What’s said in the confessional stays in the confessional. 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 Read more
A long-awaited ecclesiastical trial for a priest who allegedly broke the seal of confession to inform members of a controversial lay group in Italy of a police investigation of their leader for sexual abuse of minors has been postponed indefinitely. The decision has not played well with alleged victims of the group and their families. Read more
Church leaders are resisting India’s National Commission for Women’s call to ban confessions. 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 Read more
By the time ye are reading this I will possibly be roasting eternally already in the hottest corner of hell for having dreadfully broken the centuries-old sacred tradition of the Seal of Confession of the Catholic Church. Mighty priests and saints were burned at the stake in the past for refusing to break that seal, Read more
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has published a 2000-page three volume Criminal Justice Report. 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 Read more
In the BBC remake of G. K. Chesterton’s Father Brown mystery novels, the intrepid title character sometimes makes use of certain special knowledge when sleuthing crimes. 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 Read more
Whether what is heard in confession stays in confession is being considered by the Australian Royal Commission investigating sexual abuse. 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 Read more
A priest reportedly heard a man’s confession at gunpoint in an Ohio church on June 11. 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 Read more
Early reaction to Pope Francis’s recent document on family life has seen some divorced and remarried Catholics demanding absolution at an Italian cathedral. 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 Read more
Pope Francis has reportedly promised to extend indefinitely his recognition of Confessions heard by priests of the traditionalist Society of St Pius X. Last September, Francis decreed that during the Holy Year of Mercy, anyone who confesses their sins to an SSPX priest will be considered validly forgiven. Now, SSPX superior Bishop Bernard Fellay has Read more