Paul,

You said "I'm not aware of any push for some law making it compulsory for cleargy to report instances of child molestation that were confessed to them"

all after 'aware' is superfluous.

AC,

How would you enforce such a law?

"The rack is a wooden frame, . By means of pulleys and levers this roller could be rotated on its own axis, thus straining the ropes until the sufferer's joints were dislocated and eventually separated. Additionally, if muscle fibres are stretched excessively, they lose their ability to contract, rendering them ineffective..withloud popping noises made by snapping cartilage, ligaments or bones."

Dear Critic,

«But young Alter boys bums and mouths they have no issue with.»

So you want to hurt those boys even further?

They are already barred from therapy because the therapist is obliged to inform the police, now they would even be barred from telling what happened to them in the confessional - what's left for those of them who are becoming crazy but cannot tell anyone lest their parents/family come to know? Right, jumping off a tall building - that's the solution!

You might not like the Catholic priesthood and consider them all paedophiles (though 90% are not), but such laws affect and harm everyone, Catholic or otherwise.

There are all kinds of workshops - spiritual, semi-spiritual and therapeutic, where participants and staff agree to total confidentiality, at times even regarding the identity of the other participants. This is needed in order to create a sacred, non-judgemental, safe space for all and allow people to open up, release their stuff and grow. Though confession is not the aim at these workshops, it often occurs, either in front of the whole group, with one's partner to the exercise or with a small group of 3-4 people. Perhaps some paedophiles attended such workshops, but I've never heard any such confessions there. I did OTOH heard some confessions by the abused, who never told anybody about it before and could only do so because they trusted that space.

The denial of this sacred space would be devastating to all participants and potential-participants, including those who have no connection whatsoever with child-abuse.

As a Hindu, I believe that if my actions cause someone to be jailed, then the karma I've created will eventually cause me to be jailed as well, either in this lifetime or in a future one. Possibly you regard my faith with a similar contempt as you have for Catholics/Christians, but as Hindu boys/girls do share my belief, they too wouldn't tell anyone that they were abused if they knew that it would likely cause someone to be thrown in jail.

Hi there YUYUTSU...

I again agree with most of what you've said herein. Particularly the words 'a safe place' and should that 'safe place' be removed through some ridiculous ill thought-out piece of legislation, there'll no longer be a 'safe place' for many of these young people to go.

The end result is more hanging's, leaping from bridges and tall buildings, and other means of suicide. And I must tell anyone who cares to read any this stuff to know, in my time I was utterly fed up of attending the many completely useless or pointless suicides of the young!

Why you might ask, mostly because they ('the young folk') couldn't get the necessary CONFIDENTIAL guidance/advice or even straight out help (in the case of mental illness) they need, at that crucial point of time.

I had a pretty 'loose' arrangement with a couple of female volunteer counsellors at the Wayside Chapel at the X, who'd often ring my shift if they considered a person was a legitimate suicide risk. In some cases we managed to circumvent their attempt(s). With others, we managed to intervene at the time, but after a couple of months you'd occasionally hear down the grapevine that such 'n such was found dead in the toilets of 'Costello's' a seedy Bar at the X frequented by crooks and drug pushers. A popular place at the time to 'knock yourself' so it seemed?

Take away the privacy of the Catholic confessional, and watch your dead grow. I'd dearly like to take some of these lousy, morally corrupt, useless Politicians on a few shifts with me, together with other members of my squad - and show these useless political maggots, a few facts of life.

I don't know how many here have had anyone share with them that life wasn't worth living.

Where a penitent states s/he is intending personal harm or suicide and it is likely a strong believer s/he would want to go to confession 'to clear the decks' and 'tidy up' before the dreadful deed, one assumes that the 'seal of the confessional' is generalised to apply to those cases too. That is, the priest would take no action whatsoever to help or for others to intervene after leaving the confessional.

I am not happy with that and I am hoping that the priest wouldn't be either.

Priests should be trained, practised, in handling depressed people. And I don't mean by prayer. To seek the person's (hardly a 'penitent', that would be crooked, antiquated religious thinking) agreement that s/he:

- would not be taking any step without telling someone first. -That could be to see a priest OUTSIDE of, perhaps before, the confessional, or preferably a doctor or someone of trust (which could be sounded out with sensitivity when the risk is first heard of), and,

- in any case would be seeing someone s/he could trust and share with and that could be a priest in the same church or another close nearby.

Time is of the essence.

"Priests should be trained, practised, in handling depressed people" They should be, they have created enough of them.

Issy, one of the 85 recommendations of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse reads in part, quote;

"making failure to report child sexual abuse in institutions a criminal offence. This recommendation extends to information given in religious confessions. Clergy should not be able to refuse to report because the information was received during confession."

Of Course I agree with this recommendation. As yet no politicians have taken steps to seriously run with it. In time the government will have to respond to this, and all the other recommendations. Puts a bloke like the devout Catholic, Barnaby Joyce (assuming he is still there) in a position where he has to chose between his religious convictions and Church demands, and the necessary implementation of community supported recommendations.