Statists Want to Force Priests to Reveal Confessions

By Selwyn Duke

First there were efforts to compel Catholic hospitals to perform abortions. Now statists in some nations want to force priests to violate the confidentiality of confession for, ostensibly, the purpose of uncovering sexual abuse. Adam Shaw at American Thinker provides some background and then explains the recent proposals, writing:

[O]ne of the most important aspects of confession is what is known as the seal of confession. The seal means that the priest who hears confessions is bound by church law on pain of both mortal sin and latae sententiae excommunication (a type of excommunication that can be removed only by the Holy See) not to reveal by word or action any of your confession. This basically means that any priest revealing any part of any confession is essentially committing spiritual hara-kari [sic].

…The seal of confession is something that has been attacked in many ways for centuries, from monarchs claiming it to be a cover for treason to communists claiming it can be a cover for spies to the modern-day trend of trying to blame it for the spread of child abuse within the Church. In Australia, parts of mainland Europe and most recently in Ireland, there have been strong moves to pass laws that would force priests to reveal confessions they may have heard from accused sex abusers.

While a sincere person certainly could believe that some secrets are so dark that light must be shone upon them, it’s hard to escape the conclusion that the proposed laws are motivated by anti-Christian bias. After all, therapists and attorneys also maintain confidentiality — even after hearing the confession of crimes — in their cases with their clients. So why is the priest-penitent relationship the only one targeted?

Read the rest here.

Comments

[Dale]

I don’t believe that most abusers believe that they are doing nothing wrong. At some level they know darn well what they are doing is wrong. How far do you think it would fly on judgment day when they tried to tell our Lord that they didn’t know what they were doing was sin?

Selwyn, one other nitpick; I think many states do require therapists to report certain classes of crimes. Maybe I’m wrong about this but I seem to remember thinking at the time that this was a mistake. It had to do with parents seeking help with child abuse.

[Lurker]

"Selwyn, one other nitpick; I think many states do require therapists to report certain classes of crimes."

I thought the rule was worded such that if the therapist believed a crime of any sort was being committed they had to contact authorities.