AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun
Susie O’Brien, Herald Sun
August 15, 2017
WHY is the Catholic Church continuing to protect and forgive paedophiles?
This is the only way to interpret the church’s desire to allow allegations of abuse made in the confessional to be exempt from mandatory reporting to police.
In an extraordinary admission, Catholic bishops have opposed any move to force priests to report details of child sexual abuse received during confession.
This is despite calls from the Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse to make it illegal for them not to do so.
Recommendations released by the commission this week suggest clergy who fail to report such information would face criminal charges.
The report states confession has been a forum where both victims and perpetrators have disclosed sexual abuse in the past.
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