LONDON (ENGLAND)
The Guardian
May 23, 2019
By Melissa Davey and Australian Associated Press
Perth’s Timothy Costelloe says forcing revelations will interfere with the ‘free practice of the Catholic faith’
Perth’s Catholic archbishop, Timothy Costelloe, says forcing religious leaders in Western Australia to reveal knowledge of child sex abuse risks “interfering with the free practice of the Catholic faith” and will be ineffective – a stance that advocates say is “ignorant and pig-headed”.
The state government plans to expand mandatory reporting laws to include religious leaders such as priests, ministers, imams, rabbis, pastors and Salvation Army officers.
The laws already apply to doctors, teachers, nurses, midwives, police and school boarding supervisors.
Costelloe said plans to remove legal protections around the confidentiality of religious confessions would cause “great concern and distress” to many people of faith.
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