Friday, July 15, 2011

Ireland attacks confessional secrecy after Catholic sex abuse scandal | FaithWorld

In an article from Reuters, they are contending that the Irish Prime Minister wants to revoke the right of secrecy for priests in the confessional. This is obviously a major violation of religious freedom in the country. All over the world, laws are in place giving a priest special permission to withhold information disclosed during a confession.

Forcing a priest to reveal information given in a confessional will fall flat on its face for a number of reasons.

1) People tell priests all of their sins. Part of the reason they are so open and honest is that they know they're not going to be ratted out to the police if they've done something wrong. If the secrecy was threatened, people would just avoid going to the priest to confess their sins. They would probably wait until they were in another place where the secrecy was maintained.

2) A priest is under oath to never reveal anything heard in a confessional, EVER. There are no exceptions to this rule. Even if his life is threatened, he cannot spill the beans on a penitent's sins. Therefore, no threat from the government or anyone else will make priests break this commitment. If they do, they will be defrocked and only the priests who can keep a secret will remain in ministry.

3) A priest, upon hearing about a serious crime, can advise a penitent to go to the police. He can hold a penitent to this promise or withhold absolution if he does not. Therefore, the priest often will act in favor of the police. However, by not enforcing secrecy, penitents won't even make the first step and so the priest will have no influence.

4) The connection between a priest and a penitent is very intimate. A person tells the priest his innermost thoughts, things he would tell no one else. Forcing a priest to repeat what he hears in a confessional is the same as forcing a person to reveal their thoughts or feelings under threat of penalty. This kind of thing only happens in barbaric states.

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Many priests have met their end refusing to disclose a confession to some authority, including Fr. Andreas Faulhaber, Fr. Francis Vernon Douglas, St. John Nepomuk, and many others. If you know of other priests in this situation, please list them in the comments. We join our prayers to their that the persecution of the Church ends.

Here is the article for more information:

Ireland attacks confessional secrecy after Catholic sex abuse scandal | FaithWorld

6 comments:

  1. Brilliant. Kudos, Ireland.

    There is no question that the Catholic church has been raping children for decades, covering it up, lying about it, and ignoring the victims.

    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.

    That makes them an organized crime empire as much as a religious institution.

    They should start losing benefits, like "the loophole of confession", since they have long lost respect and trust.

    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.

    Brilliant solution, Ireland.

    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. Next up - taxing the church.

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  2. "We join our prayers to their that the persecution of the Church ends"
    REALLY
    The catholic church invented persecution!!!!!!!!! Look up your history book. responsible for witch trials, death of protestants during reformation in europe WHERE THEY BURNT SCOTTISH PEOPLE ALIVE AT THE STEACK, the spanish inquisition, the massacre of south american natives, the crusades, personally blamed jews for the death of jesus which led to jewish people being persecuted all over europe for centuries, the vile rape and extreme violence often death shown to "fallen women" and orphans in their institutions all over the world especially in Ireland, their appalling treatment of homosexuals, their continuing disregard for putting child safety above their "holy mother church". Their continuing ban an their flock using a simple latex sheath over their penises in countries the world over especially in africa where the AIDS is still spreading rapidly and people die every day

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  3. let me see did i get everybody? is their any group of people the vatican have not prosecuted? did i leave anyone out? oh i forgot the cover up after cover after cover lies lies lies..... Also the Irish have an extra special reason to have no regard to give this corrupt church anymore chances , in 1169 the only ever english pope gave england permission to invade IRELAND and take possession of it.. so that they could finally make ireland roman catholic enough to control it, this lead to nearly 800 yrs of death, cronwell, millions dead in famines, prosecution of irish catholics in their own land, subjugation, extreme poverty under the wealthy british ruling classes in their own country and war, a war that still rages on and off to this very day. All because the "holy mother church" thinks it has some divine right to do what it likes and simply "give" a whole country to whoever it choses.
    seeing as the Roman church as at one time or another offended EVERYBODY ,i'm not surprised no one cares anymore. watch out RCC first ireland wakes up and than the rest of europe followed by the USA, your time in the civilized world is over all you'll have left is s.america and africa. who will you prosecute next???

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  4. Jesus Christ said 'render unto Caesars what is Caesars'. You will note that Caesar in his sentance comes first NOT God! Paul also said that to submit to the civil authority that is over you because that too exists by God's grace. It is now about time given that this poxy organisation has failed again and again to put its house in order that it obeys its founders and not its stupid internal made up rules not mentioned anywhere in the Bible. To this end the State has acted to protect given the Church won't and has failed. Window dressing and lip service is all they are interested in. If they want to play at being Catholics and not Christians let them go back to Catholisland... The Vatican. These clerics think they are above the law NOT ANYMORE. Enough is enough from these poxy bastards. May they burn in Hell from the Pope down.

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  5. There are a lot of bad people in the Catholic Church, as there are in every organization. One difference is; when the President of Enron was sent to jail in disgrace every investor did not take their money out, never to invest again.

    Jesus Christ founded the Catholic Church and the, as he said, the gates of hell will not prevail against it. The Catholic Church is where all Truth is found because it was instituted by Christ. The Truth is not a thing it is a Person and his name is Jesus Christ. Those how deny the Catholic Church Denies Christ Himself.

    If it weren't so sad it would be funny how some people damn the Catholic Church to hell when they do not believe in hell in the first place.

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  6. It's so sad to see the absence of Love here... Do you all feel you are so free to throw the first stone? Are you in fact better off without God in your lives? Free to live without consequence or fault of any sort? Can your conscience truly find peace without God? For the Church is not at fault here, MAN IS! Priests must answer to God and People Must Answer to God. The Church IS God's House! How are YOU helping to keep it that way? God's House represents the COMMUNITY. A Community that PRAYS TOGETHER in UNITY! Prays for it's leaders and it's followers. Oh but wait a minute, you are all too busy... I'm sorry, you all have better things to do. But you all took time to put in your 2 cents!!!

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