Catholic Priests in Wa to Be Forced to Report Child Sexual Abuse Revealed during Confession

Australian Broadcasting Corporation
May 23, 2019

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-05-23/wa-to-extend-child-sex-abuse-reporting-to-religious-ministers/11140342

Ministers of religion in Western Australia will soon have to report child sexual abuse — even if the information is gained under confession — under planned changes to the state's laws.

The WA Government said it expected to introduce the necessary amendments in the second half of this year.

Mandatory reporting laws in WA already apply to doctors, teachers, nurses, midwives, police and school boarding supervisors.

Anyone convicted of failing to report child sexual abuse faces a $6,000 fine.

The new requirements would apply to "recognised leaders within faith communities who are authorised to conduct, religious worship", the WA Government said.

This would include priests, ministers, rabbis, pastors and Salvation Army officers.

The Northern Territory and South Australia already have laws in place requiring religious ministers to report child sexual abuse, and several other states are following suit.

Child Protection Minister Simone McGurk said the move was an important part of the WA Government's response to the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

PHOTO: Simone McGurk said the Government will not shy away from creating a safer WA for children. (ABC News: Rebecca Carmody)

"I think it's reasonable to expect all ministers of religion should be required to report child sex abuse and be subject to the same laws that apply to other professionals," she said.

"We think that sends a very clear message to clergy throughout our state that should they have a reasonable suspicion of child sex abuse they are required by law to report it.

"The message is clear that we expect those professions under the legislation to report child sex abuse and in failing to do so there will be criminal charges as well as a financial penalty."

Ms McGurk said the Archbishop of Perth, Timothy Costelloe, had asked her not to compel priests to break the seal of confession.

"I've received calls from the Archbishop of Perth, as has the Premier, but we think the time for discussion about this has passed," she said.

"The Archbishop said that he was concerned about child abuse, that he understood that this was an urgent issue, but urged us not to change the laws in a way that would affect priests disclosing information gained through confessionals.

"I understand that is the Archbishop's position, I understand that is the Catholic Church's position, however as a Government we have an obligation to put in place laws and to implement those laws to make sure that children in our community are safe and that is what we are doing."

Sins confessed to Christ, not the priest: Archbishop

Catholic Archbishop of Perth, the Most Reverend Timothy Costelloe, released a statement saying the changes would cause great stress and concern to many people of faith.

Archbishop Costelloe said he understood some people felt frustrated by the church's insistence on absolute confidentiality in confession, but the unique role played by the priest during the sacrament made it essential.

"Put simply, a person does not confess his or her sins to the priest, but rather to Christ who is present in and through the ministry of the priest," he said.

"The priest has no right to reveal anything he hears in the confessional because in a very real sense what is revealed is made known only to God."

Archbishop Costelloe said it was also unlikely child abusers would be interested in confessing their sins.

"You don't come to confession unless you have recognised the sinful nature of your behaviour, are filled with sorrow and shame because of it, and are determined never to commit such sins again," he said.

"It is often noted that child abusers are notoriously unrepentant and often convinced their actions are neither sinful nor shameful and are in fact part of the normal range of acceptable human behaviour.

"Such pathology would work against any notion of personal responsibility for the harm done to a child or young person."

Archbishop Costelloe also said that on those rare occasions where an abuser might seek to go to confession, it was likely he or she would attend an anonymous confession, giving the priest no clear idea as to identity.

'Damned if we do, damned if we don't': priest

Perth Catholic priest and director of the LJ Goody Bioethics Centre, Father Joseph Parkinson, told ABC Radio Perth he welcomed the law, but noted it could present a dilemma for Catholic priests.

"The new state legislation will create a genuine moral dilemma, a legal dilemma, for priests who hear confessions, because we're caught between two systems of law," he said.

The Catholic practice of confession involves people telling a priest of sins they have committed.

Under canon law, priests are bound to keep this exchange confidential and any priest who breaks the seal of confession is subject to the church's most severe penalty — automatic excommunication, revocable only by the Pope.

"There will be the law of the state that imposes a penalty for not reporting, and there will be the law of the church that imposes a penalty if you break the seal of confession," Father Parkinson said.

"In a sense we're damned if we do and damned if we don't.

"It will come down to the individual priest to determine, 'which penalty am I prepared to accept'."

Father Parkinson said despite the dilemma the law created he was "grateful" for it and hoped that it would encourage the church to rethink some of its disciplines.

"I'm quite hopeful that we can get priests out of the current dilemma that this law would create, but that's not going to happen today," he said.

"We need to understand that the Australian bishops don't have the authority to change the church law, that has to come from Rome."

PHOTO: Kimberley Bishop Christopher Saunders said confessions should remain confidential. (ABC News: Erin Parke)

Kimberley Catholic Bishop Christopher Saunders said confession was a religious right.

"I don't know of anybody in 43 years of ministry who's been a paedophile and come in and confessed paedophilia," he said.

"And so, in terms of the sacrament, we think it's a religious right and I'm afraid that, while we will co-operate with the Government in every way to rid ourselves of the heinous crime of child sexual abuse, I'm afraid when it comes to the matter of the seal of confession, people have to be reassured that their priests keep everything quiet and to themselves.

"I'm saying to you that, outside the seal of confession, obviously we would have to abide by the tenets of the law.

"Within the seal of confession, we have to abide by the tenets of God, which is the protection of the people talking to us.

"In a sense it's a bit of a beat up because the chance of that happening within the seal of confession are so remotely possible, and I'd go so far as to say impossible."