An Italian magazine report which sought to prove that what some priests tell Catholics in the confessional is not always what the Church preaches in public has enraged the Vatican.To write the cover story in this week’s L’Espresso, reporter Riccardo Bocca visited 24 churches in five large Italian cities and confessed sins he never committed or invented ethical dilemmas for the priest.
In one confessional in Naples he told the priest he felt guilty over his father’s death after the family allowed a doctor secretly to detach a respirator. The father had for years been paralysed, confined to a bed and unable to breathe autonomously.Although euthanasia is officially condemned by the Church, the priest told him not to worry too much because God would be the ultimate arbiter.“If I had a wife, a father or a son who for years was alive only because of artificial life support, I would pull the plug too,” said the priest, who then gave him absolution.
In another confessional box, he faked being HIV positive and was told by a priest that whether or not he used a condom in order not to pass the virus to the woman he loved was “a very personal matter of conscience”.The Church teaches officially that abstinence and monogamy - not condoms - are the best way to stop the spread of Aids.The author said the article was a piece of investigative reporting, but the Vatican reacted with scathing vehemence.
An editorial in the Vatican’s newspaper, l’Osservatore Romano, said the report had “profaned” the sacrament of Penance, also known as Reconciliation, in the name of “an ignoble scoop”.Bocca said it was not his intention to show disrespect for the Catholic Church or its sacraments. “What I wanted to show was the difficulties facing these priests as they try to carry out their duties in good conscience,” he said. “The differences I found were shocking even to me.”
Apart from abortion - which all 24 priests unanimously condemned - he received conflicting advice on moral issues such as divorce, stem-cell research and prostitution.
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