Child sexual abuse and the seal of confession
by Joseph Shaw, The Critic:
New legislation will not help children.
The Report of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) published in October recommends “mandatory reporting” of child sexual abuse, explicitly including under this requirement the breaking of the seal of the confession: that is, revealing things disclosed during the Sacrament of Penance, something considered so serious for Catholic priests that it leads to automatic excommunication. The Report’s recommendation follows similar moves in parts of Australia: the states of Victoria and Western Australia have passed laws seeking to oblige priests to disclose the content of confessions if these include allegations of child sexual abuse.
It is difficult to avoid the impression that Australian state legislators and the IICSA, like the Australian Royal Commission before it, are more concerned with striking a pose than with the practicalities of child safeguarding. Their highlighting of the seal confession, implicated in precisely zero cases of child sexual abuse around the world, is reminiscent of their grandstanding demands during their gathering of evidence to see persons and documents from the Holy See, without bothering with official channels.
This will be music to the ears of sex abusers
As the IICSA Report acknowledges, the idea of a legal obligation of “mandatory reporting” of child sexual abuse encompasses a wide range of options. No jurisdiction imposes this obligation on everyone. Instead, it is attached to defined categories of persons, such as the police, social workers, those “working with children” or “in a position of trust”, however these might be defined. Then there is the question of the circumstances in which the obligation arises: from mere suspicion, the possession of clear evidence, or actual knowledge. Finally, there is the issue of to whom the report should be made. It should be noted at the outset, therefore, that there is no reason in principle why priests as a group, or confession as an institution, could not be excluded from the scope of the proposed law.
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