South Australian Priests to Defy Confession Laws

By Michael Owen
The Australian
June 15, 2018

https://myaccount.news.com.au/sites/theaustralian/subscribe.html?sourceCode=TAWEB_WRE170_a&mode=premium&dest=https://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/south-australian-priests-to-defy-confession-laws/news-story/ff16799814be559ba1132e55aa343b29&memtype=anonymous

Catholic priests in South Australia will defy new laws requiring them to report confessions of child sexual abuse.

Bishop Greg O’Kelly, the Acting Archbishop of Adelaide, said priests were bound by the sacred and not the secular, claiming the new law “doesn’t affect us”.

“We have an understanding of the seal of confession that is in the area of the sacred … politicians can change the law but we can’t change the nature of the confessional, which is a sacred encounter between a penitent and someone seeking forgiveness and a priest representing Christ,” Bishop O’Kelly told ABC radio.

“That does not change by the law of politicians.”