NEW ZEALAND
Radio NZ
June 19, 2018
By Phil Pennington
New Zealand Catholic Bishops say there is no evidence that breaking the seal of confession would keep children safer.
Australian states are moving to prosecute priests who don’t report confessions of child sex abuse, despite opposition from the church.
“Confession is often not understood,” the New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference said in a statement to RNZ today.
“In many cases the one making a confession remains unidentified. In any case, as has been said by members of the Church in Australia, we note that there is no evidence to suggest that abolition of the seal of confession would genuinely make environments safer for children.”
Catholics are regulated by canon law, which states that the “sacramental seal is inviolable; therefore it is absolutely forbidden for a confessor to betray in any way a penitent in words or in any manner and for any reason”.
A priest who breaks the seal of confession is subject to the Church’s toughest penalty, automatic excommunication, and only the Pope can reverse that.
The bishops conference said it was considering how its Australian counterpart was responding to the Royal Commission’s recommendations and noted it had set up an implementation advisory group.
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