AUSTRALIA
The Daily Telegraph
AAP
November 14, 2012
SENIOR opposition frontbencher Christopher Pyne says priests have a responsibility to report crimes to police even if the details are given to them in a confession.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced on Monday a royal commission to investigate how institutions have dealt with cases of child sex abuse following fresh allegations of cover-ups by the Catholic Church and police in the NSW Hunter.
Australia’s most senior Catholic, Cardinal Pell, said on Tuesday “the Seal of Confession is inviolable” even if a priest confesses to child sex abuse.
Mr Pyne, a Catholic, says the laws of the nation come before canon law.
“If a priest hears in a confessional a crime, especially a crime against a minor, the priest has the responsibility in my view to report that to the appropriate authorities,” Mr Pyne told ABC Radio on Wednesday.
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