AUSTRALIA
Reuters via CBC.com
November 29, 2019
Clergy would not be able to use ‘confessional privilege’ to avoid giving evidence
Australia’s top attorneys-general agreed to standardize laws across the country forcing priests to report child abuse revealed to them during confessions. (Enrique Castro-Mendivil/Reuters)
Australia’s top attorneys agreed on Friday to standardize laws across the country forcing priests to report child abuse revealed to them during confessions in a move that could widen a schism between the church and the government.
Federal and state attorneys-general agreed on key principles for the laws, which fall under the responsibility of state and territory governments and which address the most contentious recommendations from a government inquiry into child abuse.
With half of the country’s population identifying themselves as Christian, Australia has faced a crisis of faith amid worldwide allegations that churches and religious leaders had protected pedophile priests and habitually covered sexual abuse.
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