Confessional Also Has Protection of the Law

By Rocco Mimmo
The Australian
November 16, 2012

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/legal-affairs/confessional-also-has-protection-of-the-law/story-e6frg97x-1226517699629

THE announcement by Julia Gillard that we are to have a royal commission into child sex abuse is universally welcomed.

However, in some quarters of the media it has unleashed a hysteria of salivating opportunism for vengeful attacks on religion, in particular the Catholic Church.

How unfortunate, as it moves the focus from the primary aim of healing the victims and bringing to trial those accused of abuse.

It is a fair bet that whatever acknowledgement is made and apologies offered to victims of clergy abuse this will never satisfy the anti-religious group as they zero in on the confessional.

The important point in all of this is to keep in mind what was said by Broken Rites, the organisation campaigning for the victims of the clergy's sex abuse: ". . . confession was a non-issue. The real issue is when victims or their families complain about abuse, the church authorities fail to arrange an interview between the victim and police."

Wednesday's editorial in this newspaper put it nicely: " . . . those conducting the commission and those reporting on it will need to guard against turning this into an inverted Spanish Inquisition -- a chance to desecrate the Catholic Church."