AUSTRALIA
SBS
AAP
An Australian priest used the confessional box to admit abusing altar boys, believing he was reconciling his continued offending with God.
Another laughed after getting absolution, knowing the priest could not break the seal of confession.
Whether what is heard in the confessional should continue to stay in the confessional is one of the matters being considered by the child sex abuse royal commission as it again turns its focus to widespread offending in the Catholic Church in Australia.
Former Victorian priest Paul David Ryan, jailed in 2006 for 18 months for indecently assaulting one victim, revealed during a 2015 private hearing that he confessed his sexual activity with adolescent boys to his confessor on multiple occasions.
Asked if that was the way he reconciled his actions with God, he said: “Yes. Well I thought I was. I know that was very seriously flawed.”
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