Perhaps we could allow the seal of the confessional to remain, but on one simple condition. The church adopts the following policy:

The penitent, having confessed the sin of sexual abuse of a child to a priest, will be absolved of their sin only after making a full confession to the police and pleading guilty to the charges in court.

The seal of the confessional? And appropriate in any religion founded by Constantine or his minions

Which it is where alleged Christians got it from. Not from Jesus who said, suffer little children to come unto me!

Any church or religion that protects, this? Why? Because it's been priests and clergy, who have been the worst offenders and a case of birds of a feather flocking together and protecting the offenders from justice.

Time for this manmade BS to be ditched, to be replaced with folk owning up or be given up. This betrayal is amongst the most heinous of crimes and should be treated as such instead of being buried in canon law.

Canon law is the product of a later day church that came with bishops and popes riding at the head of hordes, smitting the unbeliever with sword and shield. And ordering the unrepentant be hung drawn and quartered?

Time to stop hiding behind manmade cannon law and allowing the evildoers to pay for their heinous crimes! And should include an automatic defrocking when clergy have offended! As opposed to moving them on and to a new group of victims!
Alan B.

Dear Yuyutsu,

Because we are a secular state - religous laws have
no legal status.. We have the one set of laws and those are
the ones passed by our Parliament and we are all
supposed to abide by them.

//None of these harpers and carpers complain about patient confidentiality//

Patient confidentiality does not protect paedophiles (and nor should it). It hasn't done for some time now. Pretty much every profession that works closely with children except priests are subject to 'mandatory reporting' legislation.

Dear JBSH,

Priests do not absolve sins - God does.

(and priests who believe that it is themselves who absolve, are heretics)

Are you seriously suggesting to limit God, telling Him in which circumstances He can or cannot absolve?

Just as many wrongs are not punishable by courts, neither all things that are punishable by courts are wrong.

What matters is genuine repentance, not punishment.

And one important case you failed to address, is when the "penitent" is not the perpetrator, but rather the child/victim who specifically came to confession, instead of to police or to a psychologist, for the very reason that they trust the confidentiality and don't want the matter known and prosecuted.

---

Dear Foxy,

I never suggested that religious laws should have legal status: if any church-official suggested that, then I could only conclude that they are corrupt to the core.

Rather, what religious people do deserve, is to be left alone by the state - otherwise your talk of "separation" is a farce. True separation means living independently side-by-side, but in your one-sided "separation", the church may not influence the state, yet the state can still crush the church... it sounds like "children should be seen, but not heard"...

Now your statement "we are a secular state" is very disturbing: speak for yourself as much as you like, but the word 'we' includes me as well and I know for certain that I am NOT a state or part thereof, secular or otherwise. In your short post you keep mentioning this "we" or "our" several times and this is both insulting and false.

---

Dear Toni,

«Pretty much every profession that works closely with children except priests are subject to 'mandatory reporting' legislation.»

Yes, and knowing of that fact prevents both perpetrators and children from seeking help, conciliation and healing.

Dear Yuyutsu,

You can consider yourself not to be a part of "The State,"
however you live in "The State," and no matter how you feel,
there are laws that you are required to obey - whether you
like it or not. Try disobeying them - and see how far you
get.