Jail the arseholes!

[JimC]

Confessional bullshit more important to priests than protecting children: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-16/c ... se/9877526

Catholic priests have said they are not willing to break the seal of confession to report child sex abuse, and would rather go to jail than abide by the law.

South Australia has joined the ACT in moving ahead with laws to force Catholic priests to break the seal of confession, to report paedophiles to police.

Other states are still deliberating over whether or not they will adopt that recommendation from the royal commission.

But Catholic Church leaders have rejected the idea.

Father Michael Whelan, the parish priest in St Patrick's Church Hill in Sydney, said priests would not break the seal of confession.

"The state will be requiring us as Catholic priests to commit as what we regard as the most serious crime and I'm not willing to do that," Father Whelan said.
The New South Wales Government has said it would respond later this month about whether priests would be legally obliged to report confessions of child sex abuse.

"I expect every jurisdiction in Australia now will follow that recommendation and I expect the church throughout will simply not observe it?" Father Whelan said.

Asked if the Catholic Church was above the law, he said: "Absolutely not, but when state tries to intervene on our religious freedom, undermine the essence of what it means to be a Catholic, we will resist."

"The only way they [the states] would be able to see whether the law was being observed or not is to try and entrap priests."

Father Whelan said he was "willing to go to jail" rather than abide by a law.

Hope that, if some do the catholic martyr thing, they get to share a cell with a large tatted bikie with childhood abuse issues...

[Rum]

It really is not that far removed from the mental outlook that allowes Jihadists to blow up people in the name of god.

Another bit of evidence that belief in god can be innately evil.

[Brian Peacock]

Is it not a crime to not report a crime? The votaries of Papism don't get to pick and choose which laws they honour or ignore any more than the rest of us do - unless they're specifically granted that privilege in law of course.

[Svartalf]

to them, the secret of confession is absolute, if they start acting on, disseminating, or reporting on what they hear, nobody will confess anymore and all mankind will be doomed to eternal damnation for not seeking absolution of their sins. to them, betraying the secret of confession is the the greater crime.

[JimC]

to them, the secret of confession is absolute, if they start acting on, disseminating, or reporting on what they hear, nobody will confess anymore and all mankind will be doomed to eternal damnation for not seeking absolution of their sins. to them, betraying the secret of confession is the the greater crime.

They have imbued the confessional with the sacred, a perfect example of fanatical and delusional absolutism that trumps any real-world ethical analysis...

Suffer the little children indeed...

[Rum]

Is it not a crime to not report a crime? The votaries of Papism don't get to pick and choose which laws they honour or ignore any more than the rest of us do - unless they're specifically granted that privilege in law of course.

The confessional is pretty much inviolable. In fact the punishment for breaking the confessional is excommunication (no bad thing one might think...)The link explains the rules: http://catholicstraightanswers.com/can- ... y-priests/

However here is a discussion about what might happen in the case of child abuse being confessed. http://canonlawmadeeasy.com/2008/12/04/ ... onfession/

It suggests ways around the rules, for example, it suggests, if the persona is fully repentant then they might not be a risk in future (lol!). Another approach might be to offer to go to the police with the confessing person to support them, Yet another to speak with them outside the confessional ritual. Yet another to warn the police without naming names or indicating the identity of the person.

All bullshit of course.

[Brian Peacock]

All bullshit. The confessional shouldn't be a place beyond the reach of the law. I propose putting cameras and microphones in all confessional boxes - it can't be a violation of personal privacy when God is watching everything you do and hearing everything you think anyway.

[Rum]

Yeah - you'd think god would turn the pedos over to the cops if he cared that much.

[Joe]

Or the priest would tell them to turn themselves in as their penance, and being good Catholics, they'd do it.

[Svartalf]

Well, if they were good catlickers, they would refrain from doing such horrible sins in the first place, thinking about it and not doing it grants you brownie point in the confessional... not in fact, since thinking of sinning is the same as actually doing it (there's a passage in NT where Jesus says as much, Matt 5. 21-27), but if you refrain and confess, you're good.

[laklak]

Maybe they compare notes.

[Brian Peacock]

Tory MP who blocked upskirting bill says he was scapegoated.

[Rum]

Tory MP who blocked upskirting bill says he was scapegoated.

Rong thred maight.

[Brian Peacock]

D'oh¡¡¡

[JimC]

Up cassocks?