AUSTRALIA
BBC News
December 15, 2017
A senior member of the Roman Catholic Church in Australia has rejected a key recommendation of a landmark inquiry into child sex abuse.
It said priests should report abuse confided to them, even in the secret context of the confessional.
But the archbishop of Melbourne said any priest who broke the seal of confession would be excommunicated.
This means they would cease to be a member of the Church and would no longer be allowed a Catholic funeral.
The Most Rev Denis Hart said a law requiring this of priests would undermine a central tenet of Catholicism, the sacredness of the confessional.
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