AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald
Rachel Browne
Priests would no longer be able to use the secrecy of the confessional to avoid reporting allegations of child sexual abuse, a royal commission recommends in its latest report.
In the wide-ranging report into the criminal justice system, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has made 85 recommendations aimed at better protecting children.
One key recommendation is that failing to report information about child sexual abuse disclosed in confession should be made a criminal offence.
“The report recommends there be no exemption, excuse, protection or privilege from the offence granted to clergy for failing to report information disclosed in connection with a religious confession,” it read.
Australia’s Catholic archbishops were divided on the issue of the Seal of the Confessional when quizzed about it at a public hearing this year which was told that it had been used as an excuse not to report crimes.
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