The South Australian Catholic Church says it has been blindsided by news that Priests will have to report child abuse revealed to them in the Confessional.
Beginning October 1, South Australia will become the first state where Priests will be legally obliged to report any Sacramental confession of child sex abuse. If they do not, they could receive a $10,000 fine.
Acting Archbishop of Adelaide Greg O'Kelly said the Church was "unaware of this change" until today "and the implications are now being considered".
New child protection laws passed last year — but made public today by the state's Attorney-General — removed an exemption for Priests from mandatory reporting when the information was divulged during Confession.
The Attorney-General, Vickie Chapman, revealed the change ahead of the State Government releasing its full response to the Royal Commission into Child Sex Abuse.
While Priests have been mandatory reporters outside of Confession for more than a decade in South Australia, Bishop O'Kelly said the new law "has much wider implications for the Catholic Church and the practice of our faith".
Priests are bound by the Seal of the Confessional to not reveal what they are told or face automatic excommunication.
"Our commitment in South Australia to child protection and child safe environments is unwavering," Bishop O'Kelly said in a statement.
"Our priests are well aware of their obligations to report child abuse and neglect under mandatory reporting laws and have been participating in regular and compulsory child protection training since 2007, as have all our church employees and volunteers."
But, the Attorney General said mandatory reporting was so important, including in Confession, because abuse usually occurred in secret "unless a responsible adult acts". "The protection of children the public expect must be superior to any other interest," she said.
Ms Chapman said other states in the country should follow South Australia's lead.
When asked on ABC Radio Adelaide how a Priest might be caught breaking the law, Ms Chapman said it would be similar to other mandatory reporting failures, in that it would most likely be revealed if the accused admitted telling a Priest.
In addition, the Attorney General announced that the State Government plans to remove statutory time limits that prevent victims from suing the institutions where they were abused. "In essence, at the moment, when a child turns 21, they can't make a claim after that age — that is three years after they're 18," Ms Chapman said. "We want to remove that for all child sex abuse victims."
Port Pirie Bishop O'Kelly was named Apostolic Administrator of the Adelaide Archdiocese earlier this month after Archbishop Philip Wilson became the most senior Catholic to be convicted of concealing child sex abuse.
A magistrate said he did not accept that Bishop Wilson could not remember a 1976 conversation, in which a victim described his abuse at the hands of Father Jim Fletcher.
Ms Chapman said he would have already been obliged to mandatory reporting in South Australia since he was told by a victim.
About 300,000 South Australians are Catholic, according to the Census.
This blatant attack against the inviolability of the Confessional by the State Government of South Australia should not have come as a surprise to the Church in the wake of the hysteria and furor over the scandals that have revealed a culture of corruption and cover-up by Bishops and Clergy throughout the country.
The South Australian government may be the first to attack the Seal of the Confessional. It won’t be the last.
I fully expect these attacks against the Sacrament to be repeated elsewhere including here in the United States.
If the Bishops and the People of God do not stand against this intrusion into the sacrosanct secrecy of the Confessional, then the Faith is lost.
Could anyone have imagined the depth to which the sanctity of the Church has fallen as a result of widespread homosexual predatory attacks upon minors by its Clergy!
Father John Taugher, my mentor in College Seminary, said that the Church and her Priests would suffer severe persecution in my lifetime. I really didn't believe his warnings would prove true. How foolish I was!
Only the Providential Grace of the Holy Spirit can come to the rescue of our battered and beleaguered Church.
Come, Holy Spirit, come!
No comments:
Post a Comment