AUSTRALIA
7 News
by Rebekah Ison – AAP on February 24, 2017
Sydney’s Catholic Archbishop says he would have to forgive a child sex abuser at confession just as he would a terrorist or a murderer.
Archbishop Anthony Fisher on Friday told the sex abuse royal commission he didn’t think he could make it a condition of absolution that a person incriminate themselves – even though he would strongly encourage them to get psychiatric help and hand themselves in.
“If they are genuinely contrite by every sign that I can see then I’ll forgive their sin as I would a terrorist, a murderer, many other very grave matters,” he said in Sydney on Friday.
“I do so probably feeling terribly sick inside about what might this guy do next.”
Archbishop Fisher was one of the five metropolitan archbishops giving joint evidence at the royal commission.
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