Laws requiring Catholic priests to break the seal of confession in some cases have been passed by the Australian Capital Territory’s Legislative Assembly in Canberra. The new laws expand the Reportable Conduct Scheme governing allegations of child abuse and misconduct to include religious organisations. The legislation makes it illegal for priests to fail to report Read more
Lawyers representing sexual abuse victims in the United Kingdom say sexual abuse crime reporting should be mandatory. This would mean priests hearing confessions from abuse perpetrators would have to break the seal of the confessional. The lawyers have told Britain’s Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) that failing to make reporting suspected abuse a 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
The Anglican Communion has demonstrated, yet again, how eager it is to keep up with changing times. In line with society’s greater recognition of the devastation wrought by child sexual abuse, a recent Synod has sought to remove any impediment to good professional practice and individual conscience by allowing individual priests to report on serious Read more
Priests in Ireland are now legally obliged to break the Confessional Seal and report the sexual abuse of children, reports The Tablet. The change was confirmed by Ireland’s Justice Minister Alan Shatter who said the laws were intended to encourage every individual to report abuse, and it would apply to priests in the confessional. Shatter Read more
A priest in Londonderry has said he would be prepared to go to jail rather than break the seal of confession.
Father Paddy O’Kane was responding to the Irish justice minister, Alan Shatter, who said that forthcoming child protection measures, will “apply regardless of any internal rules of any religious grouping”.
A priest could be convicted of a criminal offence if they were told of a sexual abuse case and failed to report it to the civil authorities, under the new legislation.
Read the article...
A proposed law change by Australian Independent Senator, Nick Xenophon, requiring priests to disclose the sins of penitents, has been dismissed by Fr Brian Lucas, Secretary of the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference. “His proposal does nothing to protect children and flies in the face of a fundamental right of people to practice their religion,” Father Read more