AUSTRALIA
The Standard
BY CLARE QUIRK
19 Jul, 2012
A visiting priest says no matter how horrible the crime is, what’s said in confession could never be reported to police.
A parliamentary committee into child sex abuse in the church is asking for submissions on whether rules on mandatory reporting of offences against children should be imposed on the confessional.
The guide asks to what extent should the reporting of suspicions of abuse be circumscribed by laws, customs and ethical codes of regions, for example, should the sacrament of the Catholic confessional remain sacrosanct in these circumstances.
Mudgee priest Garry McKeown is one of 180 priests in Warrnambool for the National Council of Priests in Australia convention and said, as far as he knew, in the history of the church there had never been a time when a priest had divulged what had happened in confession.
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