to appear in court to convey what he has heard in the confessional, which at it's basis is hearsay, a very weak form of evidence.

The priest is not an eyewitness nor has he heard an objective account of the alleged crimes. So it's not a strong addition towards the fight against abuse.

There's also the legal privilege that has traditionally been afforded to the confessional.

Similar to the privilege afforded to parliament.

In New Zealand the confessional privilege is enshrined in the Evidence Act. Continue reading

• Andrew Dickens is a broadcaster at NewstalkZB. He has worked around the world across multiple radio genres.
• Image: Stuff.co.nz

The decision has not played well with alleged victims of the group and their families.

"They are playing with our lives," said the mother of one of the victims to Crux April 4.

The mother, who wishes to remain anonymous to protect her underage daughter's identity, claims to have gone to confession with Father Orazio Caputo in the fall of 2017 where she spoke of her concerns for her daughter within the lay-led "Catholic Culture and Environment Association" (ACCA) in the southern Italian town of Acireale. Continue reading

The women's group says it has proposed the ban because information disclosed in confessions is being used to blackmail the women who confessed it.

There should be a federal inquiry into into complaints of rape and sexual assault involving priests, the group says.

Although the complaints have been laid against two priests from the Orthodox Syrian Church, the ban would also apply to the Catholic Church, the women's group says.

They announced their proposal after two priests were arrested for allegedly raping and blackmailing a woman for over 20 years.

At present, two more Syrian Orthodox priests are also being investigated in the southern state of Kerala.

"The priests pressure women into telling their secrets and we have one such case in front of us. There must be many more such cases and what we have right now is just a tip of the iceberg," commission chairwoman Rekha Sharma said.

The National Commission for Women's recommendation was made in a report to the government on sexual abuse in the church.

Church officials say the women's plan is unnecessary interference in religious affairs.

The Kerala Catholic Bishops Council said the demand hurts the religious sentiments of India's Christian minority.

"It is an attack on the Christian faith and spiritual practice. We strongly feel that the recommendation is unwarranted and violates the honour and credibility of the Christian community," a bishops' council spokesman said.

"We suspect communal and political motives behind this unconstitutional interference into the internal spiritual affairs of the Church."

Christianity is the third-biggest religion in India according to a 2011 census.

Christians make up 2.3 per cent of the 1.3 billion population, or about 28 million people.

Source

• Channel News Asia
• UCA News
• Image: IB Times

Mighty priests and saints were burned at the stake in the past for refusing to break that seal, so this is a heavy moment indeed for all of us.

Maybe ye should stop reading here at this point to not become even laterally complicit in MacConnell's. Those of you who are devoutly Catholic should take this suggestion seriously.

Anyway, for those of you still here, the context is that I also was devoutly Catholic and a regular Mass-goer until about 25 years ago when the frightening tide of scandals attached to my church began to surface in turgid waves.

It was a shock here in holy Ireland, for example, when it was revealed that both Bishop Eamon Casey and Father Michael Cleary, the hierarchy's brightest stars of the time, were biological fathers as well as priests sworn to celibacy.

They were both good and charming men and that was a minor enough matter on the scale of things.

Far worse was the pedophile epidemic amongst our clergy and the sinful attitude of our church leaders here in trying to hide that from the laity by moving offending priests from parish to parish, where they still had access to minors, instead of reporting their misdeeds to the police and having them all sent to jail pronto.

It was during that time I dropped away from the church in silent protest like so many more.

In the intervening years I frequently drop into chapels to quietly talk directly to my God about matters that concern me.

And to light a little candle for the welfare of those I love. Continue reading

• Cormac MacConnell is a veteran Irish writer and journalist.

One of its recommendations is that the states and territories "create a criminal offence of failure to report targeted at child sexual abuse in an institutional context".

If such an offence were created, those of us who work in an institution which cares for children would be required to report to police if we knew, suspected or should have suspected that another adult working in the institution was sexually abusing or had sexually abused a child.

Failure to report could result in a criminal conviction.

The commission notes: 'We acknowledge that if this recommendation is implemented then clergy hearing confession may have to decide between complying with the civil law obligation to report and complying with a duty in their role as a confessor.'

Being a priest and a lawyer, I welcome the recommendation of this new criminal offence in most instances, but I will continue to comply with my duty as a confessor.

The public, and not just my fellow Catholics, are entitled to know why.

I am one of those Australians who has been shocked and revolted by the revelations of child sexual abuse at the royal commission.

I had no idea that such abuse was so prevalent in our society.

I am one of those Catholics who is deeply ashamed and numbed by the statistics of abuse in my own Church and the failures, especially before 1996, to deal adequately with reports of abuse.

I welcome the royal commission's spotlight on our society and on my Church.

It is not surprising that the royal commission has looked closely at any distinctively Catholic practice, culture or tradition wondering whether it might be a contributing factor to abuse or cover-up.

Some Australians, including some members of the royal commission and their staff, have suspected that the Catholic practice of confession has contributed to abuse and cover up.

I don't think it has, and that's why I will continue to honour the seal of the confessional.

• Fr Frank Brennan SJ is the CEO of Catholic Social Services Australia.

This particular superpower is not the result of radioactive mutation or dark magic.

It has to do with his priesthood, but it is not the Holy Spirit, exactly.

It is the Sacrament of Reconciliation—or a side effect thereof.

It is hearing confessions.

Father Brown does not violate the seal of the confessional, thank goodness.

He never reveals what he is told.

But he can occasionally take a hint from privileged information that comes by way of a parishioner, something that helps him comprehend the goings-on of his community as no one else can. (He also benefits from a confessor's keen awareness of human frailty.)

In the stories, this is mainly for the good—more mysteries solved. But what good could be done if his superpower were shared more widely?

Confession: It's done and dusted

Confession has been falling out of use altogether.

There are various theories as to why; surely our need for repentance is not on the decline.

Some say it is because of an ego-centered culture that teaches people they can do no wrong.

Maybe that is part of it, but I think there are more charitable explanations, too.

For instance, many families have come to teach their children to communicate more on the basis of mutual respect than hierarchical roles. For their own safety, many people are also raised to avoid becoming too vulnerable among those with authority over them.

I know I find it easier to allow myself to be vulnerable when the people around me are on the same level and are vulnerable, too.

Compounding this, young people often face a daunting generation gap with priests in whom they are expected to confide.

It is not the priests' fault, but a lack of comfort with a priestly one-on-one could end up keeping people from the grace of the sacrament.

Rediscovering the sacrament

Perhaps it is time to explore ways of rediscovering the sacrament.

Perhaps confession deserves a wider repertoire.

The "reconciliation" we are talking about, remember, is not simply reconciliation with a priest.

We confess sins to seek forgiveness from God and realignment with the church, the community.

Christ entrusted the apostles with the keys to guide each other through the world and toward our God.

In the confessional, the priest represents this power, and he represents the community of the church.

One reason we confess to a person and not just to God in private prayer is to acknowledge our responsibility to set an example for fellow Christians, as best we can, of repentance and humility.

The Book of James instructs, "Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed."

The church is more than any one priest, but current practice inclines us to forget this. Continue reading

Throughout the hearings the Royal Commission has heard a number of perspectives on this issue.

For example, a priest (later jailed) said while continuing to abuse his victims he confessed his paedophilia several times.

When asked if that was the way he reconciled his actions with God, he said:

"Yes. Well I thought I was. I know that was very seriously flawed."

Another perspective came from a priest who heard the confession of another priest known to him.

"I gave absolution and, as he walked out the door, he laughed at me.

"In other words, he made sure that I couldn't speak to anyone. I felt totally entrapped by that situation."

Removing the confidentiality of the Catholic confessional box could stop paedophiles ever admitting to their crimes is the view of yet another priest.

However, Chief executive, of the Truth Justice and Healing Council, Francis Sullivan, says obligations to report child sexual abuse should not extend to divulging information in the confessional.

However he noted "If the royal commission recommends changing [the confessional] privilege laws ... and if governments change the law then priests like everybody else will need to either abide by the law and if they don't .... take the consequences."

Source

• The Guardian
• The Australian
• Image: famvin

The priest said that after confession started, the man pulled a gun out and pointed it before sitting down.

But the man issued no threats, the priest said.

"I've never done confession with somebody pointing a gun at me the whole time," the victim said.

The suspect is described as a white man in his late 20s.

His left nostril was pierced, and he has a tattoo of a cross on his left arm.

Continue reading

This was stated in an article by major penitentiary at Milan Cathedral, Msgr Fausto Gilardi, a translation of which was published on the Crux website.

In the article, he mentioned the reaction to a chapter titled "Accompanying, Discerning and Integrating Weakness" in the Pope's apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia.

"In some cases, linked to partial information in the press, there's been a ‘demand' for absolution, and thus confession is seen as a sort of passport towards the Eucharist," Msgr Gilardi wrote.

"The phenomenon has a certain urgency, since the time of First Communion and Confirmation is drawing near, and parents want to participate fully in the sacraments of Christian initiation for their children."

Among priests themselves, the question immediately came up: "What do we say? How do we act?"

"The questions clearly show the need for a common discernment within the presbyterate," Msgr Gilardi continued.

"Some priests, perhaps in a slightly rushed and efficiency-oriented way, have opened a ‘teller's window' for consultation, giving the idea that "any priest can quickly grant ‘exceptions'."

But the Monsignor quickly noted that "this is certainly not the model proposed by the apostolic exhortation".

"On the contrary, the Pope's text says that with ‘a pastor capable of acknowledging the seriousness of the matter before him, there can be no risk that a specific discernment may lead people to think that the Church maintains a double standard." (AL300)

Msgr Gilardi noted the document's repeated use of the phrase "path of discernment".

"The phrase immediately gets across the idea that there's a journey to undertake, and the timing and modes of that journey will vary from situation to situation."

Among other points the article discussed was the importance of a correctly formed conscience.

Msgr Gilardi concluded by stating: "The faithful have experienced the eagerness of pastors who aren't called to impose a norm, but to lift up the value expressed through that norm, carrying in a real sense the ‘smell of the sheep'."

Sources

• Crux
• Catholic Herald
• Image: Layover Guide