Priests May Have to Report Child Sex Abuse
Daily Telegraph
Prime Minister Julia Gillard says using the seal of the confessional to cover up child abuse is a "sin of omission" because all adults have a duty of care towards children. "It's not good enough for people to engage in sin of omission and not act when a child is at risk," she said. Australia's most senior Catholic, Cardinal George Pell, insisted on Tuesday the seal of confession was inviolable, even if a fellow priest confessed to child sex abuse. Priests should avoid hearing confession from colleagues suspected of committing child sex abuse to avoid being bound by secrecy of the confession box, he said. But politicians of all stripes disagreed on Wednesday. Independent senator Nick Xenophon labelled the seal of the confessional an anachronism. "This is a medieval law that needs to change in the 21st century," he told reporters in Canberra. "Church law, canon law, should not be above the law of the land." It is an issue he wants the royal commission to deal with sooner rather than later. "Right now there is a real issue in that it (the confessional) is specifically exempt from mandatory reporting requirements around the country. "It appears that in every state and territory there is a specific exemption for the confessional," he said. Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says all Australians should report knowledge of child abuse. "The law is no respecter of persons. Everyone has to obey the law, regardless of what job they are doing, what position they hold," he told reporters in Brisbane. Asked if that applied to priests, the high-profile Catholic replied, "Indeed." Federal Liberal frontbencher Christopher Pyne and NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell also said priests had a responsibility to report crimes to police, no matter how they learned about them. Senator Xenophon said he had tried in 2003, as a member of the South Australian parliament, to introduce legislation to remove the seal of confessional but it had been "shot down in flames". He recounted being stopped in the street recently by a man who told him he had been abused from the age of six to 13. "As a 10-year-old he finally went to the confessional," the senator said. "The priest effectively told him that he had sinned and he needed to repent. I find that sickening." Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said Cardinal Pell was "out of touch with the common-day, commonsense thinking of Australians". "It staggers me that there are still people in influential positions in this country who still believe that protecting a priest is more important that protecting a child," she said. "I think that is something that does not fit with modern-day Australia." Federal Attorney-General Nicola Roxon said the community found the idea of a priest not reporting child abuse if told about it in a confession to be "really abhorrent". She is working with her state counterparts to outline the scale and scope of the royal commission, which will investigate how Australia can improve the way it prevents child abuse. She said there would need to be more than one commissioner, and people with a child welfare or law enforcement background would be in the mix along with those having exceptional legal skills. The royal commission would take "years rather than weeks or months", Ms Roxon said.
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