Confidential Confessional an Anachronism

Sky News
November 14, 2012

http://www.skynews.com.au/national/article.aspx?id=816344


The idea that the confessional stays confidential even when people use it to admit to crimes is 'medieval', an independent senator says, as senior Liberals call for the practice to be overturned.

Australia's most senior Catholic, Cardinal George Pell, has insisted 'the seal of confession is inviolable' even if a priest confesses to child sex abuse.

Cardinal Pell said on Tuesday priests should avoid hearing confession from colleagues suspected of committing child sex abuse to avoid being bound by the seal of confession.

Independent senator Nick Xenophon says that's an anachronism.

'This is a medieval law that needs to change in the 21st century,' he told reporters in Canberra on Wednesday.

'Church law, canon law, should not be above the law of the land.'

It was an issue he wanted the royal commission into child sexual abuse, announced on Monday, 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.

In 2003, as a member of the South Australian parliament, he introduced legislation to remove the seal of confession but it was 'shot down in flames'.

He'd heard of 'terrible cases' where priests had confessed abuse but nothing was done.

Senator Xenophon recounted being stopped in the street recently by a man who told him about having 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.'

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott said all Australians should report knowledge of child abuse.

'If they become aware of sexual offences against children, those legal requirements must be adhered to,' he told reporters in Brisbane on Wednesday.

'The law is no respecter of persons, everyone has to obey the law, regardless of what job they are doing, what position they hold.'

Asked if that applied to priests, the high-profile Catholic replied: 'Indeed'.

His comments followed those of senior federal Liberal frontbencher Christopher Pyne and NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell that priests had a responsibility to report crimes to police, no matter how they learned about them.

Federal Attorney-General Nicola Roxon said the community found the idea of a priest not reporting child abuse if told in a confession to be 'really abhorrent'.

The attorney-general is working with her state counterparts to outline the scale and scope of the commission, which Ms Roxon says will also determine 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.

Ms Roxon said the royal commission would take 'years rather than weeks or months'.

'We will need to ... make sure this doesn't have an open-ended, go-forever sense to it,' she said.

'But we also don't want to unrealistically put a tight time frame which would stop the commission doing the important work the community and government expects it to do.'