ULTIMO (AUSTRALIA)
ABC News Online
August 13, 2019
Anti-abuse advocate Chrissie Foster has urged Victorian MPs to back a bill before Parliament which would make it mandatory for priests to report suspected child abuse to authorities, breaking legal protection around the confessional seal.
Under current laws, Victorian teachers, police, medical practitioners, nurses, school counsellors, early childhood workers and youth justice workers must tell authorities if they develop a reasonable belief in the course of their professional work that a child has been abused.
But priests and religious leaders have so far been exempt from mandatory reporting laws, despite a recommendation from the child sex abuse royal commission that churches not be exempt from reporting information discovered during religious confession.
In amendments to be introduced to Parliament on Wednesday, the Andrews Government will add religious and spiritual leaders to the list of mandated reporters.
The amendments would also ensure that disclosures of abuse during religious confession are not exempt and must be reported to police.
The Catholic Church last year formally rejected the notion that clergy should be legally forced to report confessions of abuse revealed during the confessional, with one archbishop comparing the religious tradition to lawyer-client privilege or a journalist’s obligation to their sources.
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