AUSTRALIA
7 News
By Megan Neil
May 29, 2015
At least one priest admitted he was abusing children during confession, the royal commission has heard.
Commission Chair Justice Peter McClellan has revealed that at least one priest confessed his offending behaviour in confession.
“It’s not yet public, but we have heard from at least one priest who confessed to his confessor, and in that way reconciled his offending behaviour, which continued with his belief in God,” Justice McClellan said on Friday.
“That throws up a rather startling illustration of how the confessional might be misused, doesn’t it?”
Ballarat Bishop Paul Bird said that would be a terrible misuse of confession, which was supposed to mean conversion from doing wrong.
“If it’s such a serious matter as a crime, to treat it as though it was something that one could confess, I think to me that is simply a shelf of a ritual, it has no substance.”
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