IRELAND
The Irish Times
New law on reporting abuse should recognise seal of confession can aid child safety
Fr Chris Hayden
In Catholic practice, the “client privilege” associated with the sacrament of confession is guaranteed by what is known as the “seal” of the sacrament. This term refers to the fact that what the penitent
discloses to the priest remains sealed. Under no circumstances can a priest pass on to a third party what he has learned about a person in confession. In principle, a penitent could subsequently authorise a priest to pass on, or act upon, information first disclosed in the sacrament, but this would not prejudice the sacramental seal.
Here are two scenarios that relate to the controversy sparked by the recently published Children First Bill on mandatory reporting of child abuse.
First, the sacramental seal is perceived no longer to apply where child abuse is concerned. In this scenario, the likelihood that priests will hear anything that might be of assistance to the Health Service Executive or the Garda Síochána is virtually zero. The insistence that mandatory reporting applies to the confessional will, in practice, make it inapplicable to the confessional. This is a circle that no legislation can square.
The second scenario is the one that obtains at present, where the sacramental seal is understood to be inviolable. Guaranteed confidentiality makes it likely (and the likelihood is far from zero) that priests may, from time to time, be in a position of encouraging people to take a step towards healing, or to contact the authorities.
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