New Australian law requires priests to break confessional seal

Chrystal-J said:

Melbourne, Australia, Sep 12, 2019 / 12:37 pm (CNA).- A law passed in the Australian state of Victoria on Tuesday would require priests to violate the seal of confession if anything in the confession gave them reason to suspect occurrences of child abuse. The new law carries a sentence of up to three years in prison if a mandatory reporter does not report abuse to the authorities.

The law adds religious leaders to the existing list of mandatory reporters. Unlike in other countries with similar laws and policies, reports of child abuse made in a sacramental context are not exempt and must be reported.

Link: New Australian law requires priests to break confessional seal

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I guess cardinal Pell will soon have some priests to hang out with him. Reminds me of the priests in the Nazi concentration camps. A new kind of monasticism.

Australia sucks.

Chrystal-J said:

Melbourne, Australia, Sep 12, 2019 / 12:37 pm (CNA).- A law passed in the Australian state of Victoria on Tuesday would require priests to violate the seal of confession if anything in the confession gave them reason to suspect occurrences of child abuse. The new law carries a sentence of up to three years in prison if a mandatory reporter does not report abuse to the authorities.

The law adds religious leaders to the existing list of mandatory reporters. Unlike in other countries with similar laws and policies, reports of child abuse made in a sacramental context are not exempt and must be reported.

Link: New Australian law requires priests to break confessional seal

Click to expand...

"Confessors" will simply go to other cities to get around being reported to law enforcement.
I hope, though,, that the frequency of child molesting is impacted.

This is just another move from our secular society to dismantle any authority of the church.
It joins things like making false allegations about priests, forcing churches to wed gay couples, forcing Christian schools to hire gay teachers, forcing Christian schools to teach LGBT issues and convicting priests of criminal offences without a fair trial.

Chrystal-J said:

Melbourne, Australia, Sep 12, 2019 / 12:37 pm (CNA).- A law passed in the Australian state of Victoria on Tuesday would require priests to violate the seal of confession if anything in the confession gave them reason to suspect occurrences of child abuse. The new law carries a sentence of up to three years in prison if a mandatory reporter does not report abuse to the authorities.

The law adds religious leaders to the existing list of mandatory reporters. Unlike in other countries with similar laws and policies, reports of child abuse made in a sacramental context are not exempt and must be reported.

Link: New Australian law requires priests to break confessional seal

Click to expand...

This is impossible to enforce so I wouldn't worry much if I were a priest or a layman down there.

The priests won't oblige. One danger that I see as a possibility though is is if someone specifically wants to make trouble for a particular priest or the church in general, by making a false confession, and then waiting to see if it gets disclosed to the police or not.

Phil W said:

"Confessors" will simply go to other cities to get around being reported to law enforcement.
I hope, though,, that the frequency of child molesting is impacted.

Click to expand...

We dont have a particular problem with pedophilia in our church, what we do have is a problem with homosexuality. To make it sound as if our church is molesting children is a lie and a tool to further undermine our integrity in moral questions etc.
There are strong fractions within the church, among the prelates that welcome this false narrative as they endorse homosexuality themselves.
There are statistically very few incidents where the victims were prepubescent.
It's mostly postpubecent men that are targeted out by these traitors of our Lord our holy mother church.

If we dealt properly with modernism and heterodoxy amongst our prelates and priests then I'm confident that this filth would cease to torment our church.

Bob Crowley said:

The priests won't oblige. One danger that I see as a possibility though is is if someone specifically wants to make trouble for a particular priest or the church in general, by making a false confession, and then waiting to see if it gets disclosed to the police or not.

Click to expand...

Wow, sounds like Australia is moving closer to communist China.