Australian state premier Daniel Andrews, is lashing out at the Catholic Church over claims it was not consulted about proposed laws forcing priests to report child abuse disclosed in confessionals. 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 Read more
Melbourne’s Archbishop Peter Comensoli says he would rather go to jail than report admissions of child sexual abuse made in confession. 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 Read more
In a last-minute twist, a California bill that would have required priests to break the sacramental seal of confession was shelved by its sponsor amid a remarkable grassroots campaign mounted by the state’s Catholics, members of other faith groups, and religious liberty advocates from across the country. S.B. Bill 360 was withdrawn the day before Read more
As California is currently embroiled in a battle over whether to punish priests for not breaking the seal of confession in cases when child abuse is revealed, the Vatican has issued a statement reaffirming the “inviolability” of the confidentiality of confession, and saying political pressure in this regard is a breach of religious liberty. “Every Read more
A Church of England (C of E) working party says the Archbishops’ Council and House of Bishops must decide if C of E church law should change so priests can breach the seal of confession. The working party’s focus was on whether the law could be changed to enable priests to report the abuse, or Read more
If priests are forced to violate the confessional seal, no religion is safe a Dominican priest says. 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, Read more
The President of the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference Archbishop Mark Coleridge said at a press conference last Friday that priests will not break the seal of confession, even if that means they might face criminal charges. “We don’t believe it will make children safer, and in certain cases, we think it could make children less safe. Read more
More thought is needed before passing a law requiring priests in Australia to break the confessional seal to report cases of child sex abuse, says Victoria’s attorney general Martin Pakula. 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. Read more
Catholic priests say they will face jail rather than break the seal of confession to report child sex abuse. 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, Read more
A new law requiring priests to break confession seal is ‘premature and ill-judged’, says Australian Catholic Bishops Conference president Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge. 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 Read more