Steele,

"What is so hard about that?"

Everything because it's one person's word against another's and there is no evidence.
Though the time and date be known and the priest identified it's still one person against another.

The Confessional and what's said therein is secret and unless recording devices are made mandatory in Confessionals then there is no way to collect substantive evidence.

Shades of Joe Stalin and the police state.

Dear Is Mise,

Or shades of a society which holds the safety of its young as a paramount concern and is calling to account the practices which allowed confessed abusing priests to be moved to fresh parishes to continue their evil.

I agree with Steele on this. More like shades of St Kevin than Joe Starlin. How about the sicko 'Beat Up' Bolt trying to mitigate what was going on at that pathetic Catholic school. Even Ray Hadley, no friend of the left, couldn't believe it and said so!
Issy in the past you and others of the hard right on the Forum have been dismissive of pedophilia, basically defending the perpetrators whilst attacking the victims. Claiming it's all a bit of "slap and tickle", nothing to get excited about. I recall your own story about your personal experience with a rock spider.

Steele,

How are the police going to get evidence?
Are one person's unsubstantiated accusations going to be evidence against another?
There is no way that substantive evidence can be collected in a Confessional without State authorized listeners or listening devices and that smacks of Stalinism and the police state.

Don't let dislike of Catholicism override your commonsense.

Paul,

I'm actually more left than right and when did I ever stick up for paedophiles?

Those of you who are pondering the question might also consider the difficulties posed by the physical properties of the Confessional; priest and penitent are not face to face but are separated by a wall in which there is a small window and anonymity is further provided for by a screen, usually of a cloth fabric through which features cannot be distinguished.

Names are not exchanged nor asked for, nor need to be given.

Makes identification a bit of a guess.

Posted by Paul1405, Wednesday, 4 March 2020 1:07:24 PM

" ... Catholic priests should have no more rights when it comes to the law than any other citizen. Many in the Catholic Church knew of the pedophlic activity of other cleargy but failed to report it as they should have. Jail is what they deserve. ... "

No they shouldn't but if I'm not mistaken the rock spider church itself does have certain protections from prosecution at law. This ought not be surprising giving their intimate involvement in atrocities in the post WWII era. I see them as the "handmaiden" of the "transplanted, genocidal pom."

Gaol is not enough in my view. I personally would completely destroy them as an organisation and execute key offenders post torture and public humiliation.

More broadly, I would further enshrine the rights of Children not to be indoctrinated by their parents and get these fruit cakes out of the educational and medical sectors altogether.

And don't forget it is not only sexual abuse but also significant violence that we are talking about here. The"brothers" in these institutions were well know for their physical brutality, and it was in this environment of fear and terror that the sexual abuse also took place.

I think Runner and others are likely able to testify regarding this.

As for how to catch them out protecting criminals via the confessional, it would be one persons word against another's, BUT, so many of them are on record now demonstrating blatant defiance and quite openly stating that they would never admit to anything said during confession, so that immediately puts a question mark over all of them as they are following church policy in this regard.

Some of the laws visa vi violence and abuse do consider what someone "may yet do" and on that belief alone make orders and judgement against them. Given their open defiance, and further recent incidents in the education sector, plainly they have not learned their lesson and need i.m.o. to be collectively punished.