The seal of confession is “above and beyond all else” and should not
be broken even if a penitent confesses to a crime, a member of the
Association of Catholic priests said today.
PJ Madden said the
seal was a very sacred thing as people did not come to the confession
box as criminals but rather seeking forgiveness and an opportunity to
have a change of heart.
He was speaking after Minister for Justice Alan Shatter outlined legislation following the publication of the Cloyne report which would result in a prison sentence of up to five years for people who fail to report an arrestable offence against a child or vulnerable adult, even if heard in confession.
Fr Madden said he would strongly urge and appeal to the penitent - whether a priest or anyone else - to go and confess their crime to the gardaí and have the civil aspect dealt with but that he did not approve of the idea of reporting what was said.
“If I'm breaking the law then somebody has to find a way to address that for me,” he told RTÉ News at One. “But in my own right as a priest what I understand is the seal of confession is above and beyond all else.”
Questioned if the seal of confession was above the law of the land, Fr Madden said: “Yes. I cannot presume to break that seal if someone comes to me as a penitent”.
“I don't mean to be simplifying…but the seal of confession is a very sacred seal for lots of different reasons way beyond this one single issue, however serious this one single issue is.”
He was speaking after Minister for Justice Alan Shatter outlined legislation following the publication of the Cloyne report which would result in a prison sentence of up to five years for people who fail to report an arrestable offence against a child or vulnerable adult, even if heard in confession.
Fr Madden said he would strongly urge and appeal to the penitent - whether a priest or anyone else - to go and confess their crime to the gardaí and have the civil aspect dealt with but that he did not approve of the idea of reporting what was said.
“If I'm breaking the law then somebody has to find a way to address that for me,” he told RTÉ News at One. “But in my own right as a priest what I understand is the seal of confession is above and beyond all else.”
Questioned if the seal of confession was above the law of the land, Fr Madden said: “Yes. I cannot presume to break that seal if someone comes to me as a penitent”.
“I don't mean to be simplifying…but the seal of confession is a very sacred seal for lots of different reasons way beyond this one single issue, however serious this one single issue is.”
Brilliant. Kudos, Ireland.
ReplyDeleteThere is no question that the Catholic church has been raping children for decades, covering it up, lying about it, and ignoring the victims. Its worse in Ireland than in a lot of places.
They can't be trusted to protect society from their own pedophiles, and for a long time, the laws of the land allowed the church to get away with that. The church shamelessly, recklessly, sinfully abused that power - not as individuals, but as a coordinated, organized whole.
Pedophile priests proved that confession gave them the capability to rape children as long as they ran to confession afterwards. Some in the US in Philadelphia had sex with children in confessional. That's convenient. If you close that loophole, and the priest knows that he has to confess or go to hell after he rapes a child, he has a big dilemma.
Pedophiles - want forgiveness from God? Go to prison on earth. You don't get the benefit of God's forgiveness for free. Priests - want to hide your pedophile priest friend? You go to jail, too.
Enact the law. Let's hope the US follows suit. The Catholic church concealed child rape for at least 60 years. Let's let the government shut down the pedophile protection practices.