Australia: A bill to force priests to break the Seal of Confession

After I posted the story on a legislative attempt in Ireland to force priests to break the Seal of Confession, I had a few emails suggesting that I was panicking, that such a thing would never happen, that this was an isolated instance of people in anger lashing out, etc…

A reader sent a story from The Courier Mail in Australia.

Nick Xenophon urges government to force priests to report confessions of child abuse
From: AAP
July 21, 2011 7:29PM

THE federal government is being urged to follow the lead of Ireland and force priests to report confessions of child abuse to the authorities.

Ireland has announced it will change the law so that Catholic clerics will be prosecuted if they don’t report crimes disclosed during confession.

It follows outrage there over the long-running cover-up of child sex abuse cases within the Church.

Independent senator Nick Xenophon said Australia should legislate accordingly, and argued it was unacceptable for priests to hide behind religious practice.

“There is no contest when it comes to protecting the innocence of a child or maintaining a religious practice,” he told reporters in Canberra today.

“Why should someone be absolved of their sins … when it comes to child abuse because they’ve got a pat on the back from their priest?”  [What an ignorant and evil thing to say.]

Senator Xenophon introduced a private bill on the same matter when he was a member of the South Australian parliament in 2003, but it wasn’t backed by the big parties.

He said it was time for the government to stop the confessional being abused and denied a suggestion it would only prevent criminals from telling all to their priests.

Mark my words, dear readers.  Times are changing, and I hope you are ready for those changes.

This sort of thing is going to increase in frequency and ferocity.

My fear is that the Catholic identity of so many Catholics has been eroded to the point that they will either a) not understand why these attacks should be resisted or b) not have the will to resist them.

St. John Nepomuk, pray for us.